VCD Athletic 1 Ashford Town 2
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Even the longest, darkest night must come to an end – and that is how it has seemed, waiting for this period of winter weather to come to an end, so that we can at last go and see some footy again. We set off for Oakwood, in Crayford, London, for this Kent Senior Cup tie, on the 19th evening of 2010. Ashford’s previous game was on Boxing Day, and, to extend the analogy of the long period of darkness, this was really not much more than getting out in the middle of the night for a pee, as the previous match to that had been on the 12th of December. So just one game in five and a half weeks for Steve Lovell’s boys, so, whatever your opinion of the importance of the Kent Senior Cup – and I, for one, love the competition, and would like to see us do well in it – the most important thing tonight was that the boys should get in some much-needed match practice, in preparation for the next league game, against Whyteleafe, on Saturday, with anything else being a bonus.
The silver lining to the clouds that have recently waterlogged The Homelands pitch, and then buried it under six inches of snow, is that Steve Lovell has been able to get some key players back from injury. Scott Chalmers-Stevens, who began the season as Ashford’s first-choice goalkeeper, has returned, and went straight back into the side, ahead of Darren Ibrahim, who might count himself as being a little unlucky to be left out, after his Man-of-the-Match performance against Folkestone on Boxing Day. Striker Joe Fuller is also back, but had to be content with a place on the bench this evening; with Paul Jones due to return on Saturday, and goalie Josh Willis reported to have rejoined the Club, Ashford could quite easily put out a side containing five ‘keepers and six strikers – whilst, logically, this might not seem to be a bad idea, it would probably never work !
The shortfall, at the moment, in the Ashford squad appears to be in defence. With Toby Ashmore still on the injury list, and Lee Hockey serving a one-match suspension this evening, The Gaffer was left with just three defenders available, and all of these were youngsters – centre-half Laurence Harvey, and full-backs Carl Harrold and Ryan Norman. This meant that versatile skipper Danny Lye once again had to fill in at the centre of the defence. As it turned out, this was not an issue, as Danny did a solid and tidy job, alongside the again-impressive Laurence Harvey, and Scottie Three Names was rarely troubled by a VCD attack that rarely, if ever, threatened.
There was a familiar look to the midfield, with Ryan Briggs and Ross Morley in the centre, Mitchell Sherwood on the right and Nick Smith on the left. Up front there was a first start for young Tom Murphy, (on loan from Gillingham), alongside Mark Lovell, with attacking options on the bench being strikers Joe Fuller and Kevin Swaisland, and midfielders Ronnie Dolan and Liam Geering, (who is also on loan from The Gills).
The one familiar face in the VCD Athletic line-up was ex-Ashford midfielder Anthony Hogg – but he was almost completely anonymous during the game.
If this was to be something of a warm-up for Saturday’s league game, then it could certainly be described as a dress rehearsal, as VCD, like Whyteleafe, play in the classic Celtic colours of green & white hoops, white shorts and white socks – right down to the detail of players having their number on the thigh of their shorts ! (With the visitors playing in their away strip, it looked like it was Celtic v Norwich City out there – although, if Delia had been here tonight, she would have struggled to make an impression with her “Where are you ?” speech, as it was a disappointing turn-out by the Ashford fans, in an attendance of only 81). It should also have been a fairly stiff test for the boys tonight, with VCD currently lying in eighth place in Ryman Division One North, but I thought our hosts looked a very ordinary side, having reportedly also been poor in their 1-2 defeat here last Saturday.
Vickers, Crayford & Dartford Athletic did, however, have the majority of possession in the opening ten minutes of the game – without being able to piece together anything worthwhile – but it was Ashford who created the first opening. In the ninth minute, the ball broke to Tom Murphy, a few yards inside the VCD half, and he immediately passed it into a wide area of space in front of Mitchell Sherwood, on the right. Mitch latched onto the ball, and curled in a cross which was just a little too far in front of the yellow shirts that were arriving in the centre. (For those who believe that a lack of service from the flanks is a major contributing factor to Ashford’s inability to score goals in recent times, I can state that this was the first of only two crosses that we managed to put in during the course of the 90 minutes).
In the eleventh minute, there was a sight and sound that Steve Lovell did not want, given the current thinness of our defensive resources, as Ryan Norman went down, with a loud yell, in the centre circle, clutching his right calf. After treatment, Ryan was able to carry on for another 49 minutes, but he must be a doubt for the Whyteleafe game.
Before Ashford opened the scoring, in the 20th minute, attempts on goal from either side were, at best, speculative – and a little pathetic. Athletic’s Kevin Winchcombe tried a snap shot from outside the penalty area, which was well wide, in the 13th minute, and then a long-range attempt from Ross Morley, two minutes later, was also always going to miss the target. Nick Hegley volleyed a long cross high and wide, in the 17th minute, and then Ross Morley pulled a long shot well wide, in the eighteenth. In fact, when VCD goalie Jack Bradshaw picked the ball out of the back of his net, it was the first meaningful act that was required from either ‘keeper. It was a well-taken goal, but I’ve no idea what happened to the VCD defence. Mark Lovell picked the ball up in the centre of the field, and spread it wide to Tom Murphy, on the right. There seemed to be a yawning space where the left-back should have been, and young Tom only had the goalkeeper to beat. As Bradshaw advanced off his line, Tom easily lobbed the ball over his head, and into the far corner of the net.
Four minutes later, Ashford were on the attack again, with Ryan Briggs, (who had a very good game tonight), turning and playing a good through-ball for Nick Smith to chase, in the inside-left channel. I sometimes think that Smudge lacks quality, to go with all his effort and commitment that is never lacking, but he showed good pace and strength, on this occasion, to get to the ball before the defender. Ashford hearts were lifted, as Nick momentarily had a clear sight of goal, but a tackle from a covering VCD player sent the ball spiralling into the air, and it was an easy pick-up for the ‘keeper.
However, our hearts didn’t have to wait too long to be gladdened, as, just two minutes later, Mark Lovell got himself on the score-sheet, for the first time since coming back from a 14-month lay-off through injury – his previous goal having been in the penultimate game of the 2007-8 season, at home to Walton Casuals. Of all the bonuses that Manager Steve Lovell might have wished for from tonight’s game, this must surely have been at the top of the list. The goal came from a free-kick, from wide on the right, after Mark had himself been fouled. Briggo put in a great cross to the far post, where Laurence Harvey got up well, directing a firm header on target. Jack Bradshaw actually made an excellent save, one-handed, but, after he had palmed the ball up into the air, Mark Lovell followed up, to head home from Nat Lofthouse range. This was Mark’s tenth goal for the Club – and it was 0-2 to Ashford in the cup tie.
The two-goal lead didn’t last long, though, since, in a game where all three goals were scored in a period of about ten minutes, the home side equalised in the 30th minute. This goal also came from a set-piece situation, and represented the only time that the Ashford defence really looked vulnerable. Ryan Norman fouled centre-forward Uche Ibemere in the shadow of the right corner flag. The cross to the centre was headed in, from about eight yards out, by left-back Jason Barton. The goal was greeted with almost complete silence from the VCD players, and their smattering of supporters, which momentarily created an atmosphere of suspended belief – but it was indeed 1-2, and Ashford were stopped in their tracks, having briefly looked likely to maybe over-run the home side.
In the 38th minute, Ibemere inexplicably gave the ball straight to Tom Murphy, who was about on the half-way line, and Tom turned to find that Ashford had a three v three situation with the Vickers defence. With several options available, Tom made a rare Horlicks of it, in what was a very impressive display from him on the night, wastefully blasting a shot high and wide, from long range. With a minute of the half remaining, Ashford had an excellent opportunity to score a third goal, when Jack Bradshaw came out of his goal to intercept a through-ball. Unfortunately for him, he found that he was also outside his penalty area as the got to the ball, so had no choice but to head the ball away. The clearance went straight to Mark Lovell, who instinctively attempted to curl the ball into the empty net – his effort was on target, but a defender managed to get back, and calmly controlled the ball on his chest, on the line, before clearing.
So Ashford went in at half time 1-2 to the good – and we had beaten the home side 6-0 in terms of the number of supporters behind each goal.
Lee Hockey was one of the few spectators at Oaklands this evening. He had a kick-about with the subs during the interval. The meagre crowd was also supplemented by the rare sight of two uniformed policemen. As usual, I became a little nervous as they approached where I was standing, and was preparing to utter the usual phrases, such as “I’m clean now, Guv – honest !”, and “No, not the face, Officer ! Not the face again !” – but I was then delighted to see that one of the on-duty coppers was one PC Charlie Glyde, fully kitted out with his helmet, whistle and knuckle-dusters. The ground is just about within Charlie’s beat, and he was given a warm welcome from both Ashford supporters and the Ashford bench. Folkestone fans with nothing better to do than to read this report will probably be pleased to learn that, in spite of not having time to play any serious footy, Charlie appears to be very happy in his new career.
The second half was a fairly quiet affair, with Ashford holding onto the one-goal lead fairly comfortably, against a home side who didn’t really put the visiting defence under real pressure until the final ten minutes. Steve Lovell was forced into making a change in both personnel and formation on the hour mark, when Ryan Norman could continue no longer, and was replaced by Ronnie Dolan. This meant a switch to 3-5-2 – purely on the grounds of the players that were now available, with Ronnie slotting into central midfield – but Mitchell Sherwood dropped back into what was effectively a right-back’s role whenever VCD came forward with the ball.
[ Memo to Steve and Hugo: When are you going to convert Mitch to a full-back ? He hasn’t had the confidence to pose an attacking threat for approximately 18 months now, and his best performances for Ashford have been when he has shone in his defensive duties. He’s brave, he’s a good tackler and quite competitive in the air – and I can count the number of meaningful crosses he’s put in this season on the digits of one hand and a groin. ]
The defensive alterations made little difference to the pattern of the game, as Scott Chalmers-Stevens – whose handling was confident, but whose kicking was generally poor – had just token saves to make, fielding a weak, long-range shot from Nick Hegley, in the 68th minute, and then comfortably taking an effort, from a similar distance, from Aaron Firth, in the 72nd minute.
Steve Lovell made a double-substitution in the 76th minute, giving Mark Lovell and Nick Smith a breather, replacing them with loanee Liam Geering and this season’s top scorer, with seven goals, Joe Fuller. The one blot on a very satisfactory evening for Steve L, apart from the injury to Ryan Norman, was the rather harsh yellow card that Ross Morley picked up for bundling over VCD substitute Meshach Nugent, in the 82nd minute.
During their late rally, the home side did actually start to knock the ball around, and Ashford had to do some defending – and for rather longer than they were expecting, as Referee Stuart Butler, for some reason, allowed the game to drag on into the seventh minute of injury time, when the announcement stated that there would be just four extra minutes. Meshach Nugent got in a curling shot, which went just over the bar, in the 83rd minute, and the much-travelled Leroy Huggins got his shaven head to a 90th-minute corner, but could do no more than steer the ball away from goal, at the near post. Stephen Hogg, another second-half substitute, volleyed the ball well over the bar, in the 93rd minute – but Ashford held on for a well-deserved victory, which puts them into the last eight of a competition that they have won, in various guises, five times, the most recent being in 1996. (Don’t knock it – Arsenal have only won the Kent Senior Cup three times !).
So plenty of positives to take away from Oakwood this evening – not the least of them being Mark Lovell’s first goal for the thick end of two years, and the team’s first away victory of any sort this season – before the rather more serious business of the league match at Whyteleafe, on Saturday, (the importance of which has been re-emphasised by the fact that Eastbourne Town picked up a point, away to Walton & Hersham, tonight, leaving Ashford six points adrift at the bottom of the table, albeit with five games and three games in hand of Eastbourne and Whitstable, respectively). Another thoroughly encouraging sign was the performance of young Tom Murphy, who was easily the brightest and most mobile player on the park for Ashford. Whilst Paul Jones is expected to make a very welcome return to the squad at the week-end, and Mark Lovell also played well tonight, I feel that Tom simply has to start against Whyteleafe.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Tom Murphy
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Folkestone Invicta v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 26th of December 2009.
Folkestone Invicta 1 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Boxing Day, 2009. A Local Derby against Folkestone; a top v bottom clash; another chance to somehow quarry out a precious point or three, in an effort to keep ourselves in the Ryman League – but, above all else, it was a game of football, at a time when it has seemed that the weather has all but put the season temporarily on hold. With The Homelands having been waterlogged, then frozen, and then covered by four inches of snow, home matches have been especially hard to come by – we’ve played one home game since the 24th of October – so we’re having to do it the hard way, at the moment, by playing all our games away from home.
Judging by the weather forecast, which predicts the arrival of another cold snap next week – just in time to postpone two crucial home games, against Ramsgate and Folkestone – this week-end might prove to have been a small window of opportunity to get a game in ! There was never really a doubt about today’s match going ahead. Temperatures were predicted to be a relatively temperate 9ºC, with the overnight minimum being 6ºC. The only “cloud” on the horizon was the forecast of heavy showers at some stage during the afternoon. As it turned out, we didn’t see a drop of rain on the journey down from Milton Keynes until we’d got as far as the Leeds Castle turning, on the M20 – but it was pretty wet and miserable for most of the game.
The rain came down at its hardest just as the teams were about to kick off – having been light, but steady, as the teams warmed up on the pitch before the match. As they got things underway, attacking the Cricket Club end, Ashford lined up with a team that showed just one change from the one that started at Leatherhead a fortnight ago; and this was Matt Newman in for the absent Ross Morley. That meant that Steve Lovell picked the same back five for the fifth match in succession – Darren Ibrahim in goal, Carl Harrold at right-back, Gravesend loanee Steve Springett at left-back, and Laurence Harvey and Lee Hockey in central defence. The four-man midfield, in a 4-4-2 formation, consisted of captain Danny Lye, Ryan Briggs, Matt Newman and Mitchell Sherwood, who was stationed on the left for the duration of the match. Kevin Swaisland again partnered Mark Lovell up front.
There was an interesting name on the subs bench – Tom Murphy. I can tell you precisely nothing about Tom – except that he’s a striker, as he took up a position up front when he made his Ashford debut, in the second half. Also on the bench were goalkeeper Dan Mason, Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer and Nick Smith. (No defensive cover there, then !). Currently known to be on the injury list are Paul Jones, Toby Ashmore, Scott Chalmers-Stevens and Joe Fuller (who nevertheless joined in with the kick-about at half time), which leaves Bryan Pearce and Ross Morley as the main unexplained absentees.
With the wet Cheriton Road surface appearing to be very slippery, the home side soon settled into a methodical passing game, with Ashford, in contrast, seeking to release the ball early to the front two. It was Folkestone who had the first chance of the game, in the second minute, with a Jimmy Jackson free-kick, after Mitch Sherwood was penalised for a foul. The experienced Jackson curled the ball over a two-man wall, but his cross was headed clear, for a corner. The Ashford defence again cleared the danger, but the ball fell to Jackson, just outside the penalty area, who sent in a weak shot which went just past the post.
Laurence Harvey showed a lot of self-confidence when he went on a run through the Folkestone half, in the fifth minute, but planted a shot into the side-netting. Both Laurence and his partner in central defence, Lee Hockey, were to give a good account of themselves this afternoon. Three minutes later, the ball was at the other end, with Invicta full-back Josh Vincent crossing the ball dangerously across the face of the Ashford goal – but no-one in an amber shirt was able to apply the vital touch. In the tenth minute, a Mitch Sherwood cross was charged down for a corner, on the left; this was taken by Ryan Briggs, and Danny Lye got up well to meet the ball with his head, but his effort went wide.
So it was fairly end-to-end stuff in the opening minutes, played out in front of a crowd of 522, most of whom were taking advantage of the shelter beneath the stands on three sides of the ground – the exceptions in the first half being two ladies, clad in green, who gamely squatted under a large, green & white umbrella, at the end exposed to the elements, behind the goal defended by Folkestone ‘keeper Jack Delo. (Other than for this feat of endurance, the travelling Ashford contingent was barely noticeable, as all of the singing and chanting today came from the home crowd – which meant that we had to endure the taunts about next season’s Kent League campaign, and the usual stuff about being pikeys, etc).
Goalkeeper Delo had little to do in the first 20 minutes, other than intercept a few through-balls – and Darren Ibrahim was mostly concerned with clearing a succession of backpasses – but the visitors had a real chance in the 21st minute. Delo appeared to have a hopeful lob over the Folkestone back line, from Ryan Briggs, well covered, but the game Kevin Swaisland nipped in just ahead of the goalie, and poked the ball past him – but it also went wide of the post.
In the 23rd minute, after some scrappy play in midfield, a through-ball sent Folkestone’s Simon Austin through on goal – but Laurence Harvey saved the situation with a superb tackle, that would be a candidate for Tackle of the Season, if there were such a thing. Three minutes later, Austin sent in a low shot, which was straight at Darren Ibrahim, so was an easy take for the ‘keeper. A minute after that, the same player found himself through on goal, and clear of the Ashford defence, as he ran onto a long ball from the Folkestone back line. Austin carried the ball to the corner of the Ashford six-yard box, before being thwarted by another great saving tackle – this time from Lee Hockey.
In the 33rd minute, the ball broke to Ashford deep inside the Folkestone half, and, suddenly, Kevin Swaisland was put through on goal – but he took rather too long to sort out his feet, and a smothering tackle came in, at the expense of an Ashford corner. As this was on the right-hand side of the pitch, Steve Springett came across to take it, and Jack Delo had to show his quality for the first time this afternoon when he came out to make a clean catch.
Things then started to go a little wrong for Ashford, when, first Lee Hockey felt very aggrieved at being penalised for what he considered to be a very good tackle, then Kevin Swaisland received a stern talking-to from Referee Nolan Wilde, for catching a defender late, after losing control of the ball. Steve Springett then wasn’t so lucky; Josh Vincent did well to get around him, down the right flank, and Steve earnt himself a yellow card for a trip which Vincent made the most of, with a swallow dive with tuck and pike.
Things then went from a little wrong to a lot worse, when Folkestone took the lead, in the 40th minute. Darren Ibrahim managed to get a good fist to a Jimmy Jackson cross, but was only able to clear as far as the edge of his penalty area. The ball was headed back into the danger area, and centre-half Frankie Chappell nodded the ball just under the bar, and into the net, before the Ashford defence could clear.
So it was 1-0 to Folkestone Invicta at half time – and the sinking feeling we had was born of the fact that Ashford had not really looked like scoring during the first 45 minutes, (not for the first time this season, by any means), so it already looked like being an unproductive afternoon.
The rain had ceased by the time the second half started, and the terracing at the unsheltered end of the ground was now fairly well populated with Folkestone supporters. Ashford competed hard, in the difficult conditions, all over the pitch, but, when in possession, there was just a hint of cluelessness about their work – a sense of “What are we going to do now ?”; (with apologies to my hero, the late Spike Milligan). Our build-up and passing was very slow and ponderous, in comparison with that of the league leaders, and there wasn’t a great deal of movement up front to stimulate a pass from the midfield.
The difference between the two teams was illustrated very well in the 57th minute, when, after a fairly even ten minutes or so, in terms of possession, a slick Folkestone move quickly put Darren Smith through on goal. Fortunately for Ashford, Darren Ibrahim was one man who was on top of this game today, and he did well to save Smith’s low, firm shot, with his legs. The rebound went straight back to the Folkestone No.7, but he put his follow-up effort wide.
The home side got behind the Ashford defence again, in the 64th minute. Lee Hockey and James Everitt found themselves under a high clearance from the Folkestone defence. Lee made a bit of a mess of this, allowing Everitt to get goal-side of him. His reaction was to flatten the Folkestone forward, and, as the last man, there must have been a fair probability of a red card being waved in his direction, but the ball broke to Darren Smith, in a clear scoring position, with a one-on-one with the ‘keeper, so the referee played a good advantage. Smith opened up his body, preparing to curl the ball into the corner of the net, but Darren spread himself and made another excellent save. So it was a reprieve for the team, but Lee Hockey wasn’t so lucky – when the ball eventually went out of play, Referee Wilde took time out to show him a yellow card.
In the 65th minute, Steve Lovell – who spent almost the entire match standing with Hugo Langton just inside the playing area, because there was a huge puddle right in front of the “Away” dug-out – made a double-substitution, when he replaced Matt Newman and Ryan Briggs with Ronnie Dolan and new boy Tom Murphy. (This means that Briggo has now failed to play the full 90 minutes in seven of his last twelve appearances). Murphy, a young, blond, fresh-faced striker, went to partner Kevin Swaisland up front – very much Beauty & The Beast, from where I was standing - with Mark Lovell dropping back into the midfield.
A feature of Steve Lovell’s substitutions this season has been that the men being introduced have most often looked better than the ones they’ve replaced – which either says a lot about the latent talent we have at the Club, or is an indictment of Steve’s blind faith in the senior players that he tends to start games with, depending on your point of view – and this change was no exception. Almost immediately, Ronnie Dolan picked the ball up inside the Folkestone half; Tom Murphy made a diagonal run behind the home side’s defence; Ronnie saw the run, and slipped a pass through, to put Tom in on goal. Unfortunately, the youngster was off-side – but it was the brightest thing that Ashford had done all afternoon.
In the 69th minute, a sliced, right-footed clearance by Steve Springett gave Folkestone a corner, on the left. This was taken short, enabling a curling, in-swinging cross to be aimed right under the Ashford cross-bar, and Laurence Harvey did extremely well to head the ball away, almost from off the goal line; but the danger hadn’t gone away. The ball came back again, in the shape of a high, looping cross to the far post. Darren Ibrahim came for it, and missed it, and a Folkestone player lurking behind him headed across the face of goal, somehow missing the target.
As the game moved into the final quarter, it was all Folkestone pressure, with an Ashford equaliser looking to be no more than a remote possibility. In the 76th minute, Darren Smith took a corner on the left. This was headed clear by Lee Hockey, but Smith immediately had another opportunity to swing the ball in. This time, he fizzed in a flatter cross, which was met with a superb glancing header by Simon Austin, which sent the ball heading for the far corner of the net, but Darren Ibrahim went flying across to palm the ball away. This was probably the best of a number of good saves that Darren made this afternoon. On this occasion, he appeared to wind himself as he fell, but, after some TLC from the lovely Rachel Long, he was OK to continue.
Folkestone Manager Neil Cugley, (an Ashford Town legend, lest we forget), sent Jimmy Dryden on, for a cameo appearance, in the 81st minute, in an attempt to sew up the points. (Dryden hasn’t actually started a game since mid-October). Steve Lovell then made his final substitution, replacing the hard-working, but ineffective, Kevin Swaisland with Nick Smith, up front; a quick, argumentative little ‘un, for a strong, but slow, big ‘un. With three minutes of normal time remaining, Neil Cugley replaced Simon Austin with Pete Williams.
It was in these dying minutes of the game that Ashford finally came to life, and made the Folkestone defence think that we might score. In the 89th minute, Mitch Sherwood picked the ball up, about 22 yards from goal, and, with nothing to lose from having a pop, hit a low, well-struck shot which woke Jack Delo up, forcing him into making a very good save at the foot of his right-hand post. It was clear to everyone in the ground bar the officials that this should have been a corner, but the referee awarded a goal-kick, in spite of the disbelieving protests from the Ashford players.
The visitors continued to press during the four minutes of added time, and, in the 91st minute, Nick Smith, who, as usual, had injected some life into the side as soon as he had come on, aimed a shot, on the turn, towards the far post, but it was always going wide. A minute later, at the other end, Jimmy Dryden had an opportunity to finally put the three points to bed; a long cross from the right flank found him at the far post, but he somehow managed to fluff the chance, from about a yard out, steering the ball across the face of goal.
With the game well into the 94th minute, Tom Murphy had a chance to make a name for himself, when he had the ball, in the inside left position, well inside the Folkestone penalty area. His effort was blocked, as was Nick Smith’s, from the rebound, and the visitors were simply unable to get in a clean shot in the melée. When the final whistle was finally blown, there were several Folkestone players with arms aloft, which rather underlined the fact that they had been given a brief scare, but it was all very late in the day for Ashford, and an equaliser would have provided them with a point that they had not really deserved – in spite of having fought hard, through the mud and the rain, for the whole 90 minutes.
It turned out to be a very good day for Folkestone, as they were the only side in the top ten of Ryman Division One South this morning to collect the three points, so they are now seven points clear of Worthing at the top, with a game in hand. Ashford, on the other hand, now find themselves six points away from survival in this division, albeit with three (home) games in hand, after Chipstead won 0-3 at Merstham, and Whitstable got a point at Ramsgate. Things are starting to look pretty ominous now – that’s now eleven games without a win, and we’ve failed to score in six of the last seven matches. It’s The Rams who are Ashford’s next opponents at The Homelands, on Tuesday, followed by the “return” against Folkestone next Saturday – weather and pitch permitting, of course.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Darren Ibrahim
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Boxing Day, 2009. A Local Derby against Folkestone; a top v bottom clash; another chance to somehow quarry out a precious point or three, in an effort to keep ourselves in the Ryman League – but, above all else, it was a game of football, at a time when it has seemed that the weather has all but put the season temporarily on hold. With The Homelands having been waterlogged, then frozen, and then covered by four inches of snow, home matches have been especially hard to come by – we’ve played one home game since the 24th of October – so we’re having to do it the hard way, at the moment, by playing all our games away from home.
Judging by the weather forecast, which predicts the arrival of another cold snap next week – just in time to postpone two crucial home games, against Ramsgate and Folkestone – this week-end might prove to have been a small window of opportunity to get a game in ! There was never really a doubt about today’s match going ahead. Temperatures were predicted to be a relatively temperate 9ºC, with the overnight minimum being 6ºC. The only “cloud” on the horizon was the forecast of heavy showers at some stage during the afternoon. As it turned out, we didn’t see a drop of rain on the journey down from Milton Keynes until we’d got as far as the Leeds Castle turning, on the M20 – but it was pretty wet and miserable for most of the game.
The rain came down at its hardest just as the teams were about to kick off – having been light, but steady, as the teams warmed up on the pitch before the match. As they got things underway, attacking the Cricket Club end, Ashford lined up with a team that showed just one change from the one that started at Leatherhead a fortnight ago; and this was Matt Newman in for the absent Ross Morley. That meant that Steve Lovell picked the same back five for the fifth match in succession – Darren Ibrahim in goal, Carl Harrold at right-back, Gravesend loanee Steve Springett at left-back, and Laurence Harvey and Lee Hockey in central defence. The four-man midfield, in a 4-4-2 formation, consisted of captain Danny Lye, Ryan Briggs, Matt Newman and Mitchell Sherwood, who was stationed on the left for the duration of the match. Kevin Swaisland again partnered Mark Lovell up front.
There was an interesting name on the subs bench – Tom Murphy. I can tell you precisely nothing about Tom – except that he’s a striker, as he took up a position up front when he made his Ashford debut, in the second half. Also on the bench were goalkeeper Dan Mason, Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer and Nick Smith. (No defensive cover there, then !). Currently known to be on the injury list are Paul Jones, Toby Ashmore, Scott Chalmers-Stevens and Joe Fuller (who nevertheless joined in with the kick-about at half time), which leaves Bryan Pearce and Ross Morley as the main unexplained absentees.
With the wet Cheriton Road surface appearing to be very slippery, the home side soon settled into a methodical passing game, with Ashford, in contrast, seeking to release the ball early to the front two. It was Folkestone who had the first chance of the game, in the second minute, with a Jimmy Jackson free-kick, after Mitch Sherwood was penalised for a foul. The experienced Jackson curled the ball over a two-man wall, but his cross was headed clear, for a corner. The Ashford defence again cleared the danger, but the ball fell to Jackson, just outside the penalty area, who sent in a weak shot which went just past the post.
Laurence Harvey showed a lot of self-confidence when he went on a run through the Folkestone half, in the fifth minute, but planted a shot into the side-netting. Both Laurence and his partner in central defence, Lee Hockey, were to give a good account of themselves this afternoon. Three minutes later, the ball was at the other end, with Invicta full-back Josh Vincent crossing the ball dangerously across the face of the Ashford goal – but no-one in an amber shirt was able to apply the vital touch. In the tenth minute, a Mitch Sherwood cross was charged down for a corner, on the left; this was taken by Ryan Briggs, and Danny Lye got up well to meet the ball with his head, but his effort went wide.
So it was fairly end-to-end stuff in the opening minutes, played out in front of a crowd of 522, most of whom were taking advantage of the shelter beneath the stands on three sides of the ground – the exceptions in the first half being two ladies, clad in green, who gamely squatted under a large, green & white umbrella, at the end exposed to the elements, behind the goal defended by Folkestone ‘keeper Jack Delo. (Other than for this feat of endurance, the travelling Ashford contingent was barely noticeable, as all of the singing and chanting today came from the home crowd – which meant that we had to endure the taunts about next season’s Kent League campaign, and the usual stuff about being pikeys, etc).
Goalkeeper Delo had little to do in the first 20 minutes, other than intercept a few through-balls – and Darren Ibrahim was mostly concerned with clearing a succession of backpasses – but the visitors had a real chance in the 21st minute. Delo appeared to have a hopeful lob over the Folkestone back line, from Ryan Briggs, well covered, but the game Kevin Swaisland nipped in just ahead of the goalie, and poked the ball past him – but it also went wide of the post.
In the 23rd minute, after some scrappy play in midfield, a through-ball sent Folkestone’s Simon Austin through on goal – but Laurence Harvey saved the situation with a superb tackle, that would be a candidate for Tackle of the Season, if there were such a thing. Three minutes later, Austin sent in a low shot, which was straight at Darren Ibrahim, so was an easy take for the ‘keeper. A minute after that, the same player found himself through on goal, and clear of the Ashford defence, as he ran onto a long ball from the Folkestone back line. Austin carried the ball to the corner of the Ashford six-yard box, before being thwarted by another great saving tackle – this time from Lee Hockey.
In the 33rd minute, the ball broke to Ashford deep inside the Folkestone half, and, suddenly, Kevin Swaisland was put through on goal – but he took rather too long to sort out his feet, and a smothering tackle came in, at the expense of an Ashford corner. As this was on the right-hand side of the pitch, Steve Springett came across to take it, and Jack Delo had to show his quality for the first time this afternoon when he came out to make a clean catch.
Things then started to go a little wrong for Ashford, when, first Lee Hockey felt very aggrieved at being penalised for what he considered to be a very good tackle, then Kevin Swaisland received a stern talking-to from Referee Nolan Wilde, for catching a defender late, after losing control of the ball. Steve Springett then wasn’t so lucky; Josh Vincent did well to get around him, down the right flank, and Steve earnt himself a yellow card for a trip which Vincent made the most of, with a swallow dive with tuck and pike.
Things then went from a little wrong to a lot worse, when Folkestone took the lead, in the 40th minute. Darren Ibrahim managed to get a good fist to a Jimmy Jackson cross, but was only able to clear as far as the edge of his penalty area. The ball was headed back into the danger area, and centre-half Frankie Chappell nodded the ball just under the bar, and into the net, before the Ashford defence could clear.
So it was 1-0 to Folkestone Invicta at half time – and the sinking feeling we had was born of the fact that Ashford had not really looked like scoring during the first 45 minutes, (not for the first time this season, by any means), so it already looked like being an unproductive afternoon.
The rain had ceased by the time the second half started, and the terracing at the unsheltered end of the ground was now fairly well populated with Folkestone supporters. Ashford competed hard, in the difficult conditions, all over the pitch, but, when in possession, there was just a hint of cluelessness about their work – a sense of “What are we going to do now ?”; (with apologies to my hero, the late Spike Milligan). Our build-up and passing was very slow and ponderous, in comparison with that of the league leaders, and there wasn’t a great deal of movement up front to stimulate a pass from the midfield.
The difference between the two teams was illustrated very well in the 57th minute, when, after a fairly even ten minutes or so, in terms of possession, a slick Folkestone move quickly put Darren Smith through on goal. Fortunately for Ashford, Darren Ibrahim was one man who was on top of this game today, and he did well to save Smith’s low, firm shot, with his legs. The rebound went straight back to the Folkestone No.7, but he put his follow-up effort wide.
The home side got behind the Ashford defence again, in the 64th minute. Lee Hockey and James Everitt found themselves under a high clearance from the Folkestone defence. Lee made a bit of a mess of this, allowing Everitt to get goal-side of him. His reaction was to flatten the Folkestone forward, and, as the last man, there must have been a fair probability of a red card being waved in his direction, but the ball broke to Darren Smith, in a clear scoring position, with a one-on-one with the ‘keeper, so the referee played a good advantage. Smith opened up his body, preparing to curl the ball into the corner of the net, but Darren spread himself and made another excellent save. So it was a reprieve for the team, but Lee Hockey wasn’t so lucky – when the ball eventually went out of play, Referee Wilde took time out to show him a yellow card.
In the 65th minute, Steve Lovell – who spent almost the entire match standing with Hugo Langton just inside the playing area, because there was a huge puddle right in front of the “Away” dug-out – made a double-substitution, when he replaced Matt Newman and Ryan Briggs with Ronnie Dolan and new boy Tom Murphy. (This means that Briggo has now failed to play the full 90 minutes in seven of his last twelve appearances). Murphy, a young, blond, fresh-faced striker, went to partner Kevin Swaisland up front – very much Beauty & The Beast, from where I was standing - with Mark Lovell dropping back into the midfield.
A feature of Steve Lovell’s substitutions this season has been that the men being introduced have most often looked better than the ones they’ve replaced – which either says a lot about the latent talent we have at the Club, or is an indictment of Steve’s blind faith in the senior players that he tends to start games with, depending on your point of view – and this change was no exception. Almost immediately, Ronnie Dolan picked the ball up inside the Folkestone half; Tom Murphy made a diagonal run behind the home side’s defence; Ronnie saw the run, and slipped a pass through, to put Tom in on goal. Unfortunately, the youngster was off-side – but it was the brightest thing that Ashford had done all afternoon.
In the 69th minute, a sliced, right-footed clearance by Steve Springett gave Folkestone a corner, on the left. This was taken short, enabling a curling, in-swinging cross to be aimed right under the Ashford cross-bar, and Laurence Harvey did extremely well to head the ball away, almost from off the goal line; but the danger hadn’t gone away. The ball came back again, in the shape of a high, looping cross to the far post. Darren Ibrahim came for it, and missed it, and a Folkestone player lurking behind him headed across the face of goal, somehow missing the target.
As the game moved into the final quarter, it was all Folkestone pressure, with an Ashford equaliser looking to be no more than a remote possibility. In the 76th minute, Darren Smith took a corner on the left. This was headed clear by Lee Hockey, but Smith immediately had another opportunity to swing the ball in. This time, he fizzed in a flatter cross, which was met with a superb glancing header by Simon Austin, which sent the ball heading for the far corner of the net, but Darren Ibrahim went flying across to palm the ball away. This was probably the best of a number of good saves that Darren made this afternoon. On this occasion, he appeared to wind himself as he fell, but, after some TLC from the lovely Rachel Long, he was OK to continue.
Folkestone Manager Neil Cugley, (an Ashford Town legend, lest we forget), sent Jimmy Dryden on, for a cameo appearance, in the 81st minute, in an attempt to sew up the points. (Dryden hasn’t actually started a game since mid-October). Steve Lovell then made his final substitution, replacing the hard-working, but ineffective, Kevin Swaisland with Nick Smith, up front; a quick, argumentative little ‘un, for a strong, but slow, big ‘un. With three minutes of normal time remaining, Neil Cugley replaced Simon Austin with Pete Williams.
It was in these dying minutes of the game that Ashford finally came to life, and made the Folkestone defence think that we might score. In the 89th minute, Mitch Sherwood picked the ball up, about 22 yards from goal, and, with nothing to lose from having a pop, hit a low, well-struck shot which woke Jack Delo up, forcing him into making a very good save at the foot of his right-hand post. It was clear to everyone in the ground bar the officials that this should have been a corner, but the referee awarded a goal-kick, in spite of the disbelieving protests from the Ashford players.
The visitors continued to press during the four minutes of added time, and, in the 91st minute, Nick Smith, who, as usual, had injected some life into the side as soon as he had come on, aimed a shot, on the turn, towards the far post, but it was always going wide. A minute later, at the other end, Jimmy Dryden had an opportunity to finally put the three points to bed; a long cross from the right flank found him at the far post, but he somehow managed to fluff the chance, from about a yard out, steering the ball across the face of goal.
With the game well into the 94th minute, Tom Murphy had a chance to make a name for himself, when he had the ball, in the inside left position, well inside the Folkestone penalty area. His effort was blocked, as was Nick Smith’s, from the rebound, and the visitors were simply unable to get in a clean shot in the melée. When the final whistle was finally blown, there were several Folkestone players with arms aloft, which rather underlined the fact that they had been given a brief scare, but it was all very late in the day for Ashford, and an equaliser would have provided them with a point that they had not really deserved – in spite of having fought hard, through the mud and the rain, for the whole 90 minutes.
It turned out to be a very good day for Folkestone, as they were the only side in the top ten of Ryman Division One South this morning to collect the three points, so they are now seven points clear of Worthing at the top, with a game in hand. Ashford, on the other hand, now find themselves six points away from survival in this division, albeit with three (home) games in hand, after Chipstead won 0-3 at Merstham, and Whitstable got a point at Ramsgate. Things are starting to look pretty ominous now – that’s now eleven games without a win, and we’ve failed to score in six of the last seven matches. It’s The Rams who are Ashford’s next opponents at The Homelands, on Tuesday, followed by the “return” against Folkestone next Saturday – weather and pitch permitting, of course.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Darren Ibrahim
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Leatherhead v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 12th of December 2009.
Leatherhead 2 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
I am reluctant to begin a report with an obituary, but I really feel that I should give a mention to the demise of King’s Lynn FC during the week. This isn’t the first club, non-league or otherwise, to go to the wall in recent times, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it makes it that much more poignant when it’s a club that we’ve played league games against in the not too distant past. I’m not one to read over my past match reports very often – it’s sad enough that I write them ! – but I couldn’t resist looking back at the report on our last meeting with The Linnets. This was in the 2002-3 season, the last season that we were in the Southern League, before joining the Ryman, and was during the Thorogood era.
We had a cracking side out that day, (by current standards, at least). There was a three-man strike-force of Adrian Stone, Dave Hassett and Lee McRobert, with Lee Mac dropping off the front two. Sam Saunders ran the show from central midfield, with Simon Elliott on his left, and a 16 year-old Barry Gardner on the right. In the absence of Club Captain Matt Bower, through injury, Ian Gibbs was skipper, and played in central defence alongside Aaron O’Leary. Paul O’Brien was at left-back, Martin Anderson at right-back and John Whitehouse in goal. We had some quality players in those days.
The result was a 1-0 win for King’s Lynn, in front of a crowd of 757. The club was to rise as high as the Conference North – but, alas, it is now just a statistic. Another ex-football club.
The moral of the King’s Lynn tale might be that, however bad we think the situation is with Ashford Town, there are other sets of football fans for whom the situation is a whole lot worse – at least we have a team to go along and support. However, it is also true to say that things for our Club have rarely been worse. We began today’s game at the bottom of Ryman Division One South – and that’s a division at the eighth level of English football, which is a desperate state of affairs for a club that used to be a stalwart member of the Southern League in the days when it was roughly the equivalent of today’s Conference Premier. Added to the embarrassment of our league position, we have a pitch that is currently unplayable – and the ground-share agreement we have with Maidstone United, which is almost certainly the main contributing factor to the state of the pitch, has reportedly yielded no rental payment from Maidstone to date. No income from our tenants – no income from our own home games. Makes you wonder how close we are to the nightmare scenario of players not being paid, doesn’t it ?
No matter. Where there’s life, there’s hope, and we still have a team, so off we went to Leatherhead, for our second visit to Fetcham Grove of the season, (following our FA Cup tie, in September). One thing we are very short of, though, is strikers. Paul Jones continues to be absent, with his “undercarriage” problem, and the sight of Joe Fuller in the bar, in his track-suit, just 20 minutes before the game confirmed that he was still on the injury list – with an on-going foot problem. Nick Smith was absent through illness, which left Mark Lovell without a credible strike partner – the solution was for Kent County League striker Kevin Swaisland to effectively come out of semi-retirement. So that was it up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland, and no forward options on the bench.
Darren Ibrahim continued in goal, and I was pleased to see that young Laurence Harvey was given another chance in the centre of defence, alongside Lee Hockey; Carl Harrold was at right-back, and Steve Springett, whose second month-long loan spell is nearing its end, was at left-back. Steve Lovell kept faith with his most experienced trio of midfielders: Danny Lye (the captain), Ryan Briggs and Mitch Sherwood. Ross Morley, returning from a suspension served for something he did in Sunday League footy, was on the right, with Sherwood on the left. With Laurence Harvey retaining his place in the side, Bryan Pearce had to be satisfied with a place on the bench again, alongside Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer, Matt Newman and goalkeeper Dan Mason.
The feature of our earlier visit for the cup game – which the home side won 2-0 – was that it was such a hot afternoon, that we abandoned our first-half pitch on the grassy bank behind the dug-outs, and sought shade beneath the low, green, corrugated roof of the main stand, at half time. Well, we were blessed with decent weather once again in Leatherhead. The low, lukewarm sun maintained the temperature at a fairly cool 7ºC, but it was dry, and with only a gentle breeze, so it seemed like mid-summer, compared with the wind and the torrential rain that we’ve been having recently. I was also warmed from within by a pretty good chili con carne – and a pint of “Kent’s Best” ale – in The Running Horse, (Leatherhead’s oldest pub); but it was a fighting performance on the pitch from the lads that we really needed.
What was crucial was that Ashford should be solid at the back to start with, so that they could get a foot-hold in the game. Unfortunately, after a fairly uneventful opening six minutes, which mostly featured Leatherhead possession, that was then all thrown away by a distinctly unfunny comedy routine from Darren Ibrahim. After first fumbling, and then juggling, a routine take, Darren advanced towards the edge of his penalty area, and attempted to throw the ball out to his left-back. The ball hit the head of a near-by Ashford defender, and ricocheted to big Leon Simpson, who was just a couple of yards outside the penalty area. With the Ashford ‘keeper not at home, Simpson lobbed the ball towards the unguarded net. As Darren desperately chased back, the ball hit the post, rebounded off his shin and then popped into the net. Simpson shamelessly claimed the goal – and, at 6ft 10in, who’s going to argue with him ? – but this was undoubtedly an Ibrahim own goal.
This was a shame, as, this aberration apart, Darren didn’t put a foot wrong; his handling was decisive, and he made a few decent saves. However, it was an incident that changed the whole complexion of the game very early on, and, with little happening up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland achieved precisely nothing all afternoon – it was already hard to see how Ashford would get back into the game.
The visitors’ first bridgehead in the Leatherhead half came in the ninth minute, in the form of a corner, but Ryan Briggs’ corner, intended to find Mark Lovell on the edge of the penalty area, failed to reach its destination. In the 13th minute, Ashford were on the back foot, when a Laurence Harvey foul on Tommy Hutchings gave the home side a free-kick, just to the left of the penalty area – but this came to nothing.
Ashford’s reprieve was short-lived, however, and Leatherhead went 2-0 ahead in the 20th minute. This was actually a very well-taken goal, and came from a long, curling cross by Kev Terry, from the right wing. The low trajectory of the cross, behind the Ashford defence, was difficult to defend, and Darren Ibrahim was given little chance, as Leon Simpson extended a long leg and guided the ball into the net.
It continued to be all Leatherhead in the first half, with crosses raining into the Ashford penalty area. In the 23rd minute, a cross from the left flank found the prolific Tommy Hutchings, who was fresh from a hat-trick at Chipstead in The Tanners’ previous match; Hutchings got in a good shot, but this was straight at goal-keeper Ibrahim, who nevertheless made a good, low save. Just two minutes later, as the sun, which had been causing us on the bank on the far side to shield our eyes, finally sank below the trees, a high cross was sent in, again from the left. Leon Simpson rose above the Ashford defence with ease, (unsurprisingly), and aimed a firm header towards the top corner of the net, but this was well caught by Darren Ibrahim, diving spectacularly to his right.
Ashford didn’t put together their first recognisable passing movement until the 36th minute. This involved Steve Springett, Mitch Sherwood and Kevin Swaisland, down the left flank. The promising move ended with Ryan Briggs shooting low and wide, from outside the penalty area, but the fact that it might have been the first twitching sign of Ashford getting into the game was not lost on the small knot of a dozen or so travelling supporters, who offered up an encouraging burst of applause. Unfortunately, our boys never really threatened to build on this.
The end of the first half became rather niggly, and this mood was rather set by a totally unnecessary foul by Danny Lye on Mark Simmonds, in the 42nd minute – basically, the Ashford skipper hacked at Simmonds’ left calf, about a second after he had passed the ball. Mr Tranter, the Referee, who I thought generally had a very good game, was right on the spot, and showed Lye the only yellow card of the afternoon.
As there was clearly nothing to lose, Steve Lovell made two changes in personnel for the second half. Just as in our previous game – the 3-0 defeat at Whitstable – Steve introduced the youngsters when defeat appeared to be the only other option. The experienced Ryan Briggs was taken off, Ross Morley was moved to the centre of midfield, Mitchell Sherwood switched wings to replace him on the right and Dan Scorer came off the bench to take up a position wide on the left. There was also a change in formation, with Ashford leaving three at the back. That meant making Carl Harrold, who had done nothing wrong in the first half, the tactical sacrifice, as Matt Newman took up a position in the centre of a five-man midfield.
In truth, Ashford looked better in the second half. We had more possession, and were able to hold our own in midfield – but, with a two-goal lead, Leatherhead, who had changed into their slippers at half time, were quite content to hang onto the lead, comfortably keeping the visitors at arm’s length. Ashford’s only threat came from a number of Lee Hockey long throws – I’ve no argument with this as a tactic, as we are in no position to strive for pretty football, but, more often than not, it was a Leather head that got to the ball first, as we lacked a real presence in the opposition’s penalty area. Matt Newman looked to be the best we had in midfield during the second period, but, too often, he and others looked up, with the ball at their feet, to be frustrated by a lack of movement, and a lack of options, upfield.
With the floodlights on, and the leafless trees, beyond the low main stand, silhouetted against the darkening grey sky, Steve Springett did show his quality, with a promising run, in the 62nd minute. This took Geordie all the way from the half-way line to a couple of yards off The Tanners’ by-line, but he was eventually worried out of it by the home defence, and hope petered out and became a goal-kick. This was the signal for Leatherhead Manager Mick Sullivan to make the first of three leisurely substitutions, replacing Rico Morris with right-winger Josh Smith. The extra width created did cause Ashford’s three-man defence some additional problems, but they stood firm, and Darren Ibrahim continued to look competent in all that he was asked to do. All four were probably helped by the better protection they were provided with by the midfield, and the fact that Leatherhead had by now slipped down a couple of gears.
Sullivan made his substitutions at regular intervals – Dominic O’Shea in place of Leon Simpson, the bean pole that we previously encountered at Merstham this season, in the 69th minute, and Hassan Nyang for Kev Terry, in the 77th minute. The third of these changes coincided with Steve Lovell’s final throw of the dice, when he replaced captain Danny Lye with Ronnie Dolan – but it made no difference, with rugby union-style territorial gains being the only sign of success. The resulting Lee Hockey long throws continued to have a magnetic attraction to green-shirted defenders – the exception came in the 87th minute, when the gallant Kevin Swaisland pulled away from his marker and directed a downward header at goal, but this went well wide of the near post.
It was one of those games in which it was very hard to pick out a Man of the Match for Ashford (!). In the end, we were reduced to eliminating those who were most undeserving of the accolade – I’m afraid that Mitch Sherwood was the first name on this list, as he had a particularly poor game, giving the ball away almost as soon as he had received it – the starting midfield and forward-line then rapidly came to mind ! In spite of his early balls-up, Darren Ibrahim wouldn’t have been a ridiculous choice, for his performance over the 90 minutes. Steve Springett once again looked very comfortable and composed at left-back, as did Laurence Harvey (again !), in the centre of the defence – but Lee Hockey shaded it on this occasion.
The day’s worst pain, I’m afraid, didn’t arrive until early evening, when I had the opportunity to find out the other results in Ryman Division One South – both Whitstable and Chipstead had won this afternoon, so we are now four points adrift at the bottom of the table. We have three games in hand of the two teams above us, but that means very little when we aren’t coming close to winning matches. The current winless streak now stands at ten games, (and two months); with the next five matches being against Croydon Athletic, Folkestone (twice), Ramsgate and Worthing, it’s not difficult to see how things are likely to get a whole lot worse going into the New Year.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Lee Hockey
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
I am reluctant to begin a report with an obituary, but I really feel that I should give a mention to the demise of King’s Lynn FC during the week. This isn’t the first club, non-league or otherwise, to go to the wall in recent times, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it makes it that much more poignant when it’s a club that we’ve played league games against in the not too distant past. I’m not one to read over my past match reports very often – it’s sad enough that I write them ! – but I couldn’t resist looking back at the report on our last meeting with The Linnets. This was in the 2002-3 season, the last season that we were in the Southern League, before joining the Ryman, and was during the Thorogood era.
We had a cracking side out that day, (by current standards, at least). There was a three-man strike-force of Adrian Stone, Dave Hassett and Lee McRobert, with Lee Mac dropping off the front two. Sam Saunders ran the show from central midfield, with Simon Elliott on his left, and a 16 year-old Barry Gardner on the right. In the absence of Club Captain Matt Bower, through injury, Ian Gibbs was skipper, and played in central defence alongside Aaron O’Leary. Paul O’Brien was at left-back, Martin Anderson at right-back and John Whitehouse in goal. We had some quality players in those days.
The result was a 1-0 win for King’s Lynn, in front of a crowd of 757. The club was to rise as high as the Conference North – but, alas, it is now just a statistic. Another ex-football club.
The moral of the King’s Lynn tale might be that, however bad we think the situation is with Ashford Town, there are other sets of football fans for whom the situation is a whole lot worse – at least we have a team to go along and support. However, it is also true to say that things for our Club have rarely been worse. We began today’s game at the bottom of Ryman Division One South – and that’s a division at the eighth level of English football, which is a desperate state of affairs for a club that used to be a stalwart member of the Southern League in the days when it was roughly the equivalent of today’s Conference Premier. Added to the embarrassment of our league position, we have a pitch that is currently unplayable – and the ground-share agreement we have with Maidstone United, which is almost certainly the main contributing factor to the state of the pitch, has reportedly yielded no rental payment from Maidstone to date. No income from our tenants – no income from our own home games. Makes you wonder how close we are to the nightmare scenario of players not being paid, doesn’t it ?
No matter. Where there’s life, there’s hope, and we still have a team, so off we went to Leatherhead, for our second visit to Fetcham Grove of the season, (following our FA Cup tie, in September). One thing we are very short of, though, is strikers. Paul Jones continues to be absent, with his “undercarriage” problem, and the sight of Joe Fuller in the bar, in his track-suit, just 20 minutes before the game confirmed that he was still on the injury list – with an on-going foot problem. Nick Smith was absent through illness, which left Mark Lovell without a credible strike partner – the solution was for Kent County League striker Kevin Swaisland to effectively come out of semi-retirement. So that was it up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland, and no forward options on the bench.
Darren Ibrahim continued in goal, and I was pleased to see that young Laurence Harvey was given another chance in the centre of defence, alongside Lee Hockey; Carl Harrold was at right-back, and Steve Springett, whose second month-long loan spell is nearing its end, was at left-back. Steve Lovell kept faith with his most experienced trio of midfielders: Danny Lye (the captain), Ryan Briggs and Mitch Sherwood. Ross Morley, returning from a suspension served for something he did in Sunday League footy, was on the right, with Sherwood on the left. With Laurence Harvey retaining his place in the side, Bryan Pearce had to be satisfied with a place on the bench again, alongside Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer, Matt Newman and goalkeeper Dan Mason.
The feature of our earlier visit for the cup game – which the home side won 2-0 – was that it was such a hot afternoon, that we abandoned our first-half pitch on the grassy bank behind the dug-outs, and sought shade beneath the low, green, corrugated roof of the main stand, at half time. Well, we were blessed with decent weather once again in Leatherhead. The low, lukewarm sun maintained the temperature at a fairly cool 7ºC, but it was dry, and with only a gentle breeze, so it seemed like mid-summer, compared with the wind and the torrential rain that we’ve been having recently. I was also warmed from within by a pretty good chili con carne – and a pint of “Kent’s Best” ale – in The Running Horse, (Leatherhead’s oldest pub); but it was a fighting performance on the pitch from the lads that we really needed.
What was crucial was that Ashford should be solid at the back to start with, so that they could get a foot-hold in the game. Unfortunately, after a fairly uneventful opening six minutes, which mostly featured Leatherhead possession, that was then all thrown away by a distinctly unfunny comedy routine from Darren Ibrahim. After first fumbling, and then juggling, a routine take, Darren advanced towards the edge of his penalty area, and attempted to throw the ball out to his left-back. The ball hit the head of a near-by Ashford defender, and ricocheted to big Leon Simpson, who was just a couple of yards outside the penalty area. With the Ashford ‘keeper not at home, Simpson lobbed the ball towards the unguarded net. As Darren desperately chased back, the ball hit the post, rebounded off his shin and then popped into the net. Simpson shamelessly claimed the goal – and, at 6ft 10in, who’s going to argue with him ? – but this was undoubtedly an Ibrahim own goal.
This was a shame, as, this aberration apart, Darren didn’t put a foot wrong; his handling was decisive, and he made a few decent saves. However, it was an incident that changed the whole complexion of the game very early on, and, with little happening up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland achieved precisely nothing all afternoon – it was already hard to see how Ashford would get back into the game.
The visitors’ first bridgehead in the Leatherhead half came in the ninth minute, in the form of a corner, but Ryan Briggs’ corner, intended to find Mark Lovell on the edge of the penalty area, failed to reach its destination. In the 13th minute, Ashford were on the back foot, when a Laurence Harvey foul on Tommy Hutchings gave the home side a free-kick, just to the left of the penalty area – but this came to nothing.
Ashford’s reprieve was short-lived, however, and Leatherhead went 2-0 ahead in the 20th minute. This was actually a very well-taken goal, and came from a long, curling cross by Kev Terry, from the right wing. The low trajectory of the cross, behind the Ashford defence, was difficult to defend, and Darren Ibrahim was given little chance, as Leon Simpson extended a long leg and guided the ball into the net.
It continued to be all Leatherhead in the first half, with crosses raining into the Ashford penalty area. In the 23rd minute, a cross from the left flank found the prolific Tommy Hutchings, who was fresh from a hat-trick at Chipstead in The Tanners’ previous match; Hutchings got in a good shot, but this was straight at goal-keeper Ibrahim, who nevertheless made a good, low save. Just two minutes later, as the sun, which had been causing us on the bank on the far side to shield our eyes, finally sank below the trees, a high cross was sent in, again from the left. Leon Simpson rose above the Ashford defence with ease, (unsurprisingly), and aimed a firm header towards the top corner of the net, but this was well caught by Darren Ibrahim, diving spectacularly to his right.
Ashford didn’t put together their first recognisable passing movement until the 36th minute. This involved Steve Springett, Mitch Sherwood and Kevin Swaisland, down the left flank. The promising move ended with Ryan Briggs shooting low and wide, from outside the penalty area, but the fact that it might have been the first twitching sign of Ashford getting into the game was not lost on the small knot of a dozen or so travelling supporters, who offered up an encouraging burst of applause. Unfortunately, our boys never really threatened to build on this.
The end of the first half became rather niggly, and this mood was rather set by a totally unnecessary foul by Danny Lye on Mark Simmonds, in the 42nd minute – basically, the Ashford skipper hacked at Simmonds’ left calf, about a second after he had passed the ball. Mr Tranter, the Referee, who I thought generally had a very good game, was right on the spot, and showed Lye the only yellow card of the afternoon.
As there was clearly nothing to lose, Steve Lovell made two changes in personnel for the second half. Just as in our previous game – the 3-0 defeat at Whitstable – Steve introduced the youngsters when defeat appeared to be the only other option. The experienced Ryan Briggs was taken off, Ross Morley was moved to the centre of midfield, Mitchell Sherwood switched wings to replace him on the right and Dan Scorer came off the bench to take up a position wide on the left. There was also a change in formation, with Ashford leaving three at the back. That meant making Carl Harrold, who had done nothing wrong in the first half, the tactical sacrifice, as Matt Newman took up a position in the centre of a five-man midfield.
In truth, Ashford looked better in the second half. We had more possession, and were able to hold our own in midfield – but, with a two-goal lead, Leatherhead, who had changed into their slippers at half time, were quite content to hang onto the lead, comfortably keeping the visitors at arm’s length. Ashford’s only threat came from a number of Lee Hockey long throws – I’ve no argument with this as a tactic, as we are in no position to strive for pretty football, but, more often than not, it was a Leather head that got to the ball first, as we lacked a real presence in the opposition’s penalty area. Matt Newman looked to be the best we had in midfield during the second period, but, too often, he and others looked up, with the ball at their feet, to be frustrated by a lack of movement, and a lack of options, upfield.
With the floodlights on, and the leafless trees, beyond the low main stand, silhouetted against the darkening grey sky, Steve Springett did show his quality, with a promising run, in the 62nd minute. This took Geordie all the way from the half-way line to a couple of yards off The Tanners’ by-line, but he was eventually worried out of it by the home defence, and hope petered out and became a goal-kick. This was the signal for Leatherhead Manager Mick Sullivan to make the first of three leisurely substitutions, replacing Rico Morris with right-winger Josh Smith. The extra width created did cause Ashford’s three-man defence some additional problems, but they stood firm, and Darren Ibrahim continued to look competent in all that he was asked to do. All four were probably helped by the better protection they were provided with by the midfield, and the fact that Leatherhead had by now slipped down a couple of gears.
Sullivan made his substitutions at regular intervals – Dominic O’Shea in place of Leon Simpson, the bean pole that we previously encountered at Merstham this season, in the 69th minute, and Hassan Nyang for Kev Terry, in the 77th minute. The third of these changes coincided with Steve Lovell’s final throw of the dice, when he replaced captain Danny Lye with Ronnie Dolan – but it made no difference, with rugby union-style territorial gains being the only sign of success. The resulting Lee Hockey long throws continued to have a magnetic attraction to green-shirted defenders – the exception came in the 87th minute, when the gallant Kevin Swaisland pulled away from his marker and directed a downward header at goal, but this went well wide of the near post.
It was one of those games in which it was very hard to pick out a Man of the Match for Ashford (!). In the end, we were reduced to eliminating those who were most undeserving of the accolade – I’m afraid that Mitch Sherwood was the first name on this list, as he had a particularly poor game, giving the ball away almost as soon as he had received it – the starting midfield and forward-line then rapidly came to mind ! In spite of his early balls-up, Darren Ibrahim wouldn’t have been a ridiculous choice, for his performance over the 90 minutes. Steve Springett once again looked very comfortable and composed at left-back, as did Laurence Harvey (again !), in the centre of the defence – but Lee Hockey shaded it on this occasion.
The day’s worst pain, I’m afraid, didn’t arrive until early evening, when I had the opportunity to find out the other results in Ryman Division One South – both Whitstable and Chipstead had won this afternoon, so we are now four points adrift at the bottom of the table. We have three games in hand of the two teams above us, but that means very little when we aren’t coming close to winning matches. The current winless streak now stands at ten games, (and two months); with the next five matches being against Croydon Athletic, Folkestone (twice), Ramsgate and Worthing, it’s not difficult to see how things are likely to get a whole lot worse going into the New Year.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Lee Hockey
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Whitstable Town v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 28th of November 2009.
Whitstable Town 3 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
The score-line pretty much sums up this afternoon’s proceedings, and Ashford Town’s current position in the football firmament in general. We were comprehensively beaten today, against a young Whitstable team that was bottom of the league, and, what’s more, we were outplayed, particularly in the first half. There is no doubt that Ashford’s conquerors are currently among the very weakest sides in the division, since, prior to their last-minute victory in yet another relegation six-pointer, on Tuesday, Whitstable had lost twelve of their previous 14 games, drawing the other two. What was especially disappointing about today’s pasting was that it came on the back of two very encouraging away performances against teams from higher up the table, in Chatham Town and Burgess Hill Town.
This was billed as being the second match in a series of three consecutive “six-pointers”, including the game at home to Walton Casuals last Wednesday, and the “return” game against Whitstable at The Homelands next Wednesday – although the postponement of the Walton game in mid-week means that we are down to just the two head-to-heads with The Oystermen, provided that the pitch is fit for purpose in a few days’ time. The six points in five games must have come as a huge relief to Manager Mark Munday and everyone at The Belmont, as they lift Whitstable out of the relegation zone – to one place above Ashford Town, in fact, who now sink to second-bottom, two points behind Whitstable, but with a game in hand.
This is all a complete contrast to the situation and atmosphere on my previous (and first) visit to this ground – that was on a Tuesday night back in February of this year, when the pre-match questions were: “Are we going to go top of the table tonight ?”, “When was the last time we were top of the league ?”, etc. The 4-1 defeat on that occasion turned out to be the first crack in the dam, after which it came to light that the players weren’t being paid, and ………. well, you know the story – and the consequence has become a season of struggle against relegation, such as we are seeing right now.
At least I had the opportunity to see The Belmont Ground in daylight this time – and it confirmed my impressions in February of it being a cosy and compact venue, squeezed into quite a tight space, deep in a residential area of Whitstable. The main stand is pretty unique. It’s of decent size, but there is no individual seating – just five large, wooden steps, which were actually more comfortable to sit on than they looked. On the opposite side of the pitch is what looks like a miniature bungalow, which houses the dressing-rooms, with the home side’s dug-out at the front. Next to this is quite a nice bar. Behind one of the goals is a narrow area of terracing, covered by an old-looking canopy, and there was a much smaller, but new, shelter behind the goal at the opposite end, which was the end that Ashford Town were supposed to be attacking in the first half.
The car park isn’t much to write home about, as it is a combination of grass and gravel, with the track leading from the road having pot-holes at regular intervals – but it’s better than having to park on the road, as we do for some away fixtures, and we were grateful for it. Today it accommodated Whitstable Town’s biggest home gate of the season – 195 – which, naturally, was swelled by another good turn-out of Ashford supporters, (who, as I’ve bleated about before, surely deserve better than was served up this afternoon).
There was no radical difference in personnel from the eleven brave Ashford soldiers that fought through the rain for 90 minutes at Burgess Hill last week. In fact, the one change was that Danny Lye was back this afternoon – and wore the captain’s arm-band – and Joe Fuller was absent, with a foot injury. That was the one change to the starting line-up, so it necessitated a change in formation, with Steve Lovell sending Ashford out in a 4-5-1 format. The cast, in position order, was: Darren Ibrahim in goal; a back four of Carl Harrold, Lee Hockey, Laurence Harvey and Steve Springett; a midfield quintet of Nick Smith, Danny Lye, Ryan Briggs, Ronnie Dolan and Mitch Sherwood; with Mark Lovell on his own up front. (I sometimes get the impression that Steve Lovell opts for a team formation purely on the basis of which members of his first team squad are available, but I’m not trained as a mind reader, so I won’t dwell on this further). On the bench, (which was utilised this time), we had goalkeeper Dan Mason, Bryan Pearce, Matt Newman (who missed the Burgess Hill game due to a bout of food poisoning), Dan Scorer and Sam Conlon. Paul Jones continues to be absent, due to what are being described as “under-carriage problems”.
A couple of interesting ex Ashford Town names in the Whitstable squad these days are Dan Tanner and Joe Hitchings. Whilst there was no sign of Dan at The Belmont today, Joe Hitchings put in a good performance – and it was actually nice to see him fulfilling some of the potential that he obviously had, as a sixteen year-old, when he was at The Homelands.
After last week’s soaking, and the generally wet weather in recent weeks, it’s nice to report that today it stayed dry – and it was also fairly still, so there was no breeze to affect the play – but it was a shade on the fresh side, so we are approaching the stage of the season when a match bulletin needs to incorporate a Pink Report. I’m pleased to say that our boys were all uniformly turned out in short-sleeved yellow shirts, laughing in the face of the elements – but it was the Lino on the near side who started the match wearing gloves, which must be the first instance of this in recorded history.
The game started with a chance for each team in the opening couple of minutes. Nick Smith went on a promising run down the left wing. He broke through a tackle on the edge of the area, before pulling the ball back to Steve Springett, whose high cross was cleared. Seconds later, at the other end, Darren Ibrahim half came for a cross from the Whitstable left, before thinking better of it and allowing it to pass over his head, and to the opposite side of the pitch. When the cross eventually came over from the far right, it found Tom Parker, whose shot went just over the bar. Into the fifth minute, and Darren Ibrahim was forced into making a good save. A shot from outside the penalty area by the home side’s much-touted Dan Wisker was heavily deflected, and fell into the path of Ben Smith, about twelve yards out, and just to the right of goal – but Darren did well to save with his legs. Lee Hockey headed the resulting corner clear.
Throughout the first half, it was Whitstable, in their red shirts, white shorts and red sockies, who passed the ball and kept possession. This contrasted with Ashford’s more one-touch approach to the game this afternoon – that means taking one touch and then giving the ball to the opposition ! Our best chance of scoring seemed, throughout the afternoon, to be from a set-piece, and, in fairness to the lads, they had enough possession in the opposition’s half to create plenty of such opportunities, but, whether it was due to a lack of quality of delivery, or a lack of presence in the penalty area, even this never really looked likely to happen. Lee Hockey had his chances to deliver long throws into the Whitstable penalty area, but with little joy.
Ashford had a promising free-kick situation in the 14th minute, after a foul on Danny Lye, on the corner of Whitstable’s penalty area. Ryan Briggs curled his kick over the red defensive wall, but his effort was headed clear, for a corner on the left, by Gary Sayer. Briggo went across to take the corner, and played a one-two with Mark Lovell, who came short, in order to give himself a better angle for a cross – he eventually found Lee Hockey, who was unable to direct his header. Two minutes later, the visitors had another free-kick, after Mark Lovell was pulled back by Stephen Lloyd, having latched onto a loose ball in midfield. This earnt Lloyd the only yellow card that Referee Neil Baker was to hand out this afternoon – but the free-kick was headed clear by the Whitstable defence.
The impressive Joe Hitchings tried a snap shot from well outside the area, which flashed across the face of goal, in the 19th minute, but The Oystermen went ahead just two minutes later. Lee Hockey headed a high cross behind for a corner, on the Whitstable left. As the resulting cross came in, the home side’s skipper, Sam Denly, met it on the run, and powered the ball into the net, with a bullet header. The Whitstable players celebrated the goal with all the enthusiasm that had marked their play – so there was no doubt that the team at the bottom of the league this morning was up for the fight. Going a goal down was also a pretty ominous development for Ashford, as they had managed to create precisely nothing up to this point.
Things briefly appeared to get even worse for Ashford, in the 25th minute. An ambitious shot from half-way inside the Ashford half was intercepted, about 20 yards out, by Dave Cory, who turned and stuck the ball in the back of the net – but he was well off-side, and the “goal” was ruled out.
On the half hour mark - by which time Ashford had abandoned the 4-5-1 format, and Nick Smith was playing alongside Mark Lovell in a 4-4-2 set-up – a Lee Hockey long throw did cause a flutter in the Whitstable penalty area, when it was met by a Danny Lye back-header, but the ball was cleared. In the 35th minute, Mitch Sherwood went on a good run through the central midfield area; he passed the baton to Nick Smith, on the left, but the Whitstable defence forced the ball out for a corner. Ryan Briggs’ cross, from the left, failed to find an Ashford head in the area, and the ball was cleared, for a throw-in. Lee Hockey delivered the ball into the penalty area, and it was again cleared, but only as far as Ryan Briggs, who was waiting just outside the area – Briggo dinked the ball back in, on the volley, but Laurence Harvey’s flicked header went straight to goalkeeper Kevin Fewell.
The home side was forced into making an unscheduled substitution, in the 37th minute, when right-back Gareth Cornhill had to be replaced by Dean Grant – and I can report that Grant was wearing gloves, so became the first genuine entry in the Pink Register for the season !
A minute later, Mark Lovell had a very speculative attempt at goal, when he turned and shot, from well outside the area, but his effort was always going well over the bar. (I don’t know how much our boys practice shooting in training, but their shots go over the bar more often than George Best’s elbow).
The writing was really on the wall once Whitstable had scored their second goal, in the 42nd minute. This, once again, came from a set piece, but the danger originated when Laurence Harvey was drawn across to the touchline to cover the left-winger, and didn’t quite get there. Young Laurence once again looked very comfortable at this level, but he did make one or two errors – which is only to be expected, at this stage of his career. On this occasion, the consequence was a dangerous cross into the Ashford penalty area, but Steve Springett did extremely well, facing his own goal, to nod the ball behind for a corner, on the right. The ensuing cross was swung in, left-footed, and then was either flicked on by a Whitstable head, or deflected from an Ashford head, at the near post. Anyway, the result was that the ball fell at the feet of centre-half Sam Denly, in a way that managers and players dream of – furthermore, he couldn’t have been in more space if he’d been a leper with a bell around his neck, but you have to say that the Oystermen’s skipper took full advantage of the situation, and smashed the ball into the roof of the net. So it was 2-0 to Whitstable, and two goals for Sam Denly, to add to the one that he had previously scored this season, against Tonbridge Angels in the League Cup.
Ashford did bounce straight back at the home side, in search of an all-important goal before half-time, with Mitch Sherwood making a good run down the left, and winning a corner. This was taken by Ryan Briggs, but Steve Springett could only loop his header over the bar. Then, with normal time in the first half almost spent, Lee Hockey launched another long throw into the Whitstable area, but Sam Denly showed his effectiveness in a defensive context, and headed clear. The final chance of the half, however, fell to the home side, in the second minute of injury time, when Joe Hitchings’ shot from outside the penalty area was deflected behind for a corner, on the right. This was slung in by Tom Parker, but Darren Ibrahim made a good catch. (Actually, it must be said that Darren looked very solid this afternoon, so, whatever the outcome of any post-mortem on today’s performance, blaming the goalkeeper simply isn’t an option on this occasion; in fact, he couldn’t be blamed for any of the three goals, and was to make at least one outstanding save in the second half).
So, as Mrs MKC went on a long, half-time hike to find the only toilets at The Belmont, my mind went back to a not dissimilar footballing experience on Tuesday night, when I paid my first visit to Stadium MK, and saw MK Dons lose 3-4 at home to Carlisle United. (I know, I know, I know – but I had the offer of a complimentary ticket, so what can a man do ?!). AFC Franchise were actually 0-3 down after 20 minutes, and I reflected, at the time, that it was just like watching Ashford Town, (except that, on Tuesday, there were two teams out there who couldn’t defend). I loved the chant from the understandably small band of Carlisle supporters, at the time: “Are you Wigan, in disguise ?”.
Back to the World of Dreams, then, and, having failed to string two passes together during the first 45 minutes, Ashford noticeably improved this aspect of their game in the second half – they also came out of the little bungalow with a renewed sense of purpose, (which was, after all, not much to ask). Just two minutes after the break, the lads won a corner, on the left. This was taken by Ryan Briggs, and his cross was met by the head of Danny Lye, but deflected off a Whitstable head, for another corner, on the same side – this was punched clear by Kevin Fewell. Lyesy then showed the other aspect of his game, when he gave the ball away in the centre circle – whereupon Joe Hitchings sprayed the ball wide, to Dan Wisker, who immediately attacked the penalty area, in the inside-right channel. Darren Ibrahim did well to come out and thwart him, diving at his feet.
Ashford created their one and only chance from open play in the 53rd minute, and it was no surprise that it was Nicholas Frederick Smith who was on the end of this, as he had looked lively throughout the game, and as likely as anybody in a yellow shirt to make an impact on the home defence. After latching onto a through-ball, Nick hit his shot well, but Kevin Fewell made an excellent save, palming the ball over the bar.
Whitstable’s third goal came on the hour mark, and was a demonstration of the quality that we let go when Joe Hitchings left the Club. Joe picked the ball up just outside the Ashford penalty area, and fed the ball through to “Whiskers”, who was just inside the area. After a challenge from Laurence Harvey, the ball broke to Joe, who was following up his initial pass, and he calmly slotted the ball past Darren Ibrahim, and into the corner of the net.
Right-back Carl Harrold responded with a pacy run down the right wing, in the 64th minute, which involved a long “one-two” with Nick Smith, but was rewarded with nothing more than a corner, which came to nothing. From the resulting break, Dave Cory, one of Whitstable’s survivors from their 4-1 victory back in February, picked the ball up on the half-way line. He turned, and, unhindered by a combination of Laurence Harvey and Ronnie Dolan, made progress towards the Ashford goal. He checked onto his right foot, but his shot was straight at Darren Ibrahim.
By the 67th minute, Steve Lovell simply had to do something, and, with absolutely nothing to lose, made a triple substitution. Basically, Steve did what many Ashford Town watchers have been calling for for some time – he got rid of the midfield, as far as he was able. Off went skipper Danny Lye, Mitch Sherwood and Ronnie Dolan, to be replaced by new signing Matt Newman, Dan Scorer and Sam Conlon.
If there is anything positive that can be gained from today’s debacle, it is that all three of these substitutes looked better than the men they had replaced. Sam Conlon is a striker from the Reserves, who is slightly built, but looked lively and intelligent up front with Smith and Lovell, in a three-man attack, and immediately seemed to have a good understanding with Dan Scorer – who doesn’t appear to be the most mobile, but looks to be a skilful player with the ball at his feet. Matt Newman, who comes to us from Tunbridge Wells, injected some energy into central midfield, and looks to be a good acquisition.
There were some good passing movements from the beaten visitors during the final quarter of the game, mostly down the left flank, and with Steve Springett as the lynchpin. One such move, in the 75th minute, ended with Ryan Briggs blasting a shot high and wide, from about 20 yards out, but it was at least encouraging to see Ashford actually creating the opening. Soon after, more good Ashford Town pressure resulted in a couple of Lee Hockey long throw opportunities; both of these came to nothing, with Sam Conlon shooting wide, after the second of these. In the 80th minute, another long throw from Hockey resulted in an attempt at a spectacular overhead kick by Nick Smith, but the effort went well wide.
Prior to this belated, and largely unexpected, pressure on the home defences, Darren Ibrahim had had his moment of glory, in the 70th minute. A snap shot from Joe Hitchings, from outside the penalty area, after a half-clearance from Ryan Briggs, seemed to be curling just inside the far post, but Darren made a flying, diving save to his right, tipping the ball wide, for what should have been a corner. It was a travesty of justice that Referee Neil Baker gave Darren no credit for this, as he awarded a goal-kick, but everybody else in the ground appreciated that it had been a fine save. This also gives me the opportunity to say that Neil Baker otherwise had a very fine game.
Nick Smith, who was certainly one man who never gave up trying throughout the entire 90 minutes, did some good work on the right flank, in the 86th minute, and won a corner. This was taken by Steve Springett, and it was an Ashford head that got on the end of his cross, but the ball was cleared off the Whitstable line, to preserve the home side’s clean sheet – only their third of the season. With 90 minutes played, Dave Cory once again led a break, and got the ball wide, to Dean Grant, with his gloves, on the right. The No.14 cut inside, but his left-foot shot was comfortably saved by Darren Ibrahim. As the game went into injury time, Ashford had another couple of corners, to bring their tally for the afternoon to ten, (compared with Whitstable’s five), but both were punched clear by goalkeeper Fewell.
Looking at results elsewhere today, to assess the sum total of the damage that was done in terms of the campaign to avoid relegation, there was a defeat for both Chipstead and Eastbourne Town, but Horsham YMCA got a valuable point away to Croydon Athletic – and it really does seem that two from those three teams plus Whitstable and Ashford will finish in the relegation places at the end of the season. Looking at the league table, we are a point clear of Chipstead, the bottom team, and two points behind Whitstable, but with a game in hand – but Whitstable, having been the only team with a worse goal difference than us this morning, now have a goal difference of -23, compared with Ashford’s -27 !
One possible glimmer of light for Ashford Town is that only five of our 16 league games, to date, have been at home – and our home form has certainly been better than our away form. We might also seek solace in the fact that, having failed to beat Whitstable at The Belmont, in three attempts, since their promotion to the Ryman League from the Kent League, we have beaten them in both games at The Homelands, by 3-1 and 4-0. Weather and ground permitting, we’ll have a chance to do so very soon, next Wednesday evening, but it’s hard to envisage how such a turn-around can be achieved, in such a short space of time, as there generally appeared to be quite a difference between the two sides here today.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Steve Springett
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
The score-line pretty much sums up this afternoon’s proceedings, and Ashford Town’s current position in the football firmament in general. We were comprehensively beaten today, against a young Whitstable team that was bottom of the league, and, what’s more, we were outplayed, particularly in the first half. There is no doubt that Ashford’s conquerors are currently among the very weakest sides in the division, since, prior to their last-minute victory in yet another relegation six-pointer, on Tuesday, Whitstable had lost twelve of their previous 14 games, drawing the other two. What was especially disappointing about today’s pasting was that it came on the back of two very encouraging away performances against teams from higher up the table, in Chatham Town and Burgess Hill Town.
This was billed as being the second match in a series of three consecutive “six-pointers”, including the game at home to Walton Casuals last Wednesday, and the “return” game against Whitstable at The Homelands next Wednesday – although the postponement of the Walton game in mid-week means that we are down to just the two head-to-heads with The Oystermen, provided that the pitch is fit for purpose in a few days’ time. The six points in five games must have come as a huge relief to Manager Mark Munday and everyone at The Belmont, as they lift Whitstable out of the relegation zone – to one place above Ashford Town, in fact, who now sink to second-bottom, two points behind Whitstable, but with a game in hand.
This is all a complete contrast to the situation and atmosphere on my previous (and first) visit to this ground – that was on a Tuesday night back in February of this year, when the pre-match questions were: “Are we going to go top of the table tonight ?”, “When was the last time we were top of the league ?”, etc. The 4-1 defeat on that occasion turned out to be the first crack in the dam, after which it came to light that the players weren’t being paid, and ………. well, you know the story – and the consequence has become a season of struggle against relegation, such as we are seeing right now.
At least I had the opportunity to see The Belmont Ground in daylight this time – and it confirmed my impressions in February of it being a cosy and compact venue, squeezed into quite a tight space, deep in a residential area of Whitstable. The main stand is pretty unique. It’s of decent size, but there is no individual seating – just five large, wooden steps, which were actually more comfortable to sit on than they looked. On the opposite side of the pitch is what looks like a miniature bungalow, which houses the dressing-rooms, with the home side’s dug-out at the front. Next to this is quite a nice bar. Behind one of the goals is a narrow area of terracing, covered by an old-looking canopy, and there was a much smaller, but new, shelter behind the goal at the opposite end, which was the end that Ashford Town were supposed to be attacking in the first half.
The car park isn’t much to write home about, as it is a combination of grass and gravel, with the track leading from the road having pot-holes at regular intervals – but it’s better than having to park on the road, as we do for some away fixtures, and we were grateful for it. Today it accommodated Whitstable Town’s biggest home gate of the season – 195 – which, naturally, was swelled by another good turn-out of Ashford supporters, (who, as I’ve bleated about before, surely deserve better than was served up this afternoon).
There was no radical difference in personnel from the eleven brave Ashford soldiers that fought through the rain for 90 minutes at Burgess Hill last week. In fact, the one change was that Danny Lye was back this afternoon – and wore the captain’s arm-band – and Joe Fuller was absent, with a foot injury. That was the one change to the starting line-up, so it necessitated a change in formation, with Steve Lovell sending Ashford out in a 4-5-1 format. The cast, in position order, was: Darren Ibrahim in goal; a back four of Carl Harrold, Lee Hockey, Laurence Harvey and Steve Springett; a midfield quintet of Nick Smith, Danny Lye, Ryan Briggs, Ronnie Dolan and Mitch Sherwood; with Mark Lovell on his own up front. (I sometimes get the impression that Steve Lovell opts for a team formation purely on the basis of which members of his first team squad are available, but I’m not trained as a mind reader, so I won’t dwell on this further). On the bench, (which was utilised this time), we had goalkeeper Dan Mason, Bryan Pearce, Matt Newman (who missed the Burgess Hill game due to a bout of food poisoning), Dan Scorer and Sam Conlon. Paul Jones continues to be absent, due to what are being described as “under-carriage problems”.
A couple of interesting ex Ashford Town names in the Whitstable squad these days are Dan Tanner and Joe Hitchings. Whilst there was no sign of Dan at The Belmont today, Joe Hitchings put in a good performance – and it was actually nice to see him fulfilling some of the potential that he obviously had, as a sixteen year-old, when he was at The Homelands.
After last week’s soaking, and the generally wet weather in recent weeks, it’s nice to report that today it stayed dry – and it was also fairly still, so there was no breeze to affect the play – but it was a shade on the fresh side, so we are approaching the stage of the season when a match bulletin needs to incorporate a Pink Report. I’m pleased to say that our boys were all uniformly turned out in short-sleeved yellow shirts, laughing in the face of the elements – but it was the Lino on the near side who started the match wearing gloves, which must be the first instance of this in recorded history.
The game started with a chance for each team in the opening couple of minutes. Nick Smith went on a promising run down the left wing. He broke through a tackle on the edge of the area, before pulling the ball back to Steve Springett, whose high cross was cleared. Seconds later, at the other end, Darren Ibrahim half came for a cross from the Whitstable left, before thinking better of it and allowing it to pass over his head, and to the opposite side of the pitch. When the cross eventually came over from the far right, it found Tom Parker, whose shot went just over the bar. Into the fifth minute, and Darren Ibrahim was forced into making a good save. A shot from outside the penalty area by the home side’s much-touted Dan Wisker was heavily deflected, and fell into the path of Ben Smith, about twelve yards out, and just to the right of goal – but Darren did well to save with his legs. Lee Hockey headed the resulting corner clear.
Throughout the first half, it was Whitstable, in their red shirts, white shorts and red sockies, who passed the ball and kept possession. This contrasted with Ashford’s more one-touch approach to the game this afternoon – that means taking one touch and then giving the ball to the opposition ! Our best chance of scoring seemed, throughout the afternoon, to be from a set-piece, and, in fairness to the lads, they had enough possession in the opposition’s half to create plenty of such opportunities, but, whether it was due to a lack of quality of delivery, or a lack of presence in the penalty area, even this never really looked likely to happen. Lee Hockey had his chances to deliver long throws into the Whitstable penalty area, but with little joy.
Ashford had a promising free-kick situation in the 14th minute, after a foul on Danny Lye, on the corner of Whitstable’s penalty area. Ryan Briggs curled his kick over the red defensive wall, but his effort was headed clear, for a corner on the left, by Gary Sayer. Briggo went across to take the corner, and played a one-two with Mark Lovell, who came short, in order to give himself a better angle for a cross – he eventually found Lee Hockey, who was unable to direct his header. Two minutes later, the visitors had another free-kick, after Mark Lovell was pulled back by Stephen Lloyd, having latched onto a loose ball in midfield. This earnt Lloyd the only yellow card that Referee Neil Baker was to hand out this afternoon – but the free-kick was headed clear by the Whitstable defence.
The impressive Joe Hitchings tried a snap shot from well outside the area, which flashed across the face of goal, in the 19th minute, but The Oystermen went ahead just two minutes later. Lee Hockey headed a high cross behind for a corner, on the Whitstable left. As the resulting cross came in, the home side’s skipper, Sam Denly, met it on the run, and powered the ball into the net, with a bullet header. The Whitstable players celebrated the goal with all the enthusiasm that had marked their play – so there was no doubt that the team at the bottom of the league this morning was up for the fight. Going a goal down was also a pretty ominous development for Ashford, as they had managed to create precisely nothing up to this point.
Things briefly appeared to get even worse for Ashford, in the 25th minute. An ambitious shot from half-way inside the Ashford half was intercepted, about 20 yards out, by Dave Cory, who turned and stuck the ball in the back of the net – but he was well off-side, and the “goal” was ruled out.
On the half hour mark - by which time Ashford had abandoned the 4-5-1 format, and Nick Smith was playing alongside Mark Lovell in a 4-4-2 set-up – a Lee Hockey long throw did cause a flutter in the Whitstable penalty area, when it was met by a Danny Lye back-header, but the ball was cleared. In the 35th minute, Mitch Sherwood went on a good run through the central midfield area; he passed the baton to Nick Smith, on the left, but the Whitstable defence forced the ball out for a corner. Ryan Briggs’ cross, from the left, failed to find an Ashford head in the area, and the ball was cleared, for a throw-in. Lee Hockey delivered the ball into the penalty area, and it was again cleared, but only as far as Ryan Briggs, who was waiting just outside the area – Briggo dinked the ball back in, on the volley, but Laurence Harvey’s flicked header went straight to goalkeeper Kevin Fewell.
The home side was forced into making an unscheduled substitution, in the 37th minute, when right-back Gareth Cornhill had to be replaced by Dean Grant – and I can report that Grant was wearing gloves, so became the first genuine entry in the Pink Register for the season !
A minute later, Mark Lovell had a very speculative attempt at goal, when he turned and shot, from well outside the area, but his effort was always going well over the bar. (I don’t know how much our boys practice shooting in training, but their shots go over the bar more often than George Best’s elbow).
The writing was really on the wall once Whitstable had scored their second goal, in the 42nd minute. This, once again, came from a set piece, but the danger originated when Laurence Harvey was drawn across to the touchline to cover the left-winger, and didn’t quite get there. Young Laurence once again looked very comfortable at this level, but he did make one or two errors – which is only to be expected, at this stage of his career. On this occasion, the consequence was a dangerous cross into the Ashford penalty area, but Steve Springett did extremely well, facing his own goal, to nod the ball behind for a corner, on the right. The ensuing cross was swung in, left-footed, and then was either flicked on by a Whitstable head, or deflected from an Ashford head, at the near post. Anyway, the result was that the ball fell at the feet of centre-half Sam Denly, in a way that managers and players dream of – furthermore, he couldn’t have been in more space if he’d been a leper with a bell around his neck, but you have to say that the Oystermen’s skipper took full advantage of the situation, and smashed the ball into the roof of the net. So it was 2-0 to Whitstable, and two goals for Sam Denly, to add to the one that he had previously scored this season, against Tonbridge Angels in the League Cup.
Ashford did bounce straight back at the home side, in search of an all-important goal before half-time, with Mitch Sherwood making a good run down the left, and winning a corner. This was taken by Ryan Briggs, but Steve Springett could only loop his header over the bar. Then, with normal time in the first half almost spent, Lee Hockey launched another long throw into the Whitstable area, but Sam Denly showed his effectiveness in a defensive context, and headed clear. The final chance of the half, however, fell to the home side, in the second minute of injury time, when Joe Hitchings’ shot from outside the penalty area was deflected behind for a corner, on the right. This was slung in by Tom Parker, but Darren Ibrahim made a good catch. (Actually, it must be said that Darren looked very solid this afternoon, so, whatever the outcome of any post-mortem on today’s performance, blaming the goalkeeper simply isn’t an option on this occasion; in fact, he couldn’t be blamed for any of the three goals, and was to make at least one outstanding save in the second half).
So, as Mrs MKC went on a long, half-time hike to find the only toilets at The Belmont, my mind went back to a not dissimilar footballing experience on Tuesday night, when I paid my first visit to Stadium MK, and saw MK Dons lose 3-4 at home to Carlisle United. (I know, I know, I know – but I had the offer of a complimentary ticket, so what can a man do ?!). AFC Franchise were actually 0-3 down after 20 minutes, and I reflected, at the time, that it was just like watching Ashford Town, (except that, on Tuesday, there were two teams out there who couldn’t defend). I loved the chant from the understandably small band of Carlisle supporters, at the time: “Are you Wigan, in disguise ?”.
Back to the World of Dreams, then, and, having failed to string two passes together during the first 45 minutes, Ashford noticeably improved this aspect of their game in the second half – they also came out of the little bungalow with a renewed sense of purpose, (which was, after all, not much to ask). Just two minutes after the break, the lads won a corner, on the left. This was taken by Ryan Briggs, and his cross was met by the head of Danny Lye, but deflected off a Whitstable head, for another corner, on the same side – this was punched clear by Kevin Fewell. Lyesy then showed the other aspect of his game, when he gave the ball away in the centre circle – whereupon Joe Hitchings sprayed the ball wide, to Dan Wisker, who immediately attacked the penalty area, in the inside-right channel. Darren Ibrahim did well to come out and thwart him, diving at his feet.
Ashford created their one and only chance from open play in the 53rd minute, and it was no surprise that it was Nicholas Frederick Smith who was on the end of this, as he had looked lively throughout the game, and as likely as anybody in a yellow shirt to make an impact on the home defence. After latching onto a through-ball, Nick hit his shot well, but Kevin Fewell made an excellent save, palming the ball over the bar.
Whitstable’s third goal came on the hour mark, and was a demonstration of the quality that we let go when Joe Hitchings left the Club. Joe picked the ball up just outside the Ashford penalty area, and fed the ball through to “Whiskers”, who was just inside the area. After a challenge from Laurence Harvey, the ball broke to Joe, who was following up his initial pass, and he calmly slotted the ball past Darren Ibrahim, and into the corner of the net.
Right-back Carl Harrold responded with a pacy run down the right wing, in the 64th minute, which involved a long “one-two” with Nick Smith, but was rewarded with nothing more than a corner, which came to nothing. From the resulting break, Dave Cory, one of Whitstable’s survivors from their 4-1 victory back in February, picked the ball up on the half-way line. He turned, and, unhindered by a combination of Laurence Harvey and Ronnie Dolan, made progress towards the Ashford goal. He checked onto his right foot, but his shot was straight at Darren Ibrahim.
By the 67th minute, Steve Lovell simply had to do something, and, with absolutely nothing to lose, made a triple substitution. Basically, Steve did what many Ashford Town watchers have been calling for for some time – he got rid of the midfield, as far as he was able. Off went skipper Danny Lye, Mitch Sherwood and Ronnie Dolan, to be replaced by new signing Matt Newman, Dan Scorer and Sam Conlon.
If there is anything positive that can be gained from today’s debacle, it is that all three of these substitutes looked better than the men they had replaced. Sam Conlon is a striker from the Reserves, who is slightly built, but looked lively and intelligent up front with Smith and Lovell, in a three-man attack, and immediately seemed to have a good understanding with Dan Scorer – who doesn’t appear to be the most mobile, but looks to be a skilful player with the ball at his feet. Matt Newman, who comes to us from Tunbridge Wells, injected some energy into central midfield, and looks to be a good acquisition.
There were some good passing movements from the beaten visitors during the final quarter of the game, mostly down the left flank, and with Steve Springett as the lynchpin. One such move, in the 75th minute, ended with Ryan Briggs blasting a shot high and wide, from about 20 yards out, but it was at least encouraging to see Ashford actually creating the opening. Soon after, more good Ashford Town pressure resulted in a couple of Lee Hockey long throw opportunities; both of these came to nothing, with Sam Conlon shooting wide, after the second of these. In the 80th minute, another long throw from Hockey resulted in an attempt at a spectacular overhead kick by Nick Smith, but the effort went well wide.
Prior to this belated, and largely unexpected, pressure on the home defences, Darren Ibrahim had had his moment of glory, in the 70th minute. A snap shot from Joe Hitchings, from outside the penalty area, after a half-clearance from Ryan Briggs, seemed to be curling just inside the far post, but Darren made a flying, diving save to his right, tipping the ball wide, for what should have been a corner. It was a travesty of justice that Referee Neil Baker gave Darren no credit for this, as he awarded a goal-kick, but everybody else in the ground appreciated that it had been a fine save. This also gives me the opportunity to say that Neil Baker otherwise had a very fine game.
Nick Smith, who was certainly one man who never gave up trying throughout the entire 90 minutes, did some good work on the right flank, in the 86th minute, and won a corner. This was taken by Steve Springett, and it was an Ashford head that got on the end of his cross, but the ball was cleared off the Whitstable line, to preserve the home side’s clean sheet – only their third of the season. With 90 minutes played, Dave Cory once again led a break, and got the ball wide, to Dean Grant, with his gloves, on the right. The No.14 cut inside, but his left-foot shot was comfortably saved by Darren Ibrahim. As the game went into injury time, Ashford had another couple of corners, to bring their tally for the afternoon to ten, (compared with Whitstable’s five), but both were punched clear by goalkeeper Fewell.
Looking at results elsewhere today, to assess the sum total of the damage that was done in terms of the campaign to avoid relegation, there was a defeat for both Chipstead and Eastbourne Town, but Horsham YMCA got a valuable point away to Croydon Athletic – and it really does seem that two from those three teams plus Whitstable and Ashford will finish in the relegation places at the end of the season. Looking at the league table, we are a point clear of Chipstead, the bottom team, and two points behind Whitstable, but with a game in hand – but Whitstable, having been the only team with a worse goal difference than us this morning, now have a goal difference of -23, compared with Ashford’s -27 !
One possible glimmer of light for Ashford Town is that only five of our 16 league games, to date, have been at home – and our home form has certainly been better than our away form. We might also seek solace in the fact that, having failed to beat Whitstable at The Belmont, in three attempts, since their promotion to the Ryman League from the Kent League, we have beaten them in both games at The Homelands, by 3-1 and 4-0. Weather and ground permitting, we’ll have a chance to do so very soon, next Wednesday evening, but it’s hard to envisage how such a turn-around can be achieved, in such a short space of time, as there generally appeared to be quite a difference between the two sides here today.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Steve Springett
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Burgess Hill Town v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 21st of November 2009.
Burgess Hill Town 2 Ashford Town 2
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Ashford Town travelled to Burgess Hill, in West Sussex, occupying a place in the relegation zone – second-bottom, with only Whitstable Town below us. Our hosts, on the other hand, are about as mid-table as you can get: won five, lost five, and with a goal difference of exactly zero. However, there were reasons for the AMb Travel-borne party of supporters to be optimistic. If we ignore the mid-week cup defeat at the hands of Tilbury – and, with a record low crowd of 61, it seems that that’s what most people did – Ashford were coming off a good performance away at Chatham, probably a side of similar strength to Burgess Hill, where a solid defensive performance enabled the lads to come away with a well-deserved 0-0 draw. Well, it’s fair to say that this was also a richly deserved point fought for away from home – but the most pleasing thing was that, as well as looking fairly secure at the back, Ashford also looked capable of scoring, throughout the match, so we’re certainly starting to look more like a football team now.
The performance and the point were all the more creditable for the fact that we had a few youngsters on duty this afternoon. Experienced personnel missing were Danny Lye, Paul Jones and Toby Ashmore; Danny Lye was unable to get to the game today, whilst Jonah is still on the sick list and Toby was serving a one-match suspension. Added to that, Ross Morley is currently suspended for something he did in Sunday League football, whilst there was no sign of Matt Newman, of Tunbridge Wells, who played in the Tilbury defeat, presumably as a trialist.
Laurence Harvey also played in mid-week, and I’m pleased to say that he retained his place in central defence alongside Lee Hockey, who was captain this afternoon, becoming the fifth player to captain Ashford this season, to my knowledge. (The arm-band must have done Lee the power of good, as he put in a commanding performance today). Steve Springett, the Man of the Match for the previous two games, retained his place at left-back, having extended his loan period from Gravesend for a further month, and right-back Carl Harrold completed the back four in front of Darren Ibrahim. There was also a starting place for young Ronnie Dolan, who partnered Ryan Briggs in central midfield, with Mitchell Sherwood on the right, and Nick Smith on the left. In Paul Jones’s continued absence, Mark Lovell and Joe Fuller were the front two. There was also plenty of youth on the bench – apart from the more experienced Bryan Pearce, we had goalkeeper Dan Mason, winger Dan Scorer and striker Sam Conlon, all from Lee Ealham’s Reserves squad. However, for the second away match in succession, Steve Lovell made no substitutions, sticking to the starting eleven for the entire 90 minutes – which illustrates just how well the lads performed as a unit.
Glancing at the Burgess Hill team sheet, there were, as usual, the ominous names of Steve Harper, The Hillians’ excellent, goal-scoring midfielder, and Danny Gainsford, their gigantic centre-half. Gainsford was mostly assigned to marking Joe Fuller, which he did successfully for pretty much the whole game; (when they went up for the ball in the air, young Joe looked like a puppy jumping up against someone’s leg !). But Harper’s the boy. With him in the side, Burgess Hill will always have a half-decent team. He’s on the four-goal mark already this season, including a hat-trick against Fleet Town.
I enjoy coming to Burgess Hill, probably because the footy ground is located on the edge of a housing estate that is very much like the one I grew up in in South Ashford; (The Crusader pub on a Friday night was always a bit like Millwall on a Saturday afternoon – but it was home !). I also have happy memories of Ashford coming to Leylands Park, and walking off with three points, on each of my two previous visits. In 2006-7, we won 0-2, with Kenny Jarrett-Elliott scoring the second, and we won 2-3 here the following season, with Danny Lye smashing home the winner in the 82nd minute. (I missed last year’s 1-1 draw).
This season’s visit was certainly character-building. The weathermen forecast wet and windy conditions, and that was exactly what we got, with the weather getting steadily worse as the game wore on. After a dry trip down from Milton Keynes, there were just one or two spots of rain in the breeze as we left The King’s Head, after a decent pub lunch – I had steak & kidney pudding, and Mrs MKC had ham & eggs – and that was how the weather was as the teams kicked off, under dark, overcast skies. However, it didn’t take Ashford long to catch a cold, as we found ourselves a goal down very early on – not for the first time this season. After Mitch Sherwood had gone on a promising run down the right wing, before planting his cross into the arms of goalkeeper Joe Adams, the home side attacked down the left, through 19 year-old winger Max Barnard. The No.11 cut inside, and his right-footed shot was deflected into the area, into the path of a Burgess Hill player, whose cross-cum-shot was tipped high into the air by Darren Ibrahim. I must confess that I thought the ball was sailing behind the goal for a corner, but Danny Curd had his whey, and charged in to head home from close range. This was Curd’s ninth goal of the season – and Ashford had found themselves 1-0 down as early as the second minute.
In some games this season, an early goal conceded by Ashford has soon led to another, and then, sometimes, another, so we feared the worst as the home side sought to press home their advantage. In the seventh minute, Lee Hockey did well to cut out a cross, at the expense of a corner, on the right. This was slung into the penalty area, and there were several scuffed attempts at goal, before Carl Harrold blocked Danny Curd’s shot at the far post, from close range, for another corner. The resulting cross was well caught by Darren Ibrahim, who appears to be growing in confidence with every game.
Soon, though, Ashford got a foot-hold in the match, and went forward, applying a bit of pressure at the other end. In the eighth minute, we won a corner. This was taken short, and Mark Lovell managed to get on the end of the cross that eventually came in, but his shot was blocked. Mark is yet to get on the score-sheet since coming back from his long-term knee injury, but he has brought plenty to the team since his return. He stitches play together well, gives us a bit of presence in the air, and is willing to get into wide positions. In the twelfth minute, Mark did some good work near the right touch-line, and put in a good cross, but the sliding-in Smudger Smith just failed to get on the end of it.
A minute later, Steve Harper very nearly extended the home side’s lead. At the end of a well-constructed move, he lobbed Darren Ibrahim, who deflected the ball upwards with his finger tips. The ball was about to drop into the net, first bounce, but Lee Hockey, running back, did tremendously well to hook the ball off the line. Then, in the 15th minute, Harper again showed his quality, when he delivered a curling, right-footed free-kick into the Ashford goalmouth, from the left touchline. Although this was a difficult ball to deal with, Darren Ibrahim gathered safely – after some initial juggling, for which we can probably forgive him, on this occasion.
As we reached the half-way point of the first half, the threatened rain materialised. This wasn’t (yet) torrential, but it was steady, and was driven across the ground, from left to right, as Darren Ibrahim looked out from his goal. The one, decent-sized stand at Leylands Park would have given good shelter to this horizontal rain – but we remained on the opposite side, sharing the soaking with the two benches, which, when you think about it, is a level of stupidity that could get a man discharged from the Army ! However, there was quite an entertaining game of football out there, to take our mind off the weather, and the visitors - playing in the green & white home kit, to avoid a clash with Burgess Hill’s yellow and black halved shirts, with sleeves reversed – held their own well, and launched just as many attacks in the first half as the home side.
Ashford’s best chance during this period came in the 28th minute. Darren Ibrahim, who kicked pretty well today, suggesting that his groin strain is currently holding up, sent a long goal-kick into The Hillians’ half. Joe Fuller got up well, flicking the ball on with his head, finding Mitchell Sherwood in the inside-right position. Urged on by the Ashford bench, and having just the one defender to beat, Mitch jinked, to transfer the ball onto his right foot, and then sent in a firm shot, on target, but straight at goalkeeper Joe Adams.
There was then joy, in the 39th minute, as Nicholas Smith put the ball into the home side’s net – but then frustration, as the “goal” was ruled out for off-side. The chance came from a corner, on the left. The hard-working Ryan Briggs took the kick short, to Mark Lovell, who returned the ball to Briggo, providing him with a wider angle. Briggo’s cross was then headed across goal, from the far post, but Smith was, apparently, a yard off-side when he nodded the ball in from close range.
Mark Lovell popped up on the left flank in the 43rd minute, and, after cutting inside, sent in a right-footed shot, but this went over the bar. Then, as the game went into the one minute of first-half injury time, Nick Smith went on a raid down the left; he passed the ball inside, to Ronnie Dolan, whose low shot was fairly comfortably saved by Adams, diving to his right.
So Ashford went in at half time 1-0 down, but there had been no suggestion of an impending landslide defeat, such as those we had witnessed earlier on in the season. On the contrary, we were left thinking that the boys might well get something out of the game, if they could only make a breakthrough, and stick the ball in the net.
Well, we didn’t have to wait long for an equaliser, as the visitors dominated the early exchanges after the break. In the 48th minute, Lee Hockey sent in a long throw, on the right, deep into the Burgess Hill half; this had a low, fast delivery, and Mark Lovell was able to flash a backward header towards Joe Adams’s goal, but the ‘keeper made a brilliant save, catching the ball cleanly, in spite of having very little time in which to react. Two minutes later, Ashford had a corner on the right, which was curled in, left-footed, by Steve Springett. Lee Hockey rose to meet the ball, but his well-timed header was blocked by Adams. The clearance was picked up by Ryan Briggs, 20 yards out, and he drilled a low shot, through the crowded penalty area, into the far corner of the net. This was greeted with yells of delight, both on the pitch and from behind the goal, as Briggo scored his first goal of the season. He only scored three goals last season, and his strike-rate over the two seasons is now equivalent to a goal every 15 games – but Ryan thoroughly deserved to get on the score-sheet this afternoon, as it capped a good, all-round performance.
This was also Ashford’s first goal in open play since the 2-2 draw at home to Dulwich Hamlet, back in October, but, without making any naff analogies to buses, another one came along just seven minutes later, in the 57th minute. An attack down the left flank culminated with Lee Hockey lofting a high, curling cross into the Burgess Hill penalty area. This was always going to be awkward for Joe Adams, and his life was made no easier by the presence of Mark Lovell. As the two men challenged in the air, the ball popped up again. Mitch Sherwood came charging in, and his momentum was always going to make him favourite to get to the ball – and he nodded it into the top corner of the net, for his fourth of the season. Suddenly, Ashford were 1-2 up, and scoring goals seemed, at last, to be not only possible, but distinctly doable !
But Burgess Hill were by no means a beaten side. They definitely have quality up front, and looked well capable of scoring for the remainder of the game. In fact, they hit back hard at Ashford on going behind, and Darren Ibrahim was forced to make a good save, pushing the ball around the post, for a corner, with the 1-2 lead just a minute old ! He then made a good catch from the resulting cross.
By the hour mark, the weather had deteriorated considerably, with the wind continuing to drive the steady rain into the plastic dug-outs, and into the face of Steve Lovell and the few idiots who were still standing on that side of the ground. Lovell actually looked a bit like Jack Hawkins in The Cruel Sea – saturated, but gazing defiantly through the onslaught of the elements, with his hands clasped firmly behind his back.
In the 62nd minute, Max Barnard went on a dangerous run down the left. He sent in a deep cross to the far post, where Steve Harper headed the ball into the Ashford goalmouth – but Lee Hockey was there to clear. The breach was made, however, five minutes later, and it has to be said that the home side equalised with what was probably the best goal of the game. A quick, flowing move by The Hillians, from left to right, found Lloyd Cotton on the edge of the area, and he sent a curling shot around Darren Ibrahim and into the net, giving Darren no chance. I’m surprised to note, in the excellent match day programme, that this is only Cotton’s second goal of the season.
As the game wore on, and the weather worsened further, the match developed into something rather more attritional, and it became all about determination, hard work and concentrating on not making a mistake - having said that, there were still chances at both ends. In the 70th minute, right-back Carl Harrold once again reminded us of the talent he has, when he went on a run through central midfield. This run was continued by Joe Fuller, deep into the Burgess Hill penalty area, but the home defence forced the ball out for a corner, on the right. Steve Springett once again came across to take the kick, and found Mark Lovell, in the centre of the penalty area. Mark got up well, and, in spite of his momentum taking him backwards, got plenty of power into his header – but the ball went just wide of the post. It’ll come ! Three minutes later, a good, flowing move from the visitors ended with Joe Fuller having his shot blocked, from an acute angle; soon after, Darren Ibrahim was in action again, making a good save from a header, at his near post.
Shortly after Hillians Manager Gary Croydon had made the only substitution of the game, when he replaced Max Barnard with Jon Lansdale, there was a major threat to the Ashford goal. This came in the 81st minute. The details of the incident are unclear, but there was the most almighty goalmouth scramble, during which the ball was cleared off the Ashford line, not once, but twice. The end-result was a corner to the home side, and Steve Springett being left in a heap on the wet turf – which at least gave temporary Physio Rachel Long a chance to strut her stuff, having remained on the bench for the duration of the Chatham match.
Nick Smith looked to be Ashford’s most dangerous player in the closing stages, having battled well, on the left, for the entire game. With two minutes of normal time remaining, he led a break for the visitors, down the left touchline, after a Jon Lansdale free-kick had been cleared, but the Burgess Hill defence put the ball behind, for a corner. This was taken by Ryan Briggs, but came to nowt. Smudger then blotted his copy book by getting himself yellow-carded, after squaring up aggressively to Lloyd Cotton, who was also booked, in a forehead-to-forehead confrontation.
As the game entered the second of the three minutes of injury time, with the rain still drifting across the ground, Steve Lovell showed a slightly sadistic side to his character, when he called out to his soaked and exhausted players: “Dig in, boys ! Last 20 minutes !”. Of course, he was smiling when he said it, and he was smiling even more when Referee Chris Phillips blew the final whistle, as this was a much-needed point gained.
Ashford knew they needed to get something out of this game, as two of our rivals in the relegation scrap, Horsham YMCA and Whitstable Town, were playing each other today, just a few miles up the A23, so one or both of those teams were going to pick up a point or three. As it turned out, it was YMCA who took all three points, with a 1-0 victory. Biggest shock at the bottom of Ryman Division One South, however, was Eastbourne Town’s 2-0 win at home to Dulwich Hamlet, but, with Chipstead losing, today’s point at Leylands Park was enough to lift Ashford up one place, and out of the relegation zone. Next, we have three crunch games, all against teams in the bottom six – one at home to Walton Casuals, on Wednesday, and then two, home and away, against Whitstable, (all weather permitting, of course). If we can’t get at least four points from those three games, then, quite frankly, we don’t deserve to stay in this division.
It was a good performance by all ten men in a green & white shirt this afternoon – and the goalie, in a grey shirt, also looked pretty solid again, in spite of one or two minor fumbles. Young Laurence Harvey might have been mistaken for a 28 year-old out there today, as he looked completely at home in central defence, and Ronnie Dolan also looked very lively, and didn’t let anybody down – but it was the more senior players who stepped up to the plate this afternoon, and the two who were particularly outstanding were Ryan Briggs and Lee Hockey. Briggo just got the nod as Man of the Match, but Lee probably played his best game to date for Ashford Town.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Briggo
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Ashford Town travelled to Burgess Hill, in West Sussex, occupying a place in the relegation zone – second-bottom, with only Whitstable Town below us. Our hosts, on the other hand, are about as mid-table as you can get: won five, lost five, and with a goal difference of exactly zero. However, there were reasons for the AMb Travel-borne party of supporters to be optimistic. If we ignore the mid-week cup defeat at the hands of Tilbury – and, with a record low crowd of 61, it seems that that’s what most people did – Ashford were coming off a good performance away at Chatham, probably a side of similar strength to Burgess Hill, where a solid defensive performance enabled the lads to come away with a well-deserved 0-0 draw. Well, it’s fair to say that this was also a richly deserved point fought for away from home – but the most pleasing thing was that, as well as looking fairly secure at the back, Ashford also looked capable of scoring, throughout the match, so we’re certainly starting to look more like a football team now.
The performance and the point were all the more creditable for the fact that we had a few youngsters on duty this afternoon. Experienced personnel missing were Danny Lye, Paul Jones and Toby Ashmore; Danny Lye was unable to get to the game today, whilst Jonah is still on the sick list and Toby was serving a one-match suspension. Added to that, Ross Morley is currently suspended for something he did in Sunday League football, whilst there was no sign of Matt Newman, of Tunbridge Wells, who played in the Tilbury defeat, presumably as a trialist.
Laurence Harvey also played in mid-week, and I’m pleased to say that he retained his place in central defence alongside Lee Hockey, who was captain this afternoon, becoming the fifth player to captain Ashford this season, to my knowledge. (The arm-band must have done Lee the power of good, as he put in a commanding performance today). Steve Springett, the Man of the Match for the previous two games, retained his place at left-back, having extended his loan period from Gravesend for a further month, and right-back Carl Harrold completed the back four in front of Darren Ibrahim. There was also a starting place for young Ronnie Dolan, who partnered Ryan Briggs in central midfield, with Mitchell Sherwood on the right, and Nick Smith on the left. In Paul Jones’s continued absence, Mark Lovell and Joe Fuller were the front two. There was also plenty of youth on the bench – apart from the more experienced Bryan Pearce, we had goalkeeper Dan Mason, winger Dan Scorer and striker Sam Conlon, all from Lee Ealham’s Reserves squad. However, for the second away match in succession, Steve Lovell made no substitutions, sticking to the starting eleven for the entire 90 minutes – which illustrates just how well the lads performed as a unit.
Glancing at the Burgess Hill team sheet, there were, as usual, the ominous names of Steve Harper, The Hillians’ excellent, goal-scoring midfielder, and Danny Gainsford, their gigantic centre-half. Gainsford was mostly assigned to marking Joe Fuller, which he did successfully for pretty much the whole game; (when they went up for the ball in the air, young Joe looked like a puppy jumping up against someone’s leg !). But Harper’s the boy. With him in the side, Burgess Hill will always have a half-decent team. He’s on the four-goal mark already this season, including a hat-trick against Fleet Town.
I enjoy coming to Burgess Hill, probably because the footy ground is located on the edge of a housing estate that is very much like the one I grew up in in South Ashford; (The Crusader pub on a Friday night was always a bit like Millwall on a Saturday afternoon – but it was home !). I also have happy memories of Ashford coming to Leylands Park, and walking off with three points, on each of my two previous visits. In 2006-7, we won 0-2, with Kenny Jarrett-Elliott scoring the second, and we won 2-3 here the following season, with Danny Lye smashing home the winner in the 82nd minute. (I missed last year’s 1-1 draw).
This season’s visit was certainly character-building. The weathermen forecast wet and windy conditions, and that was exactly what we got, with the weather getting steadily worse as the game wore on. After a dry trip down from Milton Keynes, there were just one or two spots of rain in the breeze as we left The King’s Head, after a decent pub lunch – I had steak & kidney pudding, and Mrs MKC had ham & eggs – and that was how the weather was as the teams kicked off, under dark, overcast skies. However, it didn’t take Ashford long to catch a cold, as we found ourselves a goal down very early on – not for the first time this season. After Mitch Sherwood had gone on a promising run down the right wing, before planting his cross into the arms of goalkeeper Joe Adams, the home side attacked down the left, through 19 year-old winger Max Barnard. The No.11 cut inside, and his right-footed shot was deflected into the area, into the path of a Burgess Hill player, whose cross-cum-shot was tipped high into the air by Darren Ibrahim. I must confess that I thought the ball was sailing behind the goal for a corner, but Danny Curd had his whey, and charged in to head home from close range. This was Curd’s ninth goal of the season – and Ashford had found themselves 1-0 down as early as the second minute.
In some games this season, an early goal conceded by Ashford has soon led to another, and then, sometimes, another, so we feared the worst as the home side sought to press home their advantage. In the seventh minute, Lee Hockey did well to cut out a cross, at the expense of a corner, on the right. This was slung into the penalty area, and there were several scuffed attempts at goal, before Carl Harrold blocked Danny Curd’s shot at the far post, from close range, for another corner. The resulting cross was well caught by Darren Ibrahim, who appears to be growing in confidence with every game.
Soon, though, Ashford got a foot-hold in the match, and went forward, applying a bit of pressure at the other end. In the eighth minute, we won a corner. This was taken short, and Mark Lovell managed to get on the end of the cross that eventually came in, but his shot was blocked. Mark is yet to get on the score-sheet since coming back from his long-term knee injury, but he has brought plenty to the team since his return. He stitches play together well, gives us a bit of presence in the air, and is willing to get into wide positions. In the twelfth minute, Mark did some good work near the right touch-line, and put in a good cross, but the sliding-in Smudger Smith just failed to get on the end of it.
A minute later, Steve Harper very nearly extended the home side’s lead. At the end of a well-constructed move, he lobbed Darren Ibrahim, who deflected the ball upwards with his finger tips. The ball was about to drop into the net, first bounce, but Lee Hockey, running back, did tremendously well to hook the ball off the line. Then, in the 15th minute, Harper again showed his quality, when he delivered a curling, right-footed free-kick into the Ashford goalmouth, from the left touchline. Although this was a difficult ball to deal with, Darren Ibrahim gathered safely – after some initial juggling, for which we can probably forgive him, on this occasion.
As we reached the half-way point of the first half, the threatened rain materialised. This wasn’t (yet) torrential, but it was steady, and was driven across the ground, from left to right, as Darren Ibrahim looked out from his goal. The one, decent-sized stand at Leylands Park would have given good shelter to this horizontal rain – but we remained on the opposite side, sharing the soaking with the two benches, which, when you think about it, is a level of stupidity that could get a man discharged from the Army ! However, there was quite an entertaining game of football out there, to take our mind off the weather, and the visitors - playing in the green & white home kit, to avoid a clash with Burgess Hill’s yellow and black halved shirts, with sleeves reversed – held their own well, and launched just as many attacks in the first half as the home side.
Ashford’s best chance during this period came in the 28th minute. Darren Ibrahim, who kicked pretty well today, suggesting that his groin strain is currently holding up, sent a long goal-kick into The Hillians’ half. Joe Fuller got up well, flicking the ball on with his head, finding Mitchell Sherwood in the inside-right position. Urged on by the Ashford bench, and having just the one defender to beat, Mitch jinked, to transfer the ball onto his right foot, and then sent in a firm shot, on target, but straight at goalkeeper Joe Adams.
There was then joy, in the 39th minute, as Nicholas Smith put the ball into the home side’s net – but then frustration, as the “goal” was ruled out for off-side. The chance came from a corner, on the left. The hard-working Ryan Briggs took the kick short, to Mark Lovell, who returned the ball to Briggo, providing him with a wider angle. Briggo’s cross was then headed across goal, from the far post, but Smith was, apparently, a yard off-side when he nodded the ball in from close range.
Mark Lovell popped up on the left flank in the 43rd minute, and, after cutting inside, sent in a right-footed shot, but this went over the bar. Then, as the game went into the one minute of first-half injury time, Nick Smith went on a raid down the left; he passed the ball inside, to Ronnie Dolan, whose low shot was fairly comfortably saved by Adams, diving to his right.
So Ashford went in at half time 1-0 down, but there had been no suggestion of an impending landslide defeat, such as those we had witnessed earlier on in the season. On the contrary, we were left thinking that the boys might well get something out of the game, if they could only make a breakthrough, and stick the ball in the net.
Well, we didn’t have to wait long for an equaliser, as the visitors dominated the early exchanges after the break. In the 48th minute, Lee Hockey sent in a long throw, on the right, deep into the Burgess Hill half; this had a low, fast delivery, and Mark Lovell was able to flash a backward header towards Joe Adams’s goal, but the ‘keeper made a brilliant save, catching the ball cleanly, in spite of having very little time in which to react. Two minutes later, Ashford had a corner on the right, which was curled in, left-footed, by Steve Springett. Lee Hockey rose to meet the ball, but his well-timed header was blocked by Adams. The clearance was picked up by Ryan Briggs, 20 yards out, and he drilled a low shot, through the crowded penalty area, into the far corner of the net. This was greeted with yells of delight, both on the pitch and from behind the goal, as Briggo scored his first goal of the season. He only scored three goals last season, and his strike-rate over the two seasons is now equivalent to a goal every 15 games – but Ryan thoroughly deserved to get on the score-sheet this afternoon, as it capped a good, all-round performance.
This was also Ashford’s first goal in open play since the 2-2 draw at home to Dulwich Hamlet, back in October, but, without making any naff analogies to buses, another one came along just seven minutes later, in the 57th minute. An attack down the left flank culminated with Lee Hockey lofting a high, curling cross into the Burgess Hill penalty area. This was always going to be awkward for Joe Adams, and his life was made no easier by the presence of Mark Lovell. As the two men challenged in the air, the ball popped up again. Mitch Sherwood came charging in, and his momentum was always going to make him favourite to get to the ball – and he nodded it into the top corner of the net, for his fourth of the season. Suddenly, Ashford were 1-2 up, and scoring goals seemed, at last, to be not only possible, but distinctly doable !
But Burgess Hill were by no means a beaten side. They definitely have quality up front, and looked well capable of scoring for the remainder of the game. In fact, they hit back hard at Ashford on going behind, and Darren Ibrahim was forced to make a good save, pushing the ball around the post, for a corner, with the 1-2 lead just a minute old ! He then made a good catch from the resulting cross.
By the hour mark, the weather had deteriorated considerably, with the wind continuing to drive the steady rain into the plastic dug-outs, and into the face of Steve Lovell and the few idiots who were still standing on that side of the ground. Lovell actually looked a bit like Jack Hawkins in The Cruel Sea – saturated, but gazing defiantly through the onslaught of the elements, with his hands clasped firmly behind his back.
In the 62nd minute, Max Barnard went on a dangerous run down the left. He sent in a deep cross to the far post, where Steve Harper headed the ball into the Ashford goalmouth – but Lee Hockey was there to clear. The breach was made, however, five minutes later, and it has to be said that the home side equalised with what was probably the best goal of the game. A quick, flowing move by The Hillians, from left to right, found Lloyd Cotton on the edge of the area, and he sent a curling shot around Darren Ibrahim and into the net, giving Darren no chance. I’m surprised to note, in the excellent match day programme, that this is only Cotton’s second goal of the season.
As the game wore on, and the weather worsened further, the match developed into something rather more attritional, and it became all about determination, hard work and concentrating on not making a mistake - having said that, there were still chances at both ends. In the 70th minute, right-back Carl Harrold once again reminded us of the talent he has, when he went on a run through central midfield. This run was continued by Joe Fuller, deep into the Burgess Hill penalty area, but the home defence forced the ball out for a corner, on the right. Steve Springett once again came across to take the kick, and found Mark Lovell, in the centre of the penalty area. Mark got up well, and, in spite of his momentum taking him backwards, got plenty of power into his header – but the ball went just wide of the post. It’ll come ! Three minutes later, a good, flowing move from the visitors ended with Joe Fuller having his shot blocked, from an acute angle; soon after, Darren Ibrahim was in action again, making a good save from a header, at his near post.
Shortly after Hillians Manager Gary Croydon had made the only substitution of the game, when he replaced Max Barnard with Jon Lansdale, there was a major threat to the Ashford goal. This came in the 81st minute. The details of the incident are unclear, but there was the most almighty goalmouth scramble, during which the ball was cleared off the Ashford line, not once, but twice. The end-result was a corner to the home side, and Steve Springett being left in a heap on the wet turf – which at least gave temporary Physio Rachel Long a chance to strut her stuff, having remained on the bench for the duration of the Chatham match.
Nick Smith looked to be Ashford’s most dangerous player in the closing stages, having battled well, on the left, for the entire game. With two minutes of normal time remaining, he led a break for the visitors, down the left touchline, after a Jon Lansdale free-kick had been cleared, but the Burgess Hill defence put the ball behind, for a corner. This was taken by Ryan Briggs, but came to nowt. Smudger then blotted his copy book by getting himself yellow-carded, after squaring up aggressively to Lloyd Cotton, who was also booked, in a forehead-to-forehead confrontation.
As the game entered the second of the three minutes of injury time, with the rain still drifting across the ground, Steve Lovell showed a slightly sadistic side to his character, when he called out to his soaked and exhausted players: “Dig in, boys ! Last 20 minutes !”. Of course, he was smiling when he said it, and he was smiling even more when Referee Chris Phillips blew the final whistle, as this was a much-needed point gained.
Ashford knew they needed to get something out of this game, as two of our rivals in the relegation scrap, Horsham YMCA and Whitstable Town, were playing each other today, just a few miles up the A23, so one or both of those teams were going to pick up a point or three. As it turned out, it was YMCA who took all three points, with a 1-0 victory. Biggest shock at the bottom of Ryman Division One South, however, was Eastbourne Town’s 2-0 win at home to Dulwich Hamlet, but, with Chipstead losing, today’s point at Leylands Park was enough to lift Ashford up one place, and out of the relegation zone. Next, we have three crunch games, all against teams in the bottom six – one at home to Walton Casuals, on Wednesday, and then two, home and away, against Whitstable, (all weather permitting, of course). If we can’t get at least four points from those three games, then, quite frankly, we don’t deserve to stay in this division.
It was a good performance by all ten men in a green & white shirt this afternoon – and the goalie, in a grey shirt, also looked pretty solid again, in spite of one or two minor fumbles. Young Laurence Harvey might have been mistaken for a 28 year-old out there today, as he looked completely at home in central defence, and Ronnie Dolan also looked very lively, and didn’t let anybody down – but it was the more senior players who stepped up to the plate this afternoon, and the two who were particularly outstanding were Ryan Briggs and Lee Hockey. Briggo just got the nod as Man of the Match, but Lee probably played his best game to date for Ashford Town.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Briggo
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Chatham Town v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 7th of November 2009.
Chatham Town 0 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Thirteen games now gone in the season, at the start of this one, and Ryman Division One South was starting to take shape – and I think it’s probably significant that the bottom six teams in the table were also the bottom six teams in the Current Form table, and very much the sides that, on recent form, we’d expect to be involved in the relegation scrap: that’s Chipstead, Horsham YMCA, Eastbourne Town, Walton Casuals, Whitstable Town and, I’m afraid, Ashford Town. If the league table didn’t convince ourselves of that, then Ashford’s previous two performances certainly should have done – at Horsham YMCA, two Tuesdays ago, we were able to compete on equal terms, and were just edged out 2-1; at Walton & Hersham, in mid-week, we were out-matched by a mid-table team, unable to manage a single shot on target.
However, one glimmer of hope I’ve managed to detect is that Ashford’s away form, with the lads having lost every single game away from The Homelands, bar one, is far worse than our home form, since our home record is actually three wins and two draws from six matches. What dawned on me recently was that no fewer than NINE of the last twelve matches, including today’s at Maidstone Road, have been away – so we must have a few at Fortress Homelands to come !
It was certainly good to be back at Chatham, after The Chats’ ridiculous one-year exile in Ryman Division One North, and they’ve made a great start this season, lying in sixth place this morning – which has not been entirely surprising, since the signing of the excellent Brendan Cass, from Dartford, in the Summer. Looking through some old match reports, I noticed that there is just one man who played in all four matches at Maidstone Road between these sides, in the 2002-3, 2003-4, 2006-7 and 2007-8 seasons - I’ll spill the beans as to who it was, at the end of the report.
First news from the Ashford camp concerned a change in Physio. There had been rumours in mid-week that Alan Orsbourne, who has been our Sponge Man in recent weeks, was so exhausted from running on and off to attend to Mark Lovell on Tuesday – first it was Mark’s ankle, then it was his face, then it was his knee, etc. – that he would have to have a lie-down this week-end. There were also counter-rumours that Steve Lovell was planning to use Alan in a man-to-man marking role, following Mark around the pitch, with his bag. In the end, neither was the case, as Alan was due to attend a physio course – so in stepped Rachel Long, who is one of the so-called Physy Fillies, a group of trainee physiotherapists at Canterbury Hospital. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to see Rachel in her faster paces, but she’s an attractive, leggy filly, with a kind head and plenty of bone.
Long Rachel has arrived just in time, as it’s all about groins in the Ashford dressing room at the moment. Paul Jones continues to suffer from wedding-related fatigue in that area, and ‘keeper Seb Barton, Man of the Match on Tuesday, picked up an injury, towards the end of that game, that has also been diagnosed as a groin problem. As if that weren’t enough, Darren Ibrahim also has a groin injury, but was still preferred, in goal, to Dan Mason, which must be interpreted as a major vote of confidence from Manager Steve Lovell. It’s impossible to know the extent of the injury, but it was serious enough for Toby Ashmore to take all of Darren’s goal-kicks this afternoon.
The other injury blow for Ashford Town was that, as expected, top-scorer Joe Fuller had not recovered from the knock that forced him to come off after 20 minutes against Walton & Hersham – in fact, he was limping around the ground this afternoon every bit as feelingly as he had limped to his car at Stompond Lane on Tuesday. That left us distinctly short of strikers, but it’s quite likely that Steve Lovell would, in any case, have opted for the 4-3-1-2 formation, with son Mark “in the hole”, that served Ashford pretty well in the second half of the Walton game.
With our only available recognised striker playing just behind the front two, it was a couple of wingers who played up front: Mitchell Sherwood and Nicholas Frederick Smith. The midfield three were the experienced Ryan Briggs and Danny Lye, with Ross Morley operating on the right; the back four in front of Darren Ibrahim were Carl Harrold, Toby Ashmore, Lee Hockey and Gravesend loanee Steve “Geordie” Springett.
There were some interesting names on the bench, including three who had featured in the Reserves’ 0-2 defeat at home to Hythe Reserves on Wednesday – these were Dan Mason, Ronnie Dolan and Dan Scorer. It was good to see the elder of the two Scorer brothers involved again; the last time we saw Dan was when he went down with a freak knee injury, just 16 minutes after coming on as a substitute in the opening game of the season, at Croydon Athletic. Bryan Pearce was also on the bench, as defensive cover, but I was a bit surprised to see Jamie Forshaw, our other loanee from Gravesend, named as a substitute.
We arrived in good time today, so there was the opportunity to go to the bar and watch fellow Step 4 club Paulton Rovers playing at home to Norwich City in the First Round of the FA Cup. Paulton’s participation at this stage of the competition reminds us of what we ourselves can achieve – Lest We Forget, to use a phrase that has been well-used this week-end – but it was also good to see a team playing in Ashford Town’s away strip score seven goals away from home.
One of the major questions of the day was whether the team playing in yellow & green at Maidstone Road this afternoon could improve on Tuesday’s effort, by actually managing a shot on target during the 90 minutes. Well, this question was answered within the first 90 seconds, when a pot-shot from Mark Lovell, from outside the penalty area, was comfortably saved by Dean Ruddy, in the Chatham goal. This was the cue for something else that was missing on Tuesday – the first chorus from the travelling Ashford fans, who had arrived in Chatham in good voice, and in good numbers, considering that there was no Supporters’ Club coach available today.
Shortly after Mark Lovell’s triumphant shot on target, the home side counter-attacked at the other end, with a long cross, from the right, looking for Brendan Cass. The Chats’ No.9 got up for the header, which was also on target, but Darren Ibrahim made a good catch. Moving into the second minute of the game, Ashford had a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area. This was crossed to the far post by Ryan Briggs; Danny Lye got up well, and his downward header forced Ruddy Dean to make a good diving save, low to his right.
So this was a bright start from the visitors, and they looked a different side to the one that we had seen at Walton. Everyone seemed up for this one, and Mark Lovell, in particular, was an inspirational force, dropping short to collect the ball from the midfield and defence, and showing a lovely touch. From the outset, it was clear that Steve & Hugo weren’t setting out to blind the opposition with science. Short of numbers in midfield, we were never going to try to pass them to death. The idea was to release the ball early from the back, using the pace of the two lads up front, and to look for the aerial prowess of Danny Lye and Mark Lovell at set pieces. This was all very positive, as far as I was concerned. Ashford had a plan – and it looked like we might have the tools to make something happen.
There wasn’t much between the two sides in the early part of the game, or throughout the game, for that matter – certainly no evidence of the twelve league positions that separated the teams at the start of the day – with both having good situations, through corners and long throws. The first incident of real note, however, came in the 16th minute, when Mitchell Sherwood clearly barged Dean Ruddy, after the Chatham ‘keeper had taken the ball. It was an incident that Mitch might have got away with on another day, but, with the dreaded Referees’ Assessor in the stand, Mr Hicks was always going to demonstrate who was boss, and waved a yellow card.
I’m not sure what the Assessor thought of Craig Hicks’ overall performance, but the players were sometimes frustrated by what seemed to be a fairly esoteric interpretation of the advantage rule, and Steve Lovell clearly thought that he was a bit over-keen on blowing up for free-kicks, remarking: “Has he got a new whistle for his birthday ?”. For the record, the total count was 14 free-kicks awarded for fouls against Ashford, and 18 awarded against Chatham; (thanks, Rob & Tim, for the stats).
One of those free-kicks was awarded to Ashford in the 34th minute, and, for once, Ryan Briggs went for goal, from just outside the penalty area. Whilst our set-pieces on Tuesday tended to be awful, Briggo got this one right on target, curling his shot into the top right-hand corner of Dean Ruddy’s goal, but the ‘keeper once again made a good save. Seconds later, Lee Hockey sent one of several long throws into the Chatham area, but these refused to fall to an Ashford player this afternoon. (In fact, to coin a footballing phrase, we had about as much “second ball” as Adolf Hitler today).
The ball did, however, break Ashford’s way in the 38th minute. Carl Harrold sent a high, looping ball into the home side’s penalty box. Dean Ruddy, Mitchell Sherwood and a Chatham defender waited for the ball to come down, and, somehow, the Chatham pair made a mess of this. The ball fell to Mitch, who had little time in which to react, and his instinctive shot was blocked.
So the first half ended all square, at 0-0, thanks to an energetic team performance, and some uncomplicated defending (particularly from Toby Ashmore), by the visitors.
The home side had a dangerous-looking free-kick situation, as early as the second minute of the second half, after Toby Ashmore appeared to have been unlucky to have been penalised for what looked to be an excellent challenge – but Matthew Solly’s low shot was cleared. Then ,a minute later, a Lee Hockey long throw, from near the left corner flag, was headed clear at the near post, and, finally, fell to an Ashford Town player, waiting on the edge of the area – unfortunately, the player was a defender, and Steve Springett’s left-footed effort was hopelessly ill-directed.
In the 50th minute, a foul by Danny Lye, (who, as usual, tested the boundaries with the referee), on Ray Powell led to the first appearance of a Physio on the field, and so we discovered that Chatham’s sponge bearer was also a lady. The resulting free-kick, about 25 yards out, just to the right of centre, was crossed in by Justin Ascheri, but Brendan Cass’s glancing header went just wide of the target.
Cass was in the thick of it again, in the 54th minute, when he appeared to go down under a challenge from Toby Ashmore. Well, Toby must have thought that this was an example of what the bureaucrats at You Wafer refer to as “simulation”, as he reacted angrily; there was a squaring-up session, which quickly led to both teams congregating in the Ashford penalty area to join in the discussion. After a lengthy consultation with his Lino, Craig Hicks showed Toby a yellow card. Three minutes later, the same card was out again – this time it was waved at Chatham’s James Lyons, for a really daft deliberate hand-ball, on the half-way line.
The free-kick for the hand-ball was pinged in by Ryan Briggs towards the far post, where it was cleared for a corner, on the left. Again, Briggo launched the ball into the goalmouth, where Dean Ruddy was fouled by Danny Lye as he rose to catch the ball. Again, there were a few fairly direct words exchanged between the players. In the 61st minute, Danny Lye finally ran out of rope, and he was yellow-carded for a foul on Brendan Cass. It was a fairly regulation Lyesy foul, so the card must have been for persistent offending. The resulting free-kick, taken by Ashley Probets, went straight through to Darren Ibrahim.
Two minutes later, the well-worn whistle was blown for a “foot-up” offence in the vicinity of Nick Smith, on the half-way line. Steve Springett pumped the ball to the edge of the Chatham area, where Danny Lye got up to win a header; Lye’s flick on found Mark Lovell, who helped the ball on to Nick Smith, who hooked a shot over the bar.
It’s probably a measure of how well Ashford’s eleven men were playing that Steve Lovell made no substitutions at all in the match - Chats Manager Alex O’Brien, however, used all three subs, starting with Thomas Davey, for James Lyons, in the 69th minute – and, as the second half wore on, there were some green shoots of hope that a solid defensive performance from the visitors might actually produce a goal. In the 73rd minute, a fairly typical long hoof from defence, this time by Lee Hockey, was successfully chased down by Nick Smith, who caught up with the ball near to the corner flag, on the right. Smudge was surrounded by three Chats defenders, who, between them, committed a foul. The resulting free-kick was swung in towards the far post by Steve Springett. Mark Lovell, who had had a quieter second half, was definitely pushed as he closed in on the cross, but the ref had already blown up for an infringement by an Ashford player. Then, in the 77th minute, Ashford actually created a chance from open play, and, unusually, it came when one of our boys got to the by-line and crossed the ball from one of the flanks. On this occasion, it was Ross Morley who showed an impressive turn of pace, down the right, but a Chatham defender managed to put the ball behind for a corner before Mark Lovell could get on the end of the cross. The corner, from the left, was met by Steve Springett, who had made a great run into the box, but he couldn’t keep the ball down, and his header went well over the bar.
In the 79th minute, a ridiculous free-kick award to the home side gave Matthew Solly the opportunity to put the ball into the Ashford penalty area. His cross was cleared as far as David Hall, but he shot well wide.
The most significant of Alex O’Brien’s substitutions came with just ten minutes of normal time remaining, when he replaced Justin Ascheri with Byron Walker, in a like-for-like swap up front. Walker made an immediate impact, picking the ball up near the right touchline, just inside the Ashford half – he turned and went off on a run which took him past three Ashford players, before the third of these, Lee Hockey, hacked him down. Yellow card to Lee !
We then witnessed the pivotal incident of the game, from the resulting free-kick. The difference between gaining a well-deserved point and going away frustrated and empty-handed hinged on this. Mark Green took the kick, swinging the ball to the far post. This was bundled away, but broke to where Brendan Cass was lurking, around about the penalty spot. Now the mark of a top-class striker is the ability to hit the target with that one chance, even though he might have been very quiet for the rest of the game. Cass certainly proved himself worthy of being spoken about in these terms, when he swivelled and shot in one motion. Thankfully, Darren Ibrahim was also equal to the test, and flung himself to his left, to make a brilliant save. It was the only time that Darren was really asked a serious question this afternoon, and he wasn’t found wanting.
Whilst, in retrospect, Darren’s save effectively secured the point, the action was certainly not over. In the 86th minute, Lee Barnett became Chatham’s third substitute, replacing David Hall, and, a minute later, Ray Powell was booked for a foul on Nick Smith, deep inside The Chats’ half. Ryan Briggs hit the resulting free-kick towards the far post, but Dean Ruddy was able to punch clear, conceding a throw-in, near the right corner flag. Predictably, this led to another Lee Hockey long throw. Whilst Lee’s initial effort was cleared, the ball came straight back to him, whereupon he sent in a good cross, which was met with a glancing header by Danny Lye, but this went straight at the ‘keeper.
Generally, though, it was the home side on top, boosted by the pace and skill of Byron Walker, in the closing stages, and there was certainly plenty more work for the Ashford defence to do. Walker was certainly looking threatening, in the 90th minute, when Toby Ashmore attempted to muscle him off the ball. Unfortunately for Toby, he did so with his elbow raised and his arm quite a long way from his body, and made contact with his much smaller opponent right in front of the linesman. Referee Craig Hicks was also right on the spot, so it was inevitable that Ashmore was about to make the short, but early, trip to the dressing-room in the large, whitewashed building behind Darren Ibrahim’s goal. It was really just a question of whether the ref would show Toby a straight red card, or a second yellow card in the match. Mr Hicks opted for the latter. There really wasn’t time for Steve Lovell to reorganise the side, so it was left to the remaining ten men to hold out until the final whistle – starting with avoiding conceding a goal from the resulting free-kick. Fittingly, it was Lee Hockey who headed clear Mark Green’s cross.
I use the word “fittingly” because it was very much the Ashford defenders who were the heroes this afternoon. Both Lee Hockey and Toby Ashmore put in a tremendous shift today, although Lee did also make a number of errors, and Toby blotted his copy book by getting sent off. He will certainly be missed, as he has, at times, looked Sean Rayesque in central defence this season, and he’ll be hard to replace when his suspension kicks in. Darren Ibrahim put in a flawless performance this afternoon, and must be feeling triumphant in making an important contribution to Ashford’s first clean sheet of the season, but the real credit should go to the men in front of him, who restricted an on-form Chatham Town to just that one clear chance that fell to Brendan Cass. Of course, the acknowledgement for this should go to the whole team, but the other man who stood out in defence today was Steve Springett, and he was our MK Man of the Match.
So a point each – and a point that lifted Chatham to fifth in the division, but, ironically, caused Ashford to move down a place, to third-bottom, thanks to Chipstead’s 2-4 victory in the relegation six-pointer at Eastbourne Town. However, the league position hardly matters. What was important today was that Ashford discovered that, with an all-round team effort, they could comfortably hold one of the form teams in the division. Whilst I think that our well-documented problem with the goalkeeping position is far from being solved, defending well all over the pitch and restricting the opposition to very few, if any, chances is a good way of minimising the impact.
[ The answer to the little teaser I posed earlier on – it was John Whitehouse, who played in goal for Ashford in the first two of those games, and then for Chatham in the other two. ]
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Steve Springett
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Thirteen games now gone in the season, at the start of this one, and Ryman Division One South was starting to take shape – and I think it’s probably significant that the bottom six teams in the table were also the bottom six teams in the Current Form table, and very much the sides that, on recent form, we’d expect to be involved in the relegation scrap: that’s Chipstead, Horsham YMCA, Eastbourne Town, Walton Casuals, Whitstable Town and, I’m afraid, Ashford Town. If the league table didn’t convince ourselves of that, then Ashford’s previous two performances certainly should have done – at Horsham YMCA, two Tuesdays ago, we were able to compete on equal terms, and were just edged out 2-1; at Walton & Hersham, in mid-week, we were out-matched by a mid-table team, unable to manage a single shot on target.
However, one glimmer of hope I’ve managed to detect is that Ashford’s away form, with the lads having lost every single game away from The Homelands, bar one, is far worse than our home form, since our home record is actually three wins and two draws from six matches. What dawned on me recently was that no fewer than NINE of the last twelve matches, including today’s at Maidstone Road, have been away – so we must have a few at Fortress Homelands to come !
It was certainly good to be back at Chatham, after The Chats’ ridiculous one-year exile in Ryman Division One North, and they’ve made a great start this season, lying in sixth place this morning – which has not been entirely surprising, since the signing of the excellent Brendan Cass, from Dartford, in the Summer. Looking through some old match reports, I noticed that there is just one man who played in all four matches at Maidstone Road between these sides, in the 2002-3, 2003-4, 2006-7 and 2007-8 seasons - I’ll spill the beans as to who it was, at the end of the report.
First news from the Ashford camp concerned a change in Physio. There had been rumours in mid-week that Alan Orsbourne, who has been our Sponge Man in recent weeks, was so exhausted from running on and off to attend to Mark Lovell on Tuesday – first it was Mark’s ankle, then it was his face, then it was his knee, etc. – that he would have to have a lie-down this week-end. There were also counter-rumours that Steve Lovell was planning to use Alan in a man-to-man marking role, following Mark around the pitch, with his bag. In the end, neither was the case, as Alan was due to attend a physio course – so in stepped Rachel Long, who is one of the so-called Physy Fillies, a group of trainee physiotherapists at Canterbury Hospital. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to see Rachel in her faster paces, but she’s an attractive, leggy filly, with a kind head and plenty of bone.
Long Rachel has arrived just in time, as it’s all about groins in the Ashford dressing room at the moment. Paul Jones continues to suffer from wedding-related fatigue in that area, and ‘keeper Seb Barton, Man of the Match on Tuesday, picked up an injury, towards the end of that game, that has also been diagnosed as a groin problem. As if that weren’t enough, Darren Ibrahim also has a groin injury, but was still preferred, in goal, to Dan Mason, which must be interpreted as a major vote of confidence from Manager Steve Lovell. It’s impossible to know the extent of the injury, but it was serious enough for Toby Ashmore to take all of Darren’s goal-kicks this afternoon.
The other injury blow for Ashford Town was that, as expected, top-scorer Joe Fuller had not recovered from the knock that forced him to come off after 20 minutes against Walton & Hersham – in fact, he was limping around the ground this afternoon every bit as feelingly as he had limped to his car at Stompond Lane on Tuesday. That left us distinctly short of strikers, but it’s quite likely that Steve Lovell would, in any case, have opted for the 4-3-1-2 formation, with son Mark “in the hole”, that served Ashford pretty well in the second half of the Walton game.
With our only available recognised striker playing just behind the front two, it was a couple of wingers who played up front: Mitchell Sherwood and Nicholas Frederick Smith. The midfield three were the experienced Ryan Briggs and Danny Lye, with Ross Morley operating on the right; the back four in front of Darren Ibrahim were Carl Harrold, Toby Ashmore, Lee Hockey and Gravesend loanee Steve “Geordie” Springett.
There were some interesting names on the bench, including three who had featured in the Reserves’ 0-2 defeat at home to Hythe Reserves on Wednesday – these were Dan Mason, Ronnie Dolan and Dan Scorer. It was good to see the elder of the two Scorer brothers involved again; the last time we saw Dan was when he went down with a freak knee injury, just 16 minutes after coming on as a substitute in the opening game of the season, at Croydon Athletic. Bryan Pearce was also on the bench, as defensive cover, but I was a bit surprised to see Jamie Forshaw, our other loanee from Gravesend, named as a substitute.
We arrived in good time today, so there was the opportunity to go to the bar and watch fellow Step 4 club Paulton Rovers playing at home to Norwich City in the First Round of the FA Cup. Paulton’s participation at this stage of the competition reminds us of what we ourselves can achieve – Lest We Forget, to use a phrase that has been well-used this week-end – but it was also good to see a team playing in Ashford Town’s away strip score seven goals away from home.
One of the major questions of the day was whether the team playing in yellow & green at Maidstone Road this afternoon could improve on Tuesday’s effort, by actually managing a shot on target during the 90 minutes. Well, this question was answered within the first 90 seconds, when a pot-shot from Mark Lovell, from outside the penalty area, was comfortably saved by Dean Ruddy, in the Chatham goal. This was the cue for something else that was missing on Tuesday – the first chorus from the travelling Ashford fans, who had arrived in Chatham in good voice, and in good numbers, considering that there was no Supporters’ Club coach available today.
Shortly after Mark Lovell’s triumphant shot on target, the home side counter-attacked at the other end, with a long cross, from the right, looking for Brendan Cass. The Chats’ No.9 got up for the header, which was also on target, but Darren Ibrahim made a good catch. Moving into the second minute of the game, Ashford had a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area. This was crossed to the far post by Ryan Briggs; Danny Lye got up well, and his downward header forced Ruddy Dean to make a good diving save, low to his right.
So this was a bright start from the visitors, and they looked a different side to the one that we had seen at Walton. Everyone seemed up for this one, and Mark Lovell, in particular, was an inspirational force, dropping short to collect the ball from the midfield and defence, and showing a lovely touch. From the outset, it was clear that Steve & Hugo weren’t setting out to blind the opposition with science. Short of numbers in midfield, we were never going to try to pass them to death. The idea was to release the ball early from the back, using the pace of the two lads up front, and to look for the aerial prowess of Danny Lye and Mark Lovell at set pieces. This was all very positive, as far as I was concerned. Ashford had a plan – and it looked like we might have the tools to make something happen.
There wasn’t much between the two sides in the early part of the game, or throughout the game, for that matter – certainly no evidence of the twelve league positions that separated the teams at the start of the day – with both having good situations, through corners and long throws. The first incident of real note, however, came in the 16th minute, when Mitchell Sherwood clearly barged Dean Ruddy, after the Chatham ‘keeper had taken the ball. It was an incident that Mitch might have got away with on another day, but, with the dreaded Referees’ Assessor in the stand, Mr Hicks was always going to demonstrate who was boss, and waved a yellow card.
I’m not sure what the Assessor thought of Craig Hicks’ overall performance, but the players were sometimes frustrated by what seemed to be a fairly esoteric interpretation of the advantage rule, and Steve Lovell clearly thought that he was a bit over-keen on blowing up for free-kicks, remarking: “Has he got a new whistle for his birthday ?”. For the record, the total count was 14 free-kicks awarded for fouls against Ashford, and 18 awarded against Chatham; (thanks, Rob & Tim, for the stats).
One of those free-kicks was awarded to Ashford in the 34th minute, and, for once, Ryan Briggs went for goal, from just outside the penalty area. Whilst our set-pieces on Tuesday tended to be awful, Briggo got this one right on target, curling his shot into the top right-hand corner of Dean Ruddy’s goal, but the ‘keeper once again made a good save. Seconds later, Lee Hockey sent one of several long throws into the Chatham area, but these refused to fall to an Ashford player this afternoon. (In fact, to coin a footballing phrase, we had about as much “second ball” as Adolf Hitler today).
The ball did, however, break Ashford’s way in the 38th minute. Carl Harrold sent a high, looping ball into the home side’s penalty box. Dean Ruddy, Mitchell Sherwood and a Chatham defender waited for the ball to come down, and, somehow, the Chatham pair made a mess of this. The ball fell to Mitch, who had little time in which to react, and his instinctive shot was blocked.
So the first half ended all square, at 0-0, thanks to an energetic team performance, and some uncomplicated defending (particularly from Toby Ashmore), by the visitors.
The home side had a dangerous-looking free-kick situation, as early as the second minute of the second half, after Toby Ashmore appeared to have been unlucky to have been penalised for what looked to be an excellent challenge – but Matthew Solly’s low shot was cleared. Then ,a minute later, a Lee Hockey long throw, from near the left corner flag, was headed clear at the near post, and, finally, fell to an Ashford Town player, waiting on the edge of the area – unfortunately, the player was a defender, and Steve Springett’s left-footed effort was hopelessly ill-directed.
In the 50th minute, a foul by Danny Lye, (who, as usual, tested the boundaries with the referee), on Ray Powell led to the first appearance of a Physio on the field, and so we discovered that Chatham’s sponge bearer was also a lady. The resulting free-kick, about 25 yards out, just to the right of centre, was crossed in by Justin Ascheri, but Brendan Cass’s glancing header went just wide of the target.
Cass was in the thick of it again, in the 54th minute, when he appeared to go down under a challenge from Toby Ashmore. Well, Toby must have thought that this was an example of what the bureaucrats at You Wafer refer to as “simulation”, as he reacted angrily; there was a squaring-up session, which quickly led to both teams congregating in the Ashford penalty area to join in the discussion. After a lengthy consultation with his Lino, Craig Hicks showed Toby a yellow card. Three minutes later, the same card was out again – this time it was waved at Chatham’s James Lyons, for a really daft deliberate hand-ball, on the half-way line.
The free-kick for the hand-ball was pinged in by Ryan Briggs towards the far post, where it was cleared for a corner, on the left. Again, Briggo launched the ball into the goalmouth, where Dean Ruddy was fouled by Danny Lye as he rose to catch the ball. Again, there were a few fairly direct words exchanged between the players. In the 61st minute, Danny Lye finally ran out of rope, and he was yellow-carded for a foul on Brendan Cass. It was a fairly regulation Lyesy foul, so the card must have been for persistent offending. The resulting free-kick, taken by Ashley Probets, went straight through to Darren Ibrahim.
Two minutes later, the well-worn whistle was blown for a “foot-up” offence in the vicinity of Nick Smith, on the half-way line. Steve Springett pumped the ball to the edge of the Chatham area, where Danny Lye got up to win a header; Lye’s flick on found Mark Lovell, who helped the ball on to Nick Smith, who hooked a shot over the bar.
It’s probably a measure of how well Ashford’s eleven men were playing that Steve Lovell made no substitutions at all in the match - Chats Manager Alex O’Brien, however, used all three subs, starting with Thomas Davey, for James Lyons, in the 69th minute – and, as the second half wore on, there were some green shoots of hope that a solid defensive performance from the visitors might actually produce a goal. In the 73rd minute, a fairly typical long hoof from defence, this time by Lee Hockey, was successfully chased down by Nick Smith, who caught up with the ball near to the corner flag, on the right. Smudge was surrounded by three Chats defenders, who, between them, committed a foul. The resulting free-kick was swung in towards the far post by Steve Springett. Mark Lovell, who had had a quieter second half, was definitely pushed as he closed in on the cross, but the ref had already blown up for an infringement by an Ashford player. Then, in the 77th minute, Ashford actually created a chance from open play, and, unusually, it came when one of our boys got to the by-line and crossed the ball from one of the flanks. On this occasion, it was Ross Morley who showed an impressive turn of pace, down the right, but a Chatham defender managed to put the ball behind for a corner before Mark Lovell could get on the end of the cross. The corner, from the left, was met by Steve Springett, who had made a great run into the box, but he couldn’t keep the ball down, and his header went well over the bar.
In the 79th minute, a ridiculous free-kick award to the home side gave Matthew Solly the opportunity to put the ball into the Ashford penalty area. His cross was cleared as far as David Hall, but he shot well wide.
The most significant of Alex O’Brien’s substitutions came with just ten minutes of normal time remaining, when he replaced Justin Ascheri with Byron Walker, in a like-for-like swap up front. Walker made an immediate impact, picking the ball up near the right touchline, just inside the Ashford half – he turned and went off on a run which took him past three Ashford players, before the third of these, Lee Hockey, hacked him down. Yellow card to Lee !
We then witnessed the pivotal incident of the game, from the resulting free-kick. The difference between gaining a well-deserved point and going away frustrated and empty-handed hinged on this. Mark Green took the kick, swinging the ball to the far post. This was bundled away, but broke to where Brendan Cass was lurking, around about the penalty spot. Now the mark of a top-class striker is the ability to hit the target with that one chance, even though he might have been very quiet for the rest of the game. Cass certainly proved himself worthy of being spoken about in these terms, when he swivelled and shot in one motion. Thankfully, Darren Ibrahim was also equal to the test, and flung himself to his left, to make a brilliant save. It was the only time that Darren was really asked a serious question this afternoon, and he wasn’t found wanting.
Whilst, in retrospect, Darren’s save effectively secured the point, the action was certainly not over. In the 86th minute, Lee Barnett became Chatham’s third substitute, replacing David Hall, and, a minute later, Ray Powell was booked for a foul on Nick Smith, deep inside The Chats’ half. Ryan Briggs hit the resulting free-kick towards the far post, but Dean Ruddy was able to punch clear, conceding a throw-in, near the right corner flag. Predictably, this led to another Lee Hockey long throw. Whilst Lee’s initial effort was cleared, the ball came straight back to him, whereupon he sent in a good cross, which was met with a glancing header by Danny Lye, but this went straight at the ‘keeper.
Generally, though, it was the home side on top, boosted by the pace and skill of Byron Walker, in the closing stages, and there was certainly plenty more work for the Ashford defence to do. Walker was certainly looking threatening, in the 90th minute, when Toby Ashmore attempted to muscle him off the ball. Unfortunately for Toby, he did so with his elbow raised and his arm quite a long way from his body, and made contact with his much smaller opponent right in front of the linesman. Referee Craig Hicks was also right on the spot, so it was inevitable that Ashmore was about to make the short, but early, trip to the dressing-room in the large, whitewashed building behind Darren Ibrahim’s goal. It was really just a question of whether the ref would show Toby a straight red card, or a second yellow card in the match. Mr Hicks opted for the latter. There really wasn’t time for Steve Lovell to reorganise the side, so it was left to the remaining ten men to hold out until the final whistle – starting with avoiding conceding a goal from the resulting free-kick. Fittingly, it was Lee Hockey who headed clear Mark Green’s cross.
I use the word “fittingly” because it was very much the Ashford defenders who were the heroes this afternoon. Both Lee Hockey and Toby Ashmore put in a tremendous shift today, although Lee did also make a number of errors, and Toby blotted his copy book by getting sent off. He will certainly be missed, as he has, at times, looked Sean Rayesque in central defence this season, and he’ll be hard to replace when his suspension kicks in. Darren Ibrahim put in a flawless performance this afternoon, and must be feeling triumphant in making an important contribution to Ashford’s first clean sheet of the season, but the real credit should go to the men in front of him, who restricted an on-form Chatham Town to just that one clear chance that fell to Brendan Cass. Of course, the acknowledgement for this should go to the whole team, but the other man who stood out in defence today was Steve Springett, and he was our MK Man of the Match.
So a point each – and a point that lifted Chatham to fifth in the division, but, ironically, caused Ashford to move down a place, to third-bottom, thanks to Chipstead’s 2-4 victory in the relegation six-pointer at Eastbourne Town. However, the league position hardly matters. What was important today was that Ashford discovered that, with an all-round team effort, they could comfortably hold one of the form teams in the division. Whilst I think that our well-documented problem with the goalkeeping position is far from being solved, defending well all over the pitch and restricting the opposition to very few, if any, chances is a good way of minimising the impact.
[ The answer to the little teaser I posed earlier on – it was John Whitehouse, who played in goal for Ashford in the first two of those games, and then for Chatham in the other two. ]
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Steve Springett
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)