Greenwich Borough v Ashford United. Southern Counties East Football League. 7th of February 2015.

Greenwich Borough           1                

Ashford United           4

 

From Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent

In case anyone thinks that following Ashford United on the road in the Southern Counties East Football League might be a little “samey”, today’s fixture away to Greenwich Borough was a complete contrast to the visit to Holmesdale, just a fortnight ago. Whereas facilities at Oakley Road, with its seemingly improvised corrugated iron stands and lack of information, were fairly basic, today’s game was played at Dartford FC’s Princes Park Stadium, Dartford Borough Council’s 4,100-capacity ground, which was opened as recently as 2006.

Greenwich Borough FC is a transformed club, these days. Until recently, Borough were notable for surviving on ultra-low crowds – of the 30 or less type – and last season’s much-improved ninth-place finish in the SCEFL followed the ignominy of finishing last of 16 in 2011-12, and 15^th of 17 in 2012-13. Ground-sharing at Princes Park, since August 2013, has coincided with the club being reportedly extremely well bankrolled, and with the creation of a strong squad. One unsubstantiated rumour I’ve read is that two of Greenwich’s squad are both on a weekly wage that exceeds Ashford United’s entire weekly playing budget. Whether or not there is any truth in that, it is likely that the top earner in the club’s squad is 35 year-old Gary Alexander, whose Football League career, which consisted of 500-plus games, included spells with Leyton Orient, Millwall, Hull City and Brentford.

Starting today’s game in seventh place in the league – three points behind fifth-placed Ashford, but with two games in hand -  Greenwich were always going to be tough opponents. This was underlined by our hosts’ most recent result in the league – a 0-6 thrashing of Holmesdale, the same team that Ashford rather struggled against in a 3-4 victory, just a week earlier.

This was not my first visit to Princes Park, although the previous occasion had been eight years ago, for the Ryman League Division One South game between Dartford and Ashford Town.

And what a game that was !  The result was a 4-3 win for Dartford, with the winner coming from what appeared to be a fairly dodgy penalty in the 93^rd minute, over a struggling Ashford side. The game was memorable for the seven goals, a brilliant solo effort from Walid Matata, a howling goalkeeping error from Jake Whincup that gave The Darts their third goal, an earlier penalty save by Jake, two red cards, a disallowed goal, and Ashford Manager John Cumberbatch being dismissed and sent to the stands. The game was also remarkable for being played in front of a crowd of 1,470.

Ashford’s line-up that afternoon was interesting. Legendary right-back Tom Adlington played at centre-half, alongside Marc Cumberbatch; Anthony Allman, a midfield playmaker, was at right-back; Simon Glover was at left-back, (although Gloves played in virtually every position for Ashford); Luke Coleman, who captained Holmesdale, a fortnight ago, from the centre-forward position, was on the right side of midfield; Matt Carruthers, an attacking wide midfield player, was in central midfield. Steve Sodje partnered Walid Matata, up front, on this occasion, in place of the injured George Fenwick.

Two interesting players in the Dartford line-up were Ryan Briggs and John Guest, who both joined Ashford Town at a later date – but the star of The Darts’ side, on that particular afternoon, and on many others, was winger Dave Martin. He was brilliant in that game, which I think was his last for Dartford before joining Crystal Palace, and then Millwall.

Well, today’s game at Princes Park didn’t quite live up to the 2007 occasion, but it was a remarkable game in its own right, and did produce five very good goals, just the one red card and the frame of the goal was hit at least four times.

Ashford came here with what looked to be very nearly a full-strength side. In front of Joe Mant was the very experienced central defensive pairing of Pat Kingwell and Danny Lye. Both of these lads had a towering game, particularly Kingwell, who was an immense presence in the Ashford defence, and always seemed to be in the right place. (This was just as well, as Greenwich Borough were to prove themselves to be an extremely potent force going forward). On either side of the defence were the Cuthbert brothers – Adam on the right, and Luke on the left – who completed 90 minutes together for the first time since the Canterbury City game on the 27^th of December. I haven’t seen enough of Ashford this season to know how Adam is coping in this new, defensive role, but he did pretty well this afternoon.

Gary Clarke, the Club Captain, battled away in central midfield, alongside Lee Winfield, with Liam Whiting on the left and Tom Scorer on the right. Up front were Stuart Zanone and Darren Marsden, in what looks a very good combination. We know about Stuart, with his pace and his strength and his natural ability to score goals – and 19 in ten matches, coming into this match, speaks for itself – but Darren Marsden is looking like his ideal partner. He’s hard working and he’s intelligent, and has the skill to retain position and manoeuvre the ball into the right areas. Although the home side had the large majority of the possession in this game, with most of the match being played in Ashford’s half, every time the ball found its way to the visitors’ front two, they looked dangerous, and made life a misery for a hapless Greenwich Borough defence.

Both teams had a strong bench. In fact, the ten players named could probably form a team that would hold its own in the top half of the SCEFL table. For Ashford, there was Liam Walsh, Kieran Byrne, Ollie Finch, Andy Irvine and Gary Mickelborough; Borough’s substitutes were Jamie Wood, Lewis Wood, Paul Vines, Danny Phillips and Jack Clark. For good measure, Buster Smissen warmed up, in full kit, with the other Ashford subs, before the game, but was left out of the final XVI.

I mentioned that this was “a remarkable game”. In fact, it was one of the strangest games I have seen. This is because the visitors were under the cosh for at least the final 87 minutes of this match, being at full stretch to deny what is obviously a very good Greenwich side – but nevertheless managed to score four goals, and win comfortably. That they were able to do so was due to a solid and determined all-round team display – by eleven men in the first half, and then by ten men for virtually all of the second half. I have never seen a team lead by four goals, but yet appear to have to hang on so grimly – but hang on they did, and Paul Chambers and his boys deserve a great deal of credit for coming away with a 1-4 victory.

Ashford did, at least, make a fast start, and I thought that it was all Ashford in an opening three-minute spell that culminated in the visitors opening the scoring, with what might be described as a “Liam Whiting Special”. Stuart Zanone spread the ball wide to Whiting, on the left, and the script – certainly as far as Greenwich goalkeeper Craig Holloway was concerned – was for Liam to cross the ball into the centre. Instead, Liam lashed the ball into the roof of the net, with a left-footed drive that went just inside the near post.

That was the ideal start for Ashford, but, just a minute later, the home side gave an indication of what was to come, when former Beckenham winger Jake Britnall created a chance for an equaliser. Although Gary Alexander is the big name in the Greenwich side, their main threat this afternoon appeared to come in the shape of two very skillful wingmen – No.7 Mohammed Eisa and No.11 Britnall. On this occasion, it was Britnall who easily beat two Ashford defenders, to break into the heart of the visitors’ penalty area, but Joe Mant saved his shot from about ten yards out.

From this point, it looked a bit like Rorke’s Drift out there – except that it was the red shirts that were doing the attacking, with the yellows manning the barricades. I should add that there were also echoes of the Battle of Passchendaele, as the Princes Park pitch was in an appalling state, consisting of considerably more mud than grass, even before the game started.

In spite of the relentless assault on the Ashford defence, what made the game interesting, and enjoyable for the Ashford faithful, who made up the majority of the crowd of 117, was that the visitors always looked like they had the quality to score, when they did get the ball forward. In fact, Tom Scorer very nearly doubled the score in the tenth minute. Receiving the ball from a throw-in, on the left, Tom made room for a shot at goal, and his thunderous shot cannoned off Holloway’s right-hand post. Stuart Zanone, on the poach, about eight yards from goal, was unable to control the rebound, but the lino had already flagged him offside.

A minute later, Joe Mant, for the first time, reminded me of Jake Whincup !  Rising to make a regulation catch, after Chris Edwards had floated a free-kick into the Ashford box, Joe made a complete hash of things, but was fortunate to drop the ball at the feet of one of his own defenders. After a bout of head tennis, the ball was partially cleared, before Mohammed Eisa’s looping header, from a Chris Edwards cross, went just over the bar.

Greenwich looked particularly dangerous from set pieces, and Mr Nketiah, who kept very good control of the game, but was pretty fussy about any physical contact, gave the home side plenty of free-kick opportunities. In the 18^th minute, Danny Lye did well to get his head to the ball as a free-kick on the left was whipped in with great pace – and then Adam Cuthbert headed away the resulting corner, at the near post. Three minutes later, the Ashford defence failed to clear another Edwards corner from the left, and the visitors’ one-goal lead was preserved thanks to a good save by Joe Mant, and then a clearance, after a goalmouth scramble, by Adam Cuthbert.

Borough must have regretted their failure to convert pressure into goals, in the 25^th minute, when Gary Clarke made it 0-2. This came from an Ashford free-kick, awarded for a very harsh hand ball decision which appeared to me to be very much a case of ball-against-hand. The home defence had plenty of time to get organised, as Lee Winfeld and Darren Marsden stood over the ball. Eventually, it was Marsden who floated a cross to the far post, and Gary Clarke got up well to head the ball into the far corner of the net, for his 22^nd goal in an Ashford shirt. There’s no doubt that it was a well-taken goal, but the Greenwich Management was probably wondering how one of the smallest players on the pitch had managed to comfortably get his head to the ball.

The third Ashford goal came in the 31^st minute, and came on the break, after a period of Greenwich Borough pressure. Darren Marsden led the charge, down the right, and effectively played a “one-two” off a defender, who got in the way of an attempted pass to Stuart Zanone. Darren’s second ball was a cross into the heart of the Greenwich goalmouth, which was intercepted but not cleared. The ball fell at the feet of Stuart Zanone, about ten yards from goal – at which point there was only going to be one outcome. As usual, Stuart fairly slammed the ball into the net, decisively and without hesitation, in the manner of a clinical goal scorer.

In the 35^th minute, Liam Whiting, who reminds me increasingly of a young, and very lean, Stuart Pearce, made what I thought was a good, clean tackle – but this was from behind, and Liam’s angle of approach, and the fact that he made some slight contact with his opponent, meant that he not only conceded a free-kick, but also received a yellow card from Referee Nketiah. From the resulting free-kick, Gary Borrowdale pumped the ball into the Ashford area, and Joe Mant cleared with a decisive punch. The ball found Jake Britnall, on the edge of the 18-yard box, and Adam Cuthbert put in a challenge with studs showing, catching Britnall in the ribs. I am sure that there was nothing malicious in the challenge, but it looked bad, and Adam might have been a little fortunate to only be shown a yellow card.

It was Borrowdale who took the free-kick, and this was an excellent effort, eluding a six-man wall, before crashing against the crossbar.

A sending off looked even more likely in the 43^rd minute, when Liam Whiting miss-timed another genuine attempt to play the ball, instead catching Jake Britnall on the foot. This led to several Greenwich players forming a ruck around the referee, in what was obviously a concerted effort to get Liam sent off. To the ref’s credit, he refused to be intimidated by the mob, and, instead, gave Liam a lengthy lecture, which, as was clear to all present, was very much a final warning.

So the travelling faithful were delighted to see the lads go in at half time with a 0-3 lead, whilst acknowledging that the score-line hid the fact that we had actually been fighting a rearguard action for most of the first 45 minutes. Chief topic of conversation, however, was that the most predictable substitution of the season was about to be made, at the start of the second half.

It was a big surprise, therefore, that Whiting came out, after the break – especially with Kieran Byrne being available as an obvious like-for-like replacement. In fact, it was Greenwich who made a half time substitution, with Jamie Wood replacing Chris Saunders.

I am sure that Paul Chambers must have seriously considered replacing Liam – but he made the decision to “stick”, rather than “twist”, and this decision soon led to the visitors being reduced to ten men. As early as the second minute after the break, Liam went into a tackle in typically whole-hearted fashion, was slightly late, made contact with a Greenwich player……….and the second yellow card was inevitable. I don’t think the referee had any option, having clearly put Liam on last-chance notice – and the yellow shirts were a man down at The Alamo.

What helped Ashford’s cause, however, was that Stuart Zanone made it 0-4, almost immediately – in the 49^th minute, in fact. A break from defence saw Darren Marsden and Zanone in a two-against-two situation with back-peddling Greenwich Borough defenders. Darren pushed the ball into Stuart’s path, and, despite beginning his run from the halfway line, such is the striker’s strength and pace that there was never any doubt that he would make it into the Borough penalty area. With just Holloway to beat, Stuart went to the right, to make himself an angle, and then calmly slotted the ball into the net, eluding the ‘keeper’s outstretched arm. So that is now 21 goals in eleven matches for Stuart Zanone, extending a goal scoring sequence that has no precedent in the history of Ashford football.

So there then followed a bizarre 40 minutes, during which the ten men in yellow & green defended valiantly to hold off the Greenwich onslaught. This is a scene that has been acted out on many a field of battle, at home and abroad, and in the league and in the cups – but surely such a desperate rearguard has never been enacted to preserve a FOUR goal lead?!

But defend they did, and, with Pat Kingwell being the rock against which most of the red wave broke, the three points were made safe, with Joe Mant being beaten just the once – by Danny Phillips, in the 67^th minute.

Of course, Greenwich should be given credit for never giving up, and for applying the pressure right to the very end – but a combination of wayward shooting, good saves by Joe Mant or a defender getting a foot or a head in the way of the ball at the vital moment, gave Ashford United a well-deserved three points.

In the 60^th minute, Borough Manager Ian Jenkins replaced the ineffective Scott Kinch with Danny Phillips, and, a minute later, Paul Chambers made his first substitution, sending on Ollie Finch, in place of Tom Scorer. This gave us the chance to play “Ollie Finch Bingo” – which consists of having a sweepstake on how long it will take Ollie, who is a walking yellow card, to get himself booked. On this occasion, folks, today’s lucky number was 24. That’s two-and-four, twenty-four, as Ollie got shown the yellow after a late tackle on Jake Britnall, on the edge of the “D”, in the 85^th minute.

The goal that Greenwich did score, in the 67^th minute, was a good one. The ball was threaded through to Danny Phillips, who took a touch and then calmly placed the ball past Joe Mant’s left hand. This came just a minute after the home side had come close through Gary Alexander. Receiving the ball, on the left, from Mohammed Eisa, the man who had once cost Swindon Town £300,000 attempted to curl the ball inside the far post, with Joe Mant merely watching, but this effort went just wide. In the 70^th minute, No.9 Billy Bennett thumped a cracking shot against Mant’s right-hand upright, but Joe made a good save as Eisa attempted a curling shot from the rebound.

A minute later, Paul Chambers relieved a tiring Darren Marsden of his duties, the No.10 having run his socks off for the cause. Up to this point, Chambers had maintained a two-pronged attack, in spite of being down to ten men, against a Greenwich back three. Now, however, Marsden’s replacement, Gary Mickelborough, very much tucked into the midfield, in what was now a 4-4-1 formation. Later, in the 83^rd minute, the hard-working Stuart Zanone was also given a well-earned rest, when he was replaced by defender Liam Walsh. This provided the Ashford back line with much-needed reinforcement, with Gary Mickelborough taking over as the lone striker.

The nearest Greenwich Borough came to scoring, late on, was in the 89^th minute, when a left-footed shot from substitute Danny Phillips, from 18 yards out, crashed against Joe Mant’s upright once again – only to fall comfortably into Joe’s arms, after bouncing once. Almost immediately, the red shirts surged forward again, to the edge of the Ashford penalty area. Some typically neat passing provided Billy Bennett with a good shooting chance, but he blasted the ball over the bar. In the final minute of normal time, (before five minutes of added time), the home side had a free-kick, about 25 yards from goal. This was squared to Jake Britnall, who curled a shot that was destined for the far, top corner of the net, only for Joe Mant to tip the ball away for a corner – at which point Britnall must have known that it wasn’t going to be his day.

Mr Nketiah did wave a yellow card at someone in the 92^nd minute, after Greenwich had been awarded a corner. I am guessing that this could only have been for an Ashford player knocking the ball away in an attempt to waste time – but it was not obvious who was the recipient of the card.

So quite a match, with Ashford scoring four goals for the third consecutive game – and with Stuart Zanone being responsible for half of those goals.

The three points gained today lifted Ashford to fourth place, in the table, above Tunbridge Wells, who were playing in the SCEFL Challenge Cup. Another tough game awaits Ashford in just three days’ time, with third-placed Corinthian coming to Homelands on Tuesday night.

Holmesdale v Ashford United. Southern Counties East Football League. 24th of January 2015.

Holmesdale                 3                

Ashford United           4

 

From Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent

There was a feeling of “the morning after the night before”, as I travelled to Bromley for today’s Southern Counties East League match with Holmesdale. Precisely a week ago, life was full of anticipation and optimism, in the lead up to Ashford United’s FA Vase 4^th Round tie with Eastern Counties League leaders Norwich United, with the visitors expecting to take coach loads of supporters down to Homelands. Unhappily, a waterlogged pitch, which forced the postponement of the game, and a sobering 0-5 defeat in the rearranged match, in front of a much reduced crowd, last Tuesday evening, punctured a huge bubble of expectation, and effectively ended all hope of honour and valour, for another season.

With the prospect of promotion already very faint, and with exactly half of Ashford’s league fixtures played, it’s hard not to feel deflated. What is hard to take is the manner of Tuesday’s defeat. Although Norwich United went into the Vase tie in a dominant position in their league, with 18 wins from 20 matches, it has come as a jolting surprise that our heroes appear to have been outclassed, with the 0-5 score-line certainly not misrepresenting the difference between the two sides.

In spite of Ashford’s generally impressive record, this season – and let’s not overlook the fact that we have, so far, only lost two games in what is a strong league – there is an accumulation of evidence of the squad being found wanting when coming up against a really decent side. Tuesday night’s 0-5 defeat can be placed on the shelf alongside the 4-0 loss to Beckenham in last year’s Kent Senior Trophy Final, and the 4-0 capitulation to Erith & Belvedere, earlier this season – and, if we’re being really harsh, the 4-0 drubbing at the hands of, the admittedly very good, Peacehaven & Telscombe, in last year’s FA Cup.

So today was the first game of the rest of the season for Ashford United – away to Holmesdale, whose Oakley Road ground is located in the London Borough of Bromley. Our hosts began the day in a solid, mid-table, twelfth position, having won nine, and lost twelve, of their 24 games. Therefore, in a season when, for once, the bottom side in the SCEFL will be relegated to Step 6, it seems pretty certain that Holmesdale will not be the team to fall through the trap door. The Management at Oakley Road should receive praise for this, as Holmesdale FC only graduated from the Kent County League as recently as 2007, and the facilities here are certainly no more than you would expect to find at an average Kent Invicta League ground.

The man-made structures at Oakley Road, which consist of two dug-outs on one side of the pitch, a stand with three rows of seats on the opposite side, and a small shelter for standing spectators behind one goal, are fashioned from corrugated iron sheets and scaffolding poles. The Emirates Stadium it ain’t, but the three rows of seating in the stand rise steeply, providing a good, elevated view of the pitch from the top row.

The majority of today’s crowd of 62 were Ashford United fans, so it’s probably safe to assume that Holmesdale FC is not used to the business of catering for paying customers. The club officials and volunteers that I met were friendly enough, but there was no programme, no team-sheet, no PA announcements and the floodlights only came on for the final five minutes of the match. It was a good thing, therefore, that the match itself was able to justify the £7 admission.

What we saw was not particularly high in quality, with both teams willing to lob the ball in the air, in the general direction of the opposition’s goal, on a regular basis, but we did get seven goals and an exciting finish. As an added bonus, we had the side-show of the pantomime that results from having a referee eager to please his assessor in the stand, with the supporting cast of an over-fussy lino and an increasingly exasperated band of travelling supporters. All tremendous fun !

An incident-packed first half fairly flew by, and was unusual in that the three goals scored in the first 45 minutes – one to Ashford, and then two to Holmesdale – all came within a four-minute period.

Another remarkable thing was that Ashford target man Andy Irvine had almost his entire game concentrated in the opening seven minutes, with four very decent chances coming his way. In the first minute, he won a free-kick, mid-way inside the Holmesdale half, for a push in the back. (This was a good spot by the ref). From the resulting free-kick, which was delivered long, Ashford contrived to have two men over, at the far post. Irvine was the second of these, but he fluffed his header wide, when he should have done a lot better.

In the third minute, Kieran Byrne met a kick-out from the Holmesdale ‘keeper with a volleyed clearance of his own which went straight into Irvine’s path. The hero of Tunbridge Wells’ 2012-13 FA Vase campaign showed good pace, for a big fella, to latch onto the ball, but, instead of shooting, he attempted a pass to Stuart Zanone, and his effort deflected off a defender’s shin, running tamely through to the ‘keeper.

Three minutes later, the visitors put together a good move, made possible by an excellent cross-field ball from Liam Whiting, which found Gary Mickelborough on the right flank. The move ended with Irvs getting on the end of a cross from the right, but he rather got underneath his attempted header at goal.

Irvine’s best chance, during this very strange opening period, came in the seventh minute, when he ran onto a high ball forward. All eyes turned to the lino on the far side, but there was no flag raised for offside, and Irvine had only the goalkeeper to beat – but he rather scuffed his shot wide of goal.

It is very unusual for all those chances to have fallen to one man, especially as Irvine was partnered up front today by the in-form Stuart Zanone, in what was basically a full-strength Ashford side. In a 4-4-2 set-up, Darren Marsden and skipper Gary Clarke were in central midfield, with Gary Mickelborough on the right and Liam Whiting on the left. The back four, in front of Joe Mant, consisted of Adam Cuthbert in his now-customary right-back position, Kieran Byrne at left-back and Pat Kingwell and Danny Lye in the centre. On the bench, this afternoon, were Buster Smissen, Lee Winfield, Tom Scorer, Jordan Harris and the out of favour Luke Cuthbert.

Like the majority of those in attendance, I have little idea of who was playing for Holmesdale, and, due to the absence of any information or announcements, I make no apologies for this report appearing to be rather Ashford-orientated.

The two Holmesdale players I did recognise, however, were by far their outstanding performers – Luke Coleman, the former Ashford Town striker (seven goals at a rate of a goal every 196 minutes) and the home side’s captain today, and much-travelled class act Rikki Cable, who scored a hat-trick and could very easily have had more goals.

After the early Ashford pressure, Cable created the chance that very nearly gave his side the lead, in the 13^th minute. Twisting and turning in and around the Ashford penalty area, he eventually sent in a cross that was met by the head of his mate with a No.7 on his back. This was a looping header that didn’t appear to be very dangerous, and Joe Mant was rather a spectator as the ball dipped over his head – so Joe was probably relieved to collect the ball as it rebounded off the crossbar and bounced into his arms.

To illustrate the fine line that exists between success and failure, Ashford United took the lead just a minute later. This was a game in which neither side emerged with much credit, in terms of overall team play, but the afternoon was saved by a few moments of individual brilliance. One of these was produced by Stuart Zanone, with a solo effort that gave his side the lead. Being fed the ball inside the Holmesdale penalty area, Zanone turned, manoeuvred the ball onto his right foot and easily slotted the ball into the net, beating the ‘keeper at his near post.

It’s been a relatively quiet week for Stuart, after drawing a blank on Tuesday night, but he has still, now, scored 17 goals in his last nine matches.

So all was set fair, for the visitors, with a deserved lead, after a dominant start to the game – but Ashford somehow found themselves behind, within three minutes. Luke Coleman sent in a cross from the right, within a minute of Zanone’s opener, and this was met with a volley from some bloke with a No.11 on his back. Again, this was a looping effort, which Joe Mant could not get anywhere near, and, once again, the ball rebounded off the crossbar – but, this time, Rikki Cable was waiting in the six-yard box, and took a touch to control the ball before sticking it in the net.

In the 17^th minute, Cable had the ball at his feet, on the right flank, and was faced by Danny Lye, who had somehow found himself in the left-back position. The Cable Guy turned Danny inside out with a couple of dummied crosses, and progressed as far as the corner of the Ashford penalty area. From there, he unleashed a cracking, low shot which found the net just inside the far post. This was a brilliant goal, giving the goalkeeper no chance, and not many of the thousands of goals that Rikki must have scored will have been better.

A minute later, Danny Lye was again having to play left-backs. When his man beat him, he clipped him, probably more out of frustration at the game situation as anything else. Nevertheless, the right-winger was past him, and away – but, under the gaze of the Referees’ Assessor nearby, the ref stopped the game anyway, and showed Danny the yellow card. The Assessor scribbled a note. Soon after, in the 22^nd minute, Gary Clarke was the victim of a rather innocuous trip, just inside his own half, but the offender received what we might refer to as an Assessor Proximity Card. Two minutes later, Clarke was clattered from behind, very late, but no yellow card was shown – at which point the ref started to look a proper Charlie. (I accept that these Assessors do an important job, but I really wish they’d go to matches disguised as trees or something).

Chances continued to be created at both ends of the pitch, in what was a thoroughly entertaining game. In the 25^th minute, Stuart Zanone ran onto a through-ball out of defence, in the inside-right position. With just the goalkeeper to beat, Stuart attempted an accurate chip, rather than going for power, but the goalie did well to put the ball behind for a corner. In the 28^th minute, Luke Coleman received the ball on the edge of the Ashford area; he also concentrated on accuracy, and was unfortunate to see his low, curling effort rebound off the foot of Joe Mant’s far post. Luke had another chance, from a similar, inside-left, position, in the 36^th minute, after some good work by the home side down the left flank, but, this time, he blasted the ball well over the bar.

Stuart Zanone blotted his copybook, slightly, in the 37^th minute, when he picked up a really daft yellow card. The goalkeeper had come out of his goal to pick up a loose ball, and Stuart, for no conceivable gain, tapped his ankle and brought him down. Given the referee’s frame of mind, this afternoon, this was only going to have one consequence.

With five minutes to go to half time, the home side had a chance to go further ahead, when the ball was fed through to Rikki Cable. There were appeals to the lino for offside, but to no avail, as Cable squared the ball to the unknown No.11 – who sliced a first-time shot high and wide. Three minutes later, Darren Marsden, who looked impressive in midfield, for Ashford, split the home defence with an excellent ball inside the right-back, putting Kieran Byrne clean through on goal. It would have been an appropriate goal if Kieran had scored, on the eve of Byrne’s Night, but he sliced his shot wide. Soon after, Byrnsie had an opportunity from a free-kick, on the right, on the very edge of the Holmesdale penalty area, after Gary Mickelborough had been brought down, but his curling effort went straight at the ‘keeper.

The last action of the first half saw Ashford on the break, with a slick, one-touch move involving Darren Marsden and Andy Irvine, which put Stuart Zanone in on goal. Stuart was rather worried out of it by the defence, and the ‘keeper was able to clear, before the ref put the whistle to his lips – (where else ?) – and blew for half time.

So the players and officials and the Assessor all trooped off for a well-deserved break.

The early part of the second half was, in contrast, fairly scrappy and “stop-start”. The flow of the game was not helped by a soft and slippery pitch, but the main impediment to football was the continuing litany of bookings. Darren Marsden was the first one to see yellow in this half – in the 47^th minute - after he rather left his foot in after a tackle. This was an easy decision for the referee to make, and it was probably the correct one, if only for the sake of consistency, but it didn’t really justify the brief player melée that followed. Five minutes later, Liam Whiting, who looked impressive throughout, did something similar, and also received a yellow card. Soon after, Andy Irvine was slightly late with a tackle, which was met with some brief retaliation from his “victim” – after which the ref took time out to give the players a lengthy lecture. Kieran Byrne was booked, in the 57^th minute, for a tiny push, when he was basically trying to make a little room for himself – but his fate was sealed once the lino had started to furiously wave his flag.

Smoke rose from the Assessor’s clipboard.

Neither side was actually threatening to create a chance, at this stage, until Ashford produced their best move of the game, in the 61^st minute. After Gary Mickelborough had won a corner, on the right, he took the kick himself, and he worked it well with Darren Marsden. Marsden then combined well with Andy Irvine, with a neat one-two, with Irvine finishing things with a shot that flew just wide of post and bar. This was Irvs’ last act in the game, as Paul Chambers immediately replaced him with Lee Winfield. The resulting reshuffle saw Liam Whiting switch to left-back, with Kieran Byrne pushing forward into the left side of midfield.

Holmedale’s third goal was scored in the 70^th minute, and there was an element of controversy about it. Lee Winfield gave away a fairly silly free-kick, after an off-the-ball trip, well inside his own half. As the Ashford defence faced up to the free-kick, Joe Mant tapped his boots against the foot of his right-hand post, which is what many ‘keepers do, in order to clean the mud from between his studs. Rikki Cable spotted this, and took the kick quickly, slotting the ball inside the opposite post. Inevitably, the Ashford players pursued the referee with their protests, but to no avail. This was certainly a lesson for Joe to file away in his memory bank - and it completed a fairly miserable week for him.

Tom Scorer came on as a replacement for Gary Mickelborough, in the 75^th minute, and, a minute later, there was a chance for Kieran Byrne. This was instigated by Liam Whiting, who did well to win the ball, on the left side of the field. Byrne turned, inside the Holmesdale penalty area, transferring the ball onto his (weaker) right foot, and his shot went well over the bar. Another side of Liam’s qualities were seen in the 81^st minute, after the home side counter-attacked with a flowing break, after a period of Ashford pressure. Luke Coleman found himself through on goal, with only Joe Mant to beat. Joe got something on the Holmesdale skipper’s effort on goal, but the ball appeared to be rolling over the line, for what would surely be the winning goal, before Whiting, running back, cleared the ball off the line.

At the time, this incident didn’t appear to have changed the destination of the three points, as Ashford has shown few signs of being able to find the quality to be able to get on terms, but that changed when Darren Marsden scored a textbook goal that was almost annoying in its simplicity. Pat Kingwell had made two or three attempts to carry the ball out of defence, as the second half progressed, and he went on one of these raids in the 83^rd minute. The lighthouse centre-half laid the ball off to Stuart Zanone, who slotted a pass through to Marsden, who was making a run in the inside-left channel. With only the ‘keeper to beat, Darren found the net with the minimum of fuss, for his third goal for Ashford, in his eighth appearance.

Paul Chambers then replaced Kieran Byrne with Buster Smissen, in the 86^th minute, and this decision paid an immediate dividend, as Smissen hit the Ashford equaliser soon after. The goal came from a corner on the right, which was played, through a crowded penalty area, to the far post. Whether it was Buster on the end of this cross, side-footing a volley from the corner of the six-yard box, or he applied the final touch to the ball close in, I am not sure, but he was certainly credited with his 14^th goal for Ashford, to maintain his excellent strike rate.

At this point, the momentum was very much with Ashford, and, as they continued to press forward, it seemed that it was the visitors who would be the more likely to grab a winner. But, in the 88^th minute, it appeared that this engrossing game had yet another twist, as a quick kick-out from the Holmesdale ‘keeper set Luke Coleman clean through on goal. There were shades of Geoff Hurst’s “They think it’s all over” goal in 1966, as Luke burst clear and slammed the ball into the net. Unfortunately for him, the lino had already flagged for offside.

There were many present, from both sides, who were convinced that the goal should have stood, and there was plenty of talk about this in the bar afterwards, but I am sure that the lino’s decision was correct. This is because the Assessor in the stand called the decision straight away. “Offside !  Yes, well done !”, he said, as soon as the ball had been played.

Holmesdale can still consider themselves to have been unlucky, however, as some officials would not have spotted the offside.

And worse was to come for our hosts, as, in the first minute of added time, Ashford scored their third goal in nine minutes, to turn the match around. Shortly after Tom Scorer had curled a shot straight at the ‘keeper, the visitors were back on the attack, with Darren Marsden again being put through in the inside-left position. He showed good composure to curl the ball around the advancing goalie, and hit the same post that Luke Coleman had struck in the first half – but, this time, the football Gods decided that the ball would rebound into the net, and Marsden had his second goal of the game, securing the three points for Ashford.