Crowborough Athletic 2 v 3 East Preston

Tuesday 26th March 2013
Alderbrook Recreation Ground, Crowborough
Sussex County League Division One
Admission with Programme: £6.00
Attendance: 42
Match Rating: 4

This evening I resisted the lure of watching important World Cup Qualifier in Montenegro to brave an unseasonably very chilly evening at the Alderbrook, for what looked like being a very tough game for my local team, Crowborough Athletic.

With temperatures hovering around freezing point this evening, but mercifully dry – for a change, recently – the game had a red hot and surprising start, when Crowborough took the lead with just a couple of minutes on the clock, when a cross into the box was headed gently over the keeper and into the net by Josh Biddlecombe. Whilst it was something of a surprise to see Crowborough take the lead, they held on to the lead fairly comfortably as they moved the ball around well and looked quite solid at the back. East Preston showed more quality on the ball, but were quite sloppy with it in the first half. Pretty much out of nothing though, East Preston were back on level terms on 29 minutes. The ball was played forward and the keeper raced to the edge of the box to meet the ball and attacking player, however the forward cleverly lobbed the ball high towards goal, and Shaun Charles bundled the ball in on the line. They almost scored again a couple of minutes later, when they had two shots cleared off the line following a corner, but apart from that, a level scoreline at half time was a fair reflection on proceedings.

After a half time interval spent trying to keep warm in the clubhouse with hot chocolate and watching the England game on the TV – which was surely a factor in the low attendance at this game, East Preston took the lead on 52 minutes when a low kick from wide was played into the box and evaded a host of players before being fired home from 8 yards by Craig Grantham. Crowborough were soon back on level terms again though, when just four minutes later, a fast counter attack left Biddlecombe running towards goal unchallenged, but showed composure in passing the ball to the onrushing Chris Ransome, who fired the ball high into the roof of the net. This was actually somewhat against the run of play, as East Preston showed real quality in the second half, forced countless corners and only some desperate defending from Crowborough kept the visitors at bay. Another four minutes later and Crowborough appeared to be given a great chance to earn at least a point when the visitors had Fred Foreman sent off for an off the ball incident. However, this didn’t impede East Preston, who continued to dominate proceedings, and on 70 minutes, the visitors went back into the lead, when Crowborough failed to deal with a corner into the box and eventually Joe Shelley fired home from close range. This seemed to kill the game unfortunately, as it seemed to knock the stuffing out of Crowborough whilst East Preston were happy to stick with what they had. And so it was East Preston who claimed the winner, although with a result that was much closer than might have been expected, and Crowborough should certainly take heart from a very good, positive performance against one of the strongest teams in the Sussex League.

Tunbridge Wells 2 v 0 Shildon

Saturday 23^rd March 2013

Culverden Stadium, Tunbridge Wells
FA Vase Semi-Final First Leg

Admission: £6.00

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 1,754

Match Rating: 4

Tunbridge Wells Football Club will always have a special place in my heart, having been brought up in the area and attended secondary school in the town, as well as regularly attending games in my younger, pre-groundhopping years. So when the club – these days a completely amateur outfit – completed the quite remarkable achievement of reaching the FA Vase semi-final, there was no way I was going to miss out on the club’s biggest day in its history.

Whether that would be today remained hugely in the balance almost right up to kick-off. The pitch at Tunbridge Wells is always liable to waterlogging, and heavy rain early in the week meant that a Friday afternoon pitch inspection was necessary before the Shildon team headed down from County Durham. Further heavy rain on Friday night put paid to many games in the south-east, and I considered there little chance of this game surviving the weather. Indeed, the pitch at the Culverden Stadium actually failed an 8.30 pitch inspection on Saturday morning, however the club appealed for volunteers to fork the pitch, and at 11.30, the referee tentatively declared that the pitch would be fit for action as long as the weather did not take a turn for the worse. As I arrived at the ground at about 1.45, there was a long queue from the turnstiles through the car park, as it turned out that the game was still not officially on – something of a surprise as conditions had not deteriorated in the previous couple of hours - with the referee making a final pitch inspection and then consulting both managers before the game could go ahead. Happily, the match referee gave the green light and the crowds poured into the Culverden Stadium and meant that Shildon’s 600 mile round trip would not be wasted.

A couple of ground improvements had been made for today’s game, with a rather rudimentary, temporary scaffolding type stand erected behind one third of the length opposite the main stand, offering four steps of standing room. A catering van was brought in for hot refreshments, with gazebo area selling club merchandise and showing the Kent Senior Trophy, which Tunbridge Wells will contest in the final at Tonbridge next month. The 32 page programme surprisingly did not have its usual (for this season) attractive stadium painting cover, but inside followed a similar slant although focusing exclusively on the FA Vase throughout.

Today’s match would be a rather intriguing encounter with an amateur club from the south coast taking on a club from the Northern League, from which clubs traditionally seem to do very well in the FA Vase. Both teams are in mid-table in their respective leagues. Tunbridge Wells are in tenth place in the 17 team Kent League, although with at least four games in hand on all teams above them. Shildon are in a very similar position – in eleventh place in the 24 team Northern League, but with between three and eleven games in hand on all teams above them. To reach this stage of the FA Vase – the first time for both clubs – Tunbridge Wells beat Wantage Town 2-0 at home, Binfield 1-2 away after extra time, the FA Vase holders Dunston UTS 1-0 at home, Larkhall Athletic 3-4 away after extra time, and finally Hadleigh United 2-0 at home in the Quarter-Final. Shildon have been Liversedge 3-2 at home, South Shields 2-3 away, Consett 2-3 away, Parkgate 3-1 at home, Bitton 0-2 away, Brantham Athletic 1-4 away and finally Ascot United 1-4 away after a 1-1 draw at home.

On an overcast afternoon that was bitterly cold although mercifully dry, the pitch already looked very wet and muddy before the teams warmed up on it, and unsurprisingly increasingly became something of a mudbath as the game wore on. The first half was a very even affair and was surprisingly entertaining, although the poor conditions meant that players often had trouble keeping their fit and made some rather comical miskicks. Both sides had reasonable chances to open the scoring, Tunbridge Wells possibly having slightly the better of them, although the scoreline remained blank at half-time.

Shildon, backed by quite an impressive band of supporters, came out early for the second half for a motivational huddle on the pitch, and they certainly grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, as they controlled the early stages of the second half, and by midway through the second half, it looked only a matter of time that they would open the scoring, such was the pressure they were applying in the final third. However out of nothing – indeed on a counter-attack from a Shildon attack, Tunbridge Wells took the lead on 77 minutes. The ball was eventually played across the penalty area to an unmarked Andy Irvine, who took control of the ball before placing a shot past the keeper from the corner of the six yard box. Tunbridge Wells certainly needed to take a lead north for the second leg to have a good chance of reaching the final, and they were given the opportunity of taking a more comfortable lead six minutes from time, when the Shildon defender Flynn made a rather reckless, sliding tackle just inside the box and the referee had little hesitation in awarding a penalty. Jon Pilbeam sent the keeper the wrong way, confidently slotting the ball into the bottom right corner. The tide had turned and although Shildon had a couple of half chances to pull a goal back, but in truth, Tunbridge Wells showed their superior fitness levels to end the game the stronger side. So Tunbridge Wells take a two goal lead to the north-east, but the tie is far from over, and much will depend on what happens in the first half of the second leg. But for Tunbridge Wells, the dream of becoming the first Kent League team to reach the FA Vase final since 2000 goes on

Video highlights at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPH2C4vYTp0

Blackheath 53 v 17 Sedgley Park

Saturday 16^th March 2013

Rugby Union National League One

Rectory Field, Charlton

Admission including Programme: £12.00

Attendance: 357

Match Rating: 4

With Charlton’s game against Millwall being brought forward to a 12.30 kick off, this opened up the possibility of catching a second game afterwards. Persistent rain all morning falling on already sodden ground put paid to the only local football game I could take in at Bridon Ropes, so instead I crossed Charlton village to take in, for me, a rare rugby game, in the third tier of the English rugby union league pyramid.

The Rectory Field is located about 15 minute walk from Charlton train station, a similar length from The Valley, with much of the walk being uphill, and the ground is part of a large sporting complex also housing cricket, tennis and squash clubs. From the entrance, one walks alongside the clubhouse and bar, and as one continues, there is a snack bar and drinks outlet behind one end of the rugby pitch. Along one length of the pitch – furthest from the entrance and the boundary of the complex – is an all-seater covered stand attractively decorated in club colours, and either side are about a dozen uncovered terrace steps. Along the other length, three moveable terrace steps are located at either end, with the middle third of the length inaccessible due to the protected cricket square. A basic electronic scoreboard is located in one corner of the ground, and mention must be made of the snack bar, which offers some excellent quality fare not usually seen at sporting venues. The 44 page programme, included in admission, was an excellent read, if a little heavy with advertising, but included plenty of information about both clubs, recent form and today’s match.

Coming into this game, the league table pointed to a home win, with Blackheath in seventh place in the 16 team league, with Manchester based Sedgley Park second from bottom. Blackheath had a disappointing home defeat to Coventry last Saturday, although they won their previous three games.

When the two teams met back in October, Sedgley Park convincingly won by 40-22, inflicting Blackheath’s worst defeat of the season, but just two wins in 18 games since has left them in grave danger of relegation.

On a dry afternoon, with even sunshine and blue skies making occasional appearances, Blackheath took control of the match early on, scoring a try as early as the fourth minutes, and a further four tries followed for the home side by half time, to take a 31-3 lead into half-time, and was a good reflection on the dominance of the home side in the first half. Jack Walsh (4 minutes), Liam Gibson (11), Dave Allen (14 and 24) and Gavin O’Meara (38) scored the tries for Blackheath, Rory Teague converting three of them.

Full credit though to Sedgley Park, who rolled their sleeves up in the second half to  attack Blackheath at the start of the second half, to the extent that they threatened to make an extremely unlikely comeback, getting back to within two converted tries of the home side after 15 minutes of the second half. However, Blackheath did up the ante and return to the form they showed in the first half to move clear once more and eventually claim a convincing win to remain in seventh place in the league. Richard Windsor (55 minutes), Teague (69), Lee Covington (74) and Richard Lankshear (80) scored the second half tries for Blackheath, with one being converted by Teague. Sedgley Park ran in two tries in the second half, by Steve Collins and Lloyd, both converted by Matthew Riley, who also scored a penalty.

Charlton Athletic 0 v 2 Millwall

Saturday 16^th March 2013

Football League Championship

The Valley, Charlton

Admission: Season Ticket

Programme: £3.00

Attendance: 18,514

Match Rating: 4

 

Stats courtesy of Worldfootball.net

Torquay United 1 v 3 Oxford United

Saturday 9th March 2013
Football League Two
Plainmoor, Torquay
Admission: £17.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 2504
Match rating: 3

Having always quite fancied a visit to the English Riviera, I booked a bargain Travelodge two night stay for £12 a night way back in August, with a view to taking in this game. Given the quite shocking recent form of Torquay United, I probably would have altered my plans had the hotel stay not been pre-paid and that there were plenty to entertain me in Torquay itself.

Having spent the morning in the company of penguins, fur seals, otters and other maritime animals at the excellent Living Coasts coastal zoo, I made my way one and a half miles northwards to Plainmoor - much of it uphill - which took about half an hour. The distance is slightly less from the nearest railway station, Torre. Based on the overall impression of the town and memories of seeing Plainmoor on the telly from a few years ago, I imagined that Plainmoor would be an interesting, quaint stadium. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. There is very little to advertise the football club on the outside, apart from an attractive mural hidden away behind one of the stands. To start with the positive, fans have a refreshing choice on whether they wish to sit or stand with a length and behind one of the goals housing seating, the other length and area behind the goal being terracing - although the terracing behind the goal is allocated to visiting supporters. With no obstructing pillars in any of the stands, views are excellent and all stands are fully covered. Seating in the main stand along one of the lengths is also pitched highly, which I imagine would give excellent views. However, although facilities are excellent considering the compact size of the stadium, the ground now has almost no character, built or breeze blocks and uninteresting metallic covers. The 64 page programme was refreshingly different from the usual type of programme one finds in the Football League these days, with plenty of interest to read for regular and neutral visitors alike, although the cover was disappointingly just paper, meaning it would get defaced rather readily.

Torquay started the season fairly well, being in and around the top ten up to the end of 2012. However, in January they picked up just four points from four games - happily for Torquay all coming in two games against bitter local rivals Exeter - however in February, they lost all seven games played, although they slightly stopped the rot with a 0-0 draw at Accrington Stanley last Saturday. Such a poor run of form has left Torquay down in 20th place, just two points above the bottom two teams. Oxford United had a similarly shocking run of form back in September, when they lost six games on the bounce. Recent form has been better though, as they picked up 10 points from the four games before a 0-4 home defeat to promotion chasing Rotherham. In twelfth place going into this game, they will still have faint hopes of reaching a play-off position, although they are nine points adrift with ten games left to play. When the two teams met in Oxford back in November, the game finished goalless.

On an overcast, damp afternoon, the first half was quite an even affair, with both sides having reasonable chances, although it was little surprise that the scoreline remained goalless at half time.

As the second half started, increasing mist descended on Plainmoor, although it never looked like becoming severe enough to cause the game to be in danger.  Five minutes after the interval and disaster struck for the home side, when some poor defending saw the ball sloppily given away to James Constable, who burst forward, outmusucled the defender before taking the ball around the keeper and slotting it home into an empty net. Just four minutes later, and there was more calamatous defending from Torquay. John Oastler gave the ball needlessly in midfield to Constable, but three defenders appeared to have the situation under control, until somehow Constable took the ball away from Aaron Downes, who then brought Constable down in the box for a clear penalty.Damien Batt shot powerfully to the right hand corner with the keeper going the other way. However, to Torquay's credit they didn't throw in the towel and four minutes later on-loan Joss Labadie forced a finger tip save from Ross McCormack from 25 yards. From the resulting corner, Downes partly made up for his earlier errors when he glanced in Lee Mansell's corner. Torquay were back in the game, and they battled gamely for the remainder of the game, although Oxford always looked dangerous whenever they broke forward. Any hope of a Torquay equaliser was finally extinguished with what turned out to be the last kick of the game, when Simon Heslop, who had only been introduced as a substitute in injury time, took the ball out wide and drove the ball across the keeper and into the net. There was not even time to restart the match as Oxford reduce the gap to the play-off positions to seven points with a win they certainly deserved, whilst Torquay will rue throwing the game away with some comical defending and are now just one point above the relegation places.

Broadbridge Heath 2 v 0 Crowborough Athletic

Wednesday 6th March 2013
Sussex RUR Cup Semi Final
East Court, East Grinstead
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 150 (estimate)
Match Rating: 3

Two midweek games in two nights for me was assured when my other local senior football club, Crowborough Athletic, would be playing in a cup semi-final this evening at East Grinstead. Not that making it just over the border into West Sussex would be a straightforward affair, having spent the day at London ExCel and with an early kick off for this match at 7.15 due to local floodlight restrictions.

East Court is a ground that I have visited on many occasions in the past, most recently on Boxing Day last season, since when no improvements have been made. It's certainly a ground ready for stepping up into the Isthmian League, even if East Grinstead never come to close to achieving promotion on the pitch. The 32 page programme was a surprisingly good publication produced by the Sussex FA, with a very professional cover and layout inside and all the information one would need regarding the background to tonight's game, even if it was a little heavy on adverts.

Crowborough would be red-hot favourites to reach the final of this competition, currently in 13th place in Division One of the Sussex County League and their opponents, Broadbridge Heath playing in Division Two, having been promoted from intermediate football last season despite not actually finishing in a promotion place in the league. They are doing well in their division though, up in fifth place. Broadbridge should have been underestimated at their peril though, having won all three previous ties in this competition away from home, including a 0-5 drubbing of Division One Hailsham Town in their opening game in the competition, followed by wins at Division Two clubs Bexhill United and Eastbourne United. The draws have certainly been kinder to Crowborough, having thumped one of the Division One whipping boys AFC Uckfield 6-2 at home, before beating Division Two clubs Storrington 2-5 away and then Newhaven 2-1 at home. Both of tonight's teams would no doubt be delighted to have been drawn to play each other, leaving two of the strongest teams in Division One, East Preston and Peacehaven, to squabble over a final place in the other semi final. To make tonight's assignment even tougher for Broadbridge Heath, nine first team players were unavailable for this game.

If all the signs posted towards a comfortable passage for Crowborough to the final, tonight's game was quite remarkable, as right from the kick off, Broadbridge Heath were in the ascendancy as they played good measured football whilst Crowborough were all too willing to give away possession - admittedly abetted by constant good pressure from the Broadbridge Heath players. On 20 minutes, Broadbridge Heath took a deserved lead when an excellent run was made from deep by Jamal Sultan to beat the offiside trap before passing the ball low into the penalty area and Dean Robinson scuffed a shot into the corner of the net. This did not spur Crowborough into life as Broadbridge Heath looked in control of proceedings and always the more likely of the two teams to score again.

The second half started quite evenly, perhaps with Crowborough slightly shading it, but on 53 minutes Broadbridge Heath scored a second when Grant Miller strode forward before unleashing a drive from 25 yards which went beyond the keeper's dive and into the corner of the net. Even with around 40 minutes left to play and with the team 2-0 up in a division below, that looked like game over, so desperately poor had Crowborough been so far. They certainly improved after the second goal as much of the play for the remainder of the game was in Broadbridge Heath's half. Although Crowborough had a shot tipped over the bar and saw a shot come off the post, Crowborough still looked a yard off the pace. Broadbridge Heath also broke away for a couple of very good chances themselves, but two goals was enough for them and it is they who move forward to the final.

Tunbridge Wells 3 v 2 Beckenham Town

Tuesday 5th March 2013

Kent League Premier Division

Culverden Stadium, Tunbridge Wells

Admission: £6.00 

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 102

Match rating: 4

 

For this week's midweek fare, I spurned the opportunity to sit at home and watch Manchester United against Real Madrid in the Champions League, instead I headed to my other local team, Tunbridge Wells. Whilst I did fear there may be something of "after the lord mayor's show" about this fixture, with Tunbridge Wells having heroically won their FA Vase Quarter Final game on Saturday, I still considered it worth a visit to see a team I have high affection for having managed such a fantastic achievement in reaching the FA Vase Semi Final.

There have been no changes to the ground from my previous visits in recent seasons.As for the programme, although it was certainly overpriced at £1.50, there was some interesting material to read with colour photographs, a fairly low quantity of advertising, contained 32 pages and the cover had an attractive painting of the ground, celebrating 50 years of playing there. 

Cup exploits and poor weather conditions have meant that league form would be difficult to judge for Tunbridge Wells, tonight being their first league game since 4th February and only their third in 2013. So the fact that Tunbridge Wells have not lost in the league since 20th October - when they went down 4-5 at tonight's opponents Beckenham - is not quite as impresive as it may at first sound - the run only spans four league games, all won. However, in all competitions, they are unbeaten in their last seven games and are unbeaten in their last 15 games, and as well as having a FA Vase semi final to look forward to in the next couple of weeks, they have also reached the Kent Senior Cup semi final which shall be played at the weekend. Although they went into this game down in ninth place, they have at least three games in hand against every other team - win all of their games in hand, and they would be joint second. As for Beckenham, one place below Tunbridge Wells, they have been on reasonable recent form too, having lost just once in their last six games, picking up 11 points. Tonight's two teams have also met in the FA Cup back in early August when Beckenham won 4-1 at home.

On a surprisingly mild evening, the game started at a lively pace, and on 12 minutes it was the visitors who opened the scoring when after a player was fouled out wide, the referee played advantage, the ball was then drilled across the penalty area before being fired in from close range by Danny Tipple. It didn't take long for Tunbridge Wells to get back on level terms though - less than a minute in fact. Virtually from the kick off Tunbridge Wells poured forward and eventually Jack Harris took possession of the ball, drove towards goal before unleashing a powerful shot past the Beckenham keeper at his near post despite the keeper getting a hand to the ball. The game maintained its high tempo for the rest of the first half and Tunbridge Wells would surely have kicked themselves for not taking a lead into half time, having spurned some very presentable chances.

The second half remained entertaining, although there were few goalscoring chances by now for the opening half of the second half. On 78 minutes, the home side took the lead though with a rather messy goal. A good ball was played forward and the keeper couldn't keep control of the ball and when the ball spilled away, Josh Stanford just managed to scramble to his feet to pass the ball into the net before a defender could get a block in. Four minutes later and it appeared that Tunbridge Wells had put the game to bed on 82 minutes when a free kick from outside the corner of the penalty area was curled not particularly powerfully over the wall, past the keeper's dive and into the net. However, similar to what Tunbridge Wells managed earlier, Beckenham took less than a minute to pull a goal back, when the ball was floated into the box from a corner, and after the ball bobbled around in the air, finally Elstrom Die glanced the ball delicately over the keeper's hand and into the net. A grandstand finish never materialised though as Tunbridge Wells held onto their lead fairly comfortably to claim the three points after a very entertaining game of football, even if less than a tenth of those present on Saturday for the FA Vase game were present tonight.

Charlton Athletic 0 v 1 Burnley

Saturday 2nd March 2013
Football League Championship
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 20,065
Match Rating: 1

Match report can be viewed here