Combined Counties League Premier Division South
Eastwood Leisure Centre, Sheerwater
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 148
For my final action of what has been a busy festive period before I return to work tomorrow, I had options of choosing a double or even treble of games today. Unfortunately, none of those options would have included a new ground for me, so in the end I settled for just the one game today, which would enable to complete my visits to all grounds in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South.
The last year has been exciting for Sheerwater, having moved into their new home ground after having to vacate their inadequate Sheerwater Recreation Ground in 2018, followed by a couple of seasons groundsharing at Woking's Kingfield Stadium. Their new ground is situated barely a stone's throw eastwards from their old ground, and is part of a brand new leisure complex, which only opened in October, a couple of months after the football ground. A club fixture board is located at the road entrance of the complex, and football spectators have to enter through the leisure centre, past the reception, along a corridor, up a flight of steps leading to the Sheerwater FC's "club room", which features a bar, a very bright and spacious area, with a view overlooking most of the pitch, apart from the closest touchline, which is obscured by the stand. Spectators then have to leave the club room down another flight of stairs, before approaching the turnstile block in one corner of the ground. With a plastic pitch installed, it is no surprise that the ground is caged in with tall see-through fencing, with the walkways quite right around three sides between the pitchside railing and the cage fencing. The only cover is located along the length closest to the entrance, but is more than adequate, stretching along the entire length, and has a single row of 100 seats along the back of the middle third, with flat standing on either side. The leisure centre and the windows of the club room provide the backdrop behind the stand, with a row of trees visible behind the cage on the other side, where the dugouts are located. It is a very decent place to call home for Sheerwater, amd whilst it is hardly one to get the pulse racing in terms of character or aesthetic beauty, hopefully Sheerwater may be able to add some nice touches to make the ground feel more homely in due course. No doubt the new ground represents a massive upgrade in every respect compared with their previous home. Sheerwater produce a good quality 36 page printed programme, in colour and packed full of stats and articles to read, providing an excellent preview of the match.
This promised to be a decent game between two clubs in the top half of the division. Sheerwater came into this game in ninth place, following eight wins and four draws from their 21 league games. They lost their last two completed games, both at home, but their last game was rather controversial, when they were 7-0 up at home to Banstead Athletic, when the visitors, who had only started with 10 players, allegedly engineered a situation where they were left with only six players on the pitch, giving the referee no alternative but to abandon the game. It is still rather strange to see Beckenham Town not in the Kent / Southern Counties East League, having been there since 1982, but they have adapted quite well to their new footprint predominantly across Surrey following their lateral movement in the summer. They came into this game in fifth place, following eleven wins and two draws from their 14 league games so far, but with between two and five games in hand on all teams above them, and only eight points adrift of top spot, they are right in the mix to win challenge to win the division. But they hadn’t played in the league since 27th November due to a combination of Covid and waterlogged pitches, but have won four and the drawn the other of their last five league games, conceding just one goal. In the reverse fixture of today's game in early September, Beckenham won 1-0.
On an overcast and relatively mild afternoon, this match certainly had a fast start, with the home side racing into a two goal lead inside the first four minutes. With barely a minute on the clock, Scott Costello drilled the ball low from the edge of the area inside the left hand post, and then on four minutes, Sean Swift doubled the home side’s lead. Beckenham then came back into the game, and on 7 minutes, an overhead kick sent the ball just wide of the far post, and on 9 minutes, a cross from the right was headed into the keeper's hands from fairly close range. But on 22 minutes, the hosts opened up a three goal lead when, following some good footwork, the ball was dinked from the left byline across goal, for Antonios Kozakis to volley home at the far post. They had a great chance to make it four on 31 minutes, when a poor back pass was intercepted, but in taking the ball round the keeper, the Sheerwater player went very wide and his long range shot on goal went into the side netting.
3-0 was how the scoreline remained at half time, but in the second half, it was pretty much one way traffic in favour of Beckenham. They pulled a goal back on 54 minutes with a powerful header from a corner, and after seeing a couple of low shots parried past the far post, they pulled another goal back on 65 minutes, when a diagonal ball forward was headed past the keeper. It was looking likely that Beckenham would complete a remarkable comeback, but Sheerwater started to threaten again, most notably when a low shot from the edge of the area hit the post before bouncing clear, and when Beckenham one of their players sent to the sin bin, they seemed to lose their momentum somewhat and in the end came just short in getting anything from the game.
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