Pre-Season Friendly
Princes Park Community Pitch, Dartford
Admission: £2.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 37
As can happen with groundhopping, today turned out very differently to how I had loosely planned when I woke up this morning. I was planning to visit the traditional grounds of either Millbrook or Virginia Water today, but with trains being affected by an ASLEF overtime ban, resulting in reduced services and increased risk of cancellations, and then noticing that this game would be played on the same Princes Park complex where Charlton would be playing later in the day, I decided to hop in the car and make my way to Dartford.
Lewisham Borough do not usually play here, they play their league fixtures at the Ladywell Arena in Catford, but Kent County League Premier Division outfit Halls Athletic do call this pitch home, and they did originally apply for promotion to Step 6, but were unsuccessful, not too surprisingly it has to be said, despite some decent facilities. The pitch is railed down both length, but it is impossible to get between them, with both ends out of bounds and each length being accessed by separate entrances. Opposite the dugouts, there is a modern metallic stand containing about 50 seats, and floodlights are present. The backdrop is quite pleasant, with a variety of trees around the ground, and the main Princes Park stadium behind one end. Unsurprisingly, no paperwork was produced for this fixture, although pin badges and scarves were available for sale at the entrance.
Lewisham Borough had a very average season in the Step 6 Southern Counties East Division One, finishing in twelth place in the 17 club division. Merstham came dangerously close to relegation from the Step 4 Isthmian League South Central Division, finishing in 18th place in the 20 club division, ensuring that they had to contest a play-off game against Egham Town to ensure their survival.
On a very muggy and mostly overcast early afternoon, with occasional showers passing through, this was quite an entertaining game to watch, and although Lewisham started by doing much of the attacking, Merstham emerged to create some good chances. On ten minutes, a corner was headed just wide of the far post, and on 16 minutes, a cross from the left was met with a powerful close range header, which was excellent saved as point blank range by the keeper. On 19 minutes, Merstham opened the scoring with a very good goal, following a dribble across the edge of the area before a shot was blasted into the top right corner. Lewisham then went close with a couple of efforts, and immediately after a drinks break, Merstham saw a powerful downward header go just wide.
After the inevitable mass changes at the break, it was Lewisham who mostly dominated the second half, and they had a great chance to equalise on 57 minutes, when the ball was chested down at the edge of the penalty area, and a powerful shot was blocked by the keeper. Merstham did have great chance to extend their lead, with a tantalising diagonal ball across goal just evading a couple of tap ins. But on 72 minutes, Lewisham scored with a very good finish, Asiamah running in from the left before lashing the ball across the keeper and into the net. And they scored their second on 75 minutes, when good passing towards the edge of the area, and then Ajose fired a low shot beyond the keeper's dive into the bottom left corner.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment