Hollands and Blair 2 v 0 Cray Valley (Paper Mills)

Saturday 7th April 2012
Kent Senior Trophy Semi Final
Star Meadow Sports Ground, Gillingham
Admission by programme: £4.00
Attendance: 105
Match Rating: 2

For today's fare, I headed up to the Medway towns for a semi-final cup game set up in rather unusual circumstances, giving two teams previously eliminated from the Kent Senior Trophy an unexpected second opportunity in the competition. With the final scheduled for next weekend, at the start of this week the Kent FA had found Erith and Belvedere guilty of fielding an ineligible player in their January tie against Cray Valley - how on earth it has taken this long for this to come to light is anyone's guess, but at least it did before the Final was played - and so both teams that Erith and Belvedere had beaten were reinstated to play off for the right to reach the Cup Final.

The Star Meadow Sports Ground is about a half hour walk from Gillingham train station, and is located adjacent to the busy A2 road. In all honesty, it is a rather charmless, unremarkable ground at the moment, although building works are already in place to improve facilities with the construction of a new changing rooms block and one senses that the ground could be a totally different arena in five or ten years time if the ambitious noises come to fruition. Currently, one passes by the very spacious clubhouse en route from the entrance to pitchside, where facilities are limited to hard standing behind one of the goals and along one of the touchlines. The other touchline has just grass standing, and these three sides have railing. The remaining area behind the other goal is not accessible for spectators. There is no cover and no floodlights. The 28 page programme, included with admission, had some interesting information although half of the pages contained just advertising.

Today's game would give an opportunity for a team from the Kent Invicta League to reach the Cup Final - no mean feat indeed. If the facilities at Star Meadow had been sufficient, Hollands and Blair would probably be plying their trade in the Kent League, having won the Kent County League in two of the last three seasons and finishing as runners up in the middle season. They have surprisingly been off of the pace in the newly formed Kent Invicta League this season though, currently in fifth place and fourteen points shy of leaders Bly Spartans. Their recent form has not been good, losing two and drawing the other of their last three games. To reach this stage, they had beaten West Wickham and Beckenham Town, before losing to Erith and Belvedere after extra time in the Quarter Final. Cray Valley were rather surprisingly elected into the Kent League this season, having finished third in the Kent County League last season and with minimal facilities at the time, although they have settled reasonably well into senior football, in eleventh place in the sixteen team league.

On an overcast and surprisingly cold afternoon with spots of rain in the wind, the game turned out to be a rather poor affair, surprisingly devoid of passion with a first ever senior cup final at stake for both clubs. After Cray Valley were denied by a wonderful point blank save from a header in the opening couple of minutes, it was Hollands and Blair who showed most of the attacking intent in the first half and they deservedly took the lead on 27 minutes when a free kick from wide of the penalty area was headed home at the far post by Stuart West, a lead which they held at the interval.

For the opening quarter of an hour of the second half, it was surprising how flat Cray Valley's play remained, with misplaced passes and a lack of creativity. The home side opened up a two goal cushion on 76 minutes, when a corner was headed home at the far post by Stephen Hafner. This finally sparked the visitors into life, and how they did not score was a mystery, with shots going agonisingly wide of the post or players deliberating too much before having a shot on goal. This short period of carving out good chances did not detract from a well deserved victory for Hollands and Blair, to set up a Final appearance against Sevenoaks Town next weekend. Few would have guessed that final line-up, given the powerhouses in the Kent League, and Hollands and Blair will surely fancy their chances against a team who are in the league above, but are third from bottom.

Orpington 0 v 2 Hollands and Blair

Orpington v Hollands and Blair
Saturday 17th April 2010
Kent County League Premier Division
Score 0-2
Green Court Sports Club, Crockenhill
Admission: N/A
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 25
Match Rating: 3

This was a quite different day to what I had planned, as I had booked flights to Belfast for today for my first trip to the Solitude to watch Cliftonville (against Portadown), but these plans had to be cancelled at the last minute, as were all flights into and out of the United Kingdom since Thursday due to the volcanic ash drifting down from Iceland. And so a rummage around the local football fixtures took me on a much more relaxed afternoon outing to north-west Kent.

Green Court Sports Club is about a 15 minute walk from Swanley train station, via a footpath along the railway line. My thoughts about this ground could be summed up with the words....if only. As you enter the ground, there is a spacious, modern clubhouse, and between this and the pitch, there is a neat, convenient patio area with semi-permanent tables and chairs, which makes for a very pleasant place to enjoy a pre-match pint before the game on a warm and sunny day such as it was today.The ground is fully enclosed, has hard standing most of the way around the railed off pitch, and has a traditional small stand which house plastic bench seating. It's a ground that looks and feels more than fit for Kent League football - if only the ground had floodlights. Without them, there is no prospect of it hosting Kent League football, and as Alma Swanley and Danson Furness found when Green Court was their home ground in the Kent League, planning permission for floodlights here is stubbornly elusive, causing both of these clubs to resign from the Kent League in the 1990's.

The ground has trees lining two sides of the pitch, and views towards miles of countryside and also towards the landmarks of central London visible beyond the other two sides. If only the busy A20 dual carriageway did not run right alongside the ground, this would be a very pleasant, tranquil and rural ground, but instead, the constant roar of traffic is disappointing. Programmes are regularly produced at Orpington, and full credit to those clubs that do in this league where they do not have to. It's a decent 24 page effort printed in colour throughout with all of the essential information to inform the spectator about the club, opposition and league.

Today's game pitched the home club still not safe from relegation against the reigning champions of the Kent County League Premier Division and, having not lost since late November in the league, are very much hunt to retain their title this season. being only two and three points behind the two teams above them but with two games in hand on both.

In truth, this was not one of the most entertaining games I have witness by any stretch of the imagination, with Orpington overly reliant on long balls pumped forward at every opportunity, and with Hollands and Blair quite sluggish, and it was no surprise that the scoreline was goalless at half time. Both sides had better chances in the second half, but in the end Hollands and Blair won the game with a cool finish clipped over the keeper by Bryan Greenfield on followed by a sublime shot that gave the keeper no chance from fully 25 yards out following a free-kick that the keeper had no chance with. This was a deserved win for the visitors, although Orpington acquitted themselves well and for the most part there was little sign of the large gap between the teams in the table. And so Hollands and Blair remained firmly on course for the title, although promotion to the Kent League would apparently seem out of reach due to their limited facilities at their home ground, whilst Orpington will probably need a couple of points from their remaining two games to be sure of survival in the Premier League.