Sunday saw us come to the end of our Kent Cup run. Whilst getting into the county wide section of the competition is an achievement we believed that we could perhaps go a bit further this year and so defeat was a bit disappointing. In the end we went out to Tyler Hill, a competent and well organised side from the Herne Bay & Whitstable League. I thought that, in general, we were the better footballing side but they were, nevertheless, very committed, physically strong and a team that played very much to their strengths.
They had the better of the opening exchanges and set out to make their mark on the game by closing down quickly and being strong in the tackle. However, once we settled and adapted to the pace of the game we had a good spell of possession and had some success at getting at their back four from wide positions. Both defences were, however, on top and there were very few good opportunities for either side to score. It was clearly going to take something special to break the deadlock and unfortunately their centre forward provided it on the half hour. Picking the ball up midway in our half he ghosted by a couple of half hearted challenges from the midfield before hitting a fierce shot from 25 yards low into the bottom right corner giving the Chimp no chance. Whilst it was a good strike I was disappointed with the initial challenges in midfield and the fact that the defence then backed off and allowed him to shoot without pressure. The remainder of the half continued as it had started, we were dangerous from wide but found it hard to get by their two strong central defenders and they were dangerous through the centre with their midfield often making powerful surges beyond us.
At half time we made the point that if we could move the ball quickly and be tidier in our approach play then there was every chance that not only could we claw the goal back but that we could go on to win the game. The assessment though that they would struggle to maintain their efforts over the pitch for all of the remaining forty five minutes were, however, wrong as to their credit they continued to harry us and make life difficult throughout. Pulling back the goal was always going to be difficult and we knew that in chasing the game there was a danger that they could catch us on the break. That was proven to be true when they extended their lead with twenty five minutes remaining, the ball falling to one of their forwards in our box despite several blocks and attempts to clear. To our players credit, the goal served to give us the impetus to go for it and the remainder of the game was pretty much played in their half. Despite this we struggled to create too many clear cut chances until the final five minutes when Nick Coxon hit the bar with a header and there were several scrambles in the six yard area. Our goal came in the last minute when a cross into the box was fumbled by their keeper and Danny McGahan was on hand to force the ball home. The three or four minutes injury time was fairly frantic and several good opportunities to equalise arose but they were either blocked or scrambled away. We thought we had the equaliser twice in the final seconds. First when we honed in on the ball as it approached their line but it was somehow knocked to safety and second when the follow up to a block fell to Paul Emblem 10 yards out but his rising effort cleared the bar.
In the end I think a draw would have been a fair result but there are positives we can take from the day. Firstly, it was good to be back playing again and we can only have benefited from a very hard workout. Secondly, the spirit was good and I was pleased with the way we came back at them after their second goal when it would have been easy to lay down and accept defeat. Thirdly, there were some positives in the performance, once again defensively the team throughout was good, the midfield and the forwards were industrious ultimately creating some very good chances against a strong and well organised defense. It was also good to see Paul back - his touch and link up play will be of great benefit as our season now gets down to the real business.
Team:
L.Baker
A.Lindsey
M.Boorman
N. Coxon
I.Ward
M.Wood
M.Lawrence
R. Perkins
D. McGahan
D. Burren
A. Evans
Subs:
P. Emblem (for Evans)
M. Lester (for Lawrence)
M. Millins (for Boorman)
G. Manser
P. Bukovec