Penshurst Park 2 v 2 Pembury
Having not initially been scheduled to have a fixture, due to a postponement the week before, we were handed a testing away fixture to Penshurt Park. A team who we drew with earlier on in the season and were beaten comprehensively by in the cup when we had a severely depleted line up. We had a decent squad and were hoping to get the 3 points.
We started brightly, hoping that they’d be complacent given the scoreline of the cup match. This was how the game started, we started the brighter of the two and a quick corner from Tommy Gent to Luke Turner enabled Luke to cross for Liam to nod home and put us 1-0 up. We had a few further half chances, trying to make the most of the slope, but unfortunately we couldn’t make them count. Then after 25 minutes the Referee wanted to get in on the action and overruled the linesman who was a yard away from the incident and awarded Penshurst a goal kick when it was clear to both parties it was a corner. In the following 20 minutes the referee was at the forefront of everything and the baffling decisions had taken our mind totally off of the game and more focused on him, this made our football suffer and the scoreline changed as a result. A speculative effort from outside the box was struck and looked, especially to Sammy to be heading out for a goal kick. Only for the ball to then cannon back off the post onto his shin and into the goal, very lucky. This then gave them the boost they needed and unfortunately a miscued clearance fell to their striker who did well to turn and finish. We were now all over the place, angry at the decisions that had been made coupled with anger at ourselves we had conceded twice.
We got in at half time and stressed, as hard as it was, to concentrate on our own game and if we could, not get involved with the Ref. Given the slope it was inevitable that Penshurst would enjoy more attacking play and that was the case. The game was allowed to flow nicely for 25 minutes until the referee awarded a Penalty against Sammy when it was clearly and impressive block with his legs, even their players had all agreed. I won’t condone our actions in swarming to the Ref, as they are unacceptable, but the decision was that ridiculous it was hard not to feel complete and utter frustration. The only saving grace was that after consulting the linesman he rescinded his decision and continued the game. We soaked up their play and were hoping to catch them on the break. We made a few changes, one of which bought Brownie on for Luke and moved him up front to try and hold the ball up for us. This to a degree worked and we at least having more action at their end and almost levelled when Brownie’s flick narrowly avoided Liam at the far post. When it was looking like we wouldn’t get anything from the game a quick piece of thinking from Caner used Jake who fired a shot in that was cleared off the line straight onto Fletch and into their net. A very lucky goal in terms of its finish but after their opener I guess you could call it even. The game finished out at 2-2.
It was a shame we couldn’t get the three points, but we temporarily move second and the progress from last year is clear to see. It was a game between two footballing sides that unfortunately was ruined by some very questionable officiating against both teams which led to the frustration of two unaggressive teams being taken out on eachother. Southborough next week and 3 points, going joint top of the table for a few weeks at least, will be most welcome.
Team:
S.Balcombe
S.Palermo
C.Duncan
C.Fletcher
T.Gent
M.Wood
C.Veli
L.Turner
H.Webb
J.Miller
L.Gent
Subs:
M.Kubik
M.Brown
