Tonbridge Post Office 5 v 7 Pembury Sunday Reserves
A very strange game saw us beat third placed Post Office and put some gap between us in the top two and the rest of the pack.
Expecting a tough game we were well prepared and caught Post Office cold when the Rice-Tucker and Smith partnership up front again showed their good understanding and combined in the opening minutes for Kevin to hammer home from close range and put us one up. We doubled this on twenty minutes when a free kick into the box found its way following some half clearances, as they always seem to, to Rox who calmly finished as usual. On thirty five minutes Rox this time took a free kick from twenty five yards and his shot sailed over the keeper for our third. A lack of concentration at the back led to Tom Lowe putting through his own net seven minutes before the break but within a minute we had restored the three goal cushion when Robert Curd shot home from the edge of the box.
At the break we urged the players not to be complacent as conceding the next goal would allow Post Office back into the game. Although we started the half slowly niether side was in the ascendancy and there was no real evidence of the drama that was to follow. Post Office were the first to find the net in the half when they broke through our defence in the sixty third minute to reduce the deficit. We then scored two goals in a minute to apparently make the game safe when Kevin put Matt R-T through one on one to score and then Matt returned the compliment for Kevin to score our sixth. There was no more significant action until Pav, who had come on early in half, played the ball into Kevin for his hat trick and our seventh with ten minutes remaining. This should have been the signal for a final onslaught to improve the goal difference but three goals in four minutes for Post Office turned the game on its head and with six minutes left our five goal lead had been reduced to two and from dominating a game for eighty minutes we were now hanging on. Fortunately we managed to get hold of the ball for a short spell to take the panic out of the game and eventually see us home.
Looking back I still cannot see how we managed to make such hard work of a comprehensive win but hopefully what the final ten minutes will teach us is that a game is never won until the whistle and that once you take your foot off the gas it is hard to get it back on again. If we learn that lesson then the nervous ending will have ben worth it. If we overlook the final ten then the remainder of the game and the first half in particualr saw us play some good football and outplay a team only one place and three points behind us. Going forward as a unit we are now beginning to look a real threat. Our defending at times is a little naive and will still have work to do in this area. Nevertheless we are now in a good position for a strong assault on the top two.
Team:
M. Bolton
J. Roxborough
M. Jermin
O.Bryant
Tom Lowe
O. White
N. Forward
M. Wyles
R. Curd
M. Rice-Tucker
K. Smith
Subs.
P. Poliski (for White)
S. Bent (for Forward)
M. Files (dnp)
