Tonbridge Post Office 2 v 2Pembury Sunday Reserves (aet)
(Pembury won 5-3 on penalties)
Another Sunday morning of frenetic football where we were required to show some character against a very determined Post Office side that included some good players. A review of their results prior to the game had led us to believe that the Post Office were possibly a bit of a Jeckyl and Hyde side whose strength may vary from week to week and with this being a cup game we expected that this would be the stronger version. This was confirmed when we were advised that their side included some of the Hildenborough Saturday team that were dominating in the Kent League. Rather than deflate this was actually a spur for us to raise our game and I give full credit to the players as they did.
In my report last week and in the dressing room beforehand I was critical of some aspects of our defending and suggested that there were some important lessons to learn. To the whole of the defences credit they responded and Tom, Olly, Joe and Rox were magnificent. They didn’t let a single ball bounce, made great tackles and were invariably in the right place at the right time and were very unfortunate in conceding the two goals they did. The first from a direct free kick given for a very harsh handball on the edge of our box and the second for a penalty in injury time when Olly had clearly played the ball and the ref went on the shout. It shows you how well they played when I’ve got this far into the report without even mentioning the wonder strike from Alun (Marco Van Basten) Evans that was as good a strike as I’ve seen in local football.
The opening half was fairly even with their midfield influential but not too threatening due to the quality of our defending. Going forward we were very much of threat with Alun and Matt R-T linking well and getting behind their defence. We took the lead on 36 minutes when Alun rose superbly at the far post to head a free kick back across goal. This led to a desperate clearance falling to Olly White, who had only just replaced the injured Shawn, and he drove the ball home. We almost doubled the lead shortly after when Alun just failed to convert a good chance but the score remained that way till half time. In the second period despite Post Office beginning to apply some pressure we were looking comfortable. Nick Forward was doing a great job in midfield to nullify their possession but we were being forced to sit deep and were relying on hitting them on the break. This approach almost led to our second when Alun was again unfortunate as a defender somehow managed to block his finish on the line when he appeared certain to score. Unfortunately an equaliser arrived with 25 minutes left when a very harsh free kick was driven past the wall into the bottom corner. Surprisingly having been pushing men as soon as they equalised Post Office reverted back to a routine formation which enabled us to come back into the game and with our midfield not having to play so deep we were able to support the forwards more. Not that Alun needed it when on 75 minutes he picked the ball up on the right hand side outside of their box and proceeded to volley from around shoulder height across the box over the keeper and into the top far hand corner. It was a stunning goal that was worthy of winning a tight game. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as having defended stoutly for the last 15 minutes the referee under pressure from the Post Office players and crowd adjudged Olly to have brought down their forward as he went through in our box. What was most disappointing was that Olly had made a great tackle and played the ball. Sammy in goal was unlucky with the penalty as having got something on it it came back off the post and on to him again before rebounding in.
Extra time was a tired affair during which they probably had more possession but we were more threatening. We were refused a blatant penalty in the first period when they punched the ball away as we looked likely to score but we were probably happy to hear the final whistle as Joe was struggling with an injury and Olly was almost immobolised with cramp. At the whistle we immediately became focussed on the penalty shoot out with Mark and myself having already selected our choice of penalty takers and we only needed to see if they fancied it. All of our selections, Matt R-T, Pav, Robert, Rox and Alun, said yes and all five hit the perfect penalty giving their keeper no chance and as Sammy had saved their first when Alun despatched our fifth there was no need for their final attempt and we could not be caught at 5-3.
So an exciting morning. We defended superbly, we were prepared to battle for the second week running against a physical but fair team and at times played some lovely attacking football. We have hit a good momentum and need to carry this forward to Sunday when we entertain the Brown Trout in the Junior Cup at Woodside. This will be another tough game which will need to approach correctly but if can continue our current form then we can have confidence in progressing to another quarter final.
Team:
S.Balcombe
T.Lowe
J. Roxborough
O.Bryant
J. Campbell
P. Poliski
S. Bent
N. Forward
R. Curd
M. Rice-Tucker
A. Evans
Subs:
O. White (for Bent)
T. Gent (for Forward)
M. Files (dnp)
