Deal Town 4 Tunbridge Wells 1

Match 130/16/1437 - Saturday, 29th April 2017 - Southern Counties East

Deal Town (2) 4 Philpott (pen) 4 Anderson 8 Adams 50 Reeves 77
Tunbridge Wells (1) 1 Pinnock 46
Attendance: 207

Entrance: £4
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 108/8,985

This was probably a fitting end to Tunbridge Wells’ season, pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. A player light after just two minutes and a goal down from the resultant penalty, an uphill struggle ensued of which there could be only one winner.

This has been a season to forget for Tunbridge Wells’ loyal supporters who, as usual, followed their team to the East Kent coast in numbers and in adversity, with great humour.

Fearing another negative report to write, I approached the Wells’ supporters asking for positives to come out of a season in which they have flirted with the relegation places for long periods. Unfortunately, they could come up with very little on the playing side and this performance clearly illustrated why.

The first win of the season at Fisher in September was recalled coupled with the vocal support that greeted the victory. A memorable away day at Sheppey when 300-plus Islanders were out sung by the Wells fans and the fans getting behind the club and raising £4,000 through their Supporters Trust initiative all pointed that the fans had done their bit.

Relegation has been avoided with a couple of good results that lifted the club into the less choppy waters of lower mid-table but none more so than the three points that were eventually awarded to Tunbridge Wells following the early season abandonment of their game against Croydon. Richard Woodfield commented that “the (reasonably) good name of the club would have been trashed if decision had gone the other way. Momentous decision for the football authorities to, in effect, rule that a referee had totally lost the plot.”

The referee at this game, who went on to have a reasonably good game, took centre stage very early at The Charles Ground awarding Deal Town a penalty and sending off Perry Spackman after just two minutes. The decision to award the spot kick cannot be denied but the dismissal has to be questioned as Deal’s Jack Paxman was not heading in the direction of the goal. Ryan Philpott struck his penalty to the left of Steve Lawrence and when asked to re-take the kick as Spackman had not left the pitch, he stroked his second attempt into the same corner.

Unforgivable defending allowed the hosts a second goal after eight minutes. A free kick conceded on the right hand side was floated into the box by Joe Reeves to Joe Anderson who was allowed a free header from the edge of the six yard box.

Tunbridge Wells spent the rest of the half chasing shadows with James Pinnock stretching the Deal goalkeeper, James Tonkin just the once after 20 minutes.

After such an inept first period it came as something of a surprise as the visitors scored within a minute of the start of the second half. A defence-splitting pass from Josh Biddlecombe sent Pinnock clear. He decided not to take on the shot, but rounded the goalkeeper to score.

Any hope of a comeback was quickly dispelled four minutes later when a slick move down the right ended with Philpott setting up Dan Adams to score from close range.

Philpott brought a good diving save out of Lawrence, which at least brings me back to my “give me positives” survey, with Julian Fussell making the observation: “Steve Lawrence has been absolutely immense this season, he'll rightly romp the end of season awards and without him I dread to think where we would have ended up!"

To list the chances throughout the second half that were created by Deal would make depressing reading for Wells’ supporters. Eventually, after 77 minutes, they added a fourth when a corner from the left was headed back across the face of goal by Kane Smith to Joe Reeves who had time and space for an easy finish.

So sadly, another Tunbridge Wells game passes by with little positivity. As I made my way back to the car park, the songs from the South East Stand choir continued to ring around the Charles. They make do with a few beers and great comradeship; they deserve so much more from the pitch.

This was my first visit to Deal in the lifetime of this blog, what a little gem! Sadly, the old grandstand has disappeared for a modern construction but the clubhouse, the quaint dressing rooms building and tea in a proper mug add to is charm. Finally, what a pitch, some clubs, much higher up the pyramid, would die for a surface like this one pre-season let alone the final game.