Bearsted 2 Crowborough Athletic 2

Match 14/21/1879 - Tuesday, 3rd August 2021 - SCEFL Premier League

Bearsted (1) 2 Stace 5 Majoyegbe 82
Crowborough Athletic (1) 2 Lambert 6 Bartlett 89 (pen)
Attendance: 80

Admission: £4 Senior
Programme: With entry
Mileage: 15/727

One of the more satisfying aspects of being involved with Academy football (nothing more than driving the minibus!) is seeing 13/14 year-olds grow into young men and into senior football. So, with a collection of past and present Tonbridge Angels Academy players turning out for Crowborough this season, the short trip to Bearsted was a welcome opportunity to view their progress.

Jacob Lambert has already received very favourable reports from acquaintances who regularly watch the Crows whilst in this evening’s team was also Harrison Mayhew and Rhys Bartlett with Joe Tyrie on the bench.

The game got off to an electric start that threatened a goal fest. In the first minute Bearsted’s Giorgio Russo fired over the bar and from a third minute corner, Daniel Melvin’s header was saved by Cameron Hall. So it hardly came as a surprise that Bearsted opened the scoring after five minutes when Sam Stace was sent clear to lob the advancing Hall from 20 yards.

The lead was to last barely 60 seconds when Lambert received the ball and coolly stroked into the bottom corner.

Bearsted dominated the half and had several chances to restore their lead with a headed opportunity for Lekan Majoyegbe the best, but the game got to the break with the same scoreline as it had after six minutes.

The second half started with a tetchy period that saw three bookings, two for Crowborough, in the space of three minutes.

Once it settled down, it was Bearsted that continued to have the momentum but were wasteful with their chances. A great move opened up the Crows after 57 minutes but only ended with Jason Dawson’s shot clearing the bar and further chances for Andy Irvine and Harrison Hatfull failed to find the target.

Eventually, it took some poor defending from Crowborough who allowed a harmless looking free kick find its way through to central defender Majoyegbe to stab the ball past Hall.

But the came was not lost to Crowborough and a through ball saw Bartlett sprint clear only to be brought down just inside the box. Bartlett, himself, sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to secure a point for the visitors.

It wasn’t quite Roy of the Rovers stuff, but Crowborough’s red and yellow away kit certainly resembled the famous strip worn by Melchester Rovers.