Ebbsfleet United (4) 5 Poleon 8,27,28 Bingham 14 Mekki 81
Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Olutade 74
Attendance: 1,132
Admission: £12 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 54/935
Sadly, just like it did in the FA Cup First Round against Bradford City, it can all come tumbling down around you in the very shortest of times. This was always going to be one of the toughest possible openers and those fears were quickly realised. If Ebbsfleet are not in and around the top positions at the end of this season, then there has to be some unbelievably talented sides in this division.
On a hot afternoon, Tonbridge felt the heat from early on when the home side took an eighth minute lead when a good build-up presented a shooting opportunity for Dominic Poleon who found the bottom corner.
Six minutes later a bad start turned into a nightmare one when a punt forward somehow found Rakish Bingham through the centre in time and space to lob the advancing Jonny Henly from 20 yards.
The traffic was one-way and chances came thick and fast for the Fleet before, after 27 minutes, it was as good as game over when following Tonbridge’s first real chance of the game from a corner, Tom Parkinson headed into the path of Sonny Miles who saw his effort saved by Josh Gould. From the clearance, Poleon was clear again and curled his shot into the far corner.
Sixty seconds later, Poleon had his hat trick and Angels supporters were fearing a cricket score. Once again, the Tonbridge defence were undone by a single pass and Poleon finished with clinical efficiency.
Things threatened to get embarrassing for the Angels as a strong shout for a penalty was waved away and a fifth goal was disallowed for offside. The half-time whistle could hardly have been more welcome.
Whether it was the heat; Ebbsfleet taking their foot off the pedal (could they really have maintained that blistering pace for the whole 90 minutes) or Steve McKimm managing to get some stability into his side but the second half restored some pride. That is not too say that the home side didn’t rack up another bundle of chances.
After 59 minutes, Aaron Smith-Joseph registered a shot on target for the Angels but it was comfortably gathered by Gould. On 62 minutes, Ebbsfleet treated themselves to the luxury of removing Poleon and replacing him with ex-Gillingham hotshot Elliott Romain, such is the depth of talent available to the Ebbsfleet manager, Dennis Kutrieb.
Tonbridge replaced their ex-Gillingham man Doug Loft with Zak Guerfi, who at least injected a bit of energy and striker Tommy Wood with Ibrahim Olutade.
And finally, after 74 minutes, the Angels fans had something to celebrate when good work down the right by Guerfi led to Modeste having a shot that was parried by Gould but Olutade was on hand to fire home the rebound. Gallows humour maybe, but the “we’re going to win 5-4” at least brought smiles.
It wasn’t to last as, on 81 minutes, Adam Mekki cut in from the left to fire home a shot across Henly and into the far corner for the home side’s fifth.
Henly made a couple of decent stops in the closing minutes to retain some semblance of respectability to the score line.
One would be quick to jump to the conclusion that a long, hard season for the Angels is about to ensue, but surely there cannot be too many Ebbsfleet’s around, although I’m sure that Dartford, Dorking and Havant games are going to be equally challenging.
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