Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Olutade 90+9
Hampton & Richmond Borough (0) 1 Fisher 78
Attendance: 718
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 38/1,703
To celebrate my 70th birthday, I chose to sponsor a game at my beloved Tonbridge Angels for the first time, introducing non-football friends to the thrills and spills of non-league football for the first time. Everybody had a great time, they enjoyed the beer and sandwiches, but was there enough to persuade any of them away from their sofas and the Premier League, or in my brother’s case, away from League One football at Gillingham, probably not.
All non-league supporters know that you have to adjust your expectations away from the fare that is served up on Sky Sports and this doesn’t happen in a single game. Once you have done that, the game is what it is, one team against the other, one team winning because they have the greater ability or one team winning because they have the greater desire.
I cannot write that the Angels and Hampton produced a classic match to entertain my friends but who doesn’t like a 99th minute equaliser that comes courtesy of the bad guy!
I think the guests were glad to get to half-time to refresh with a cuppa or a beer as the first half had not exactly captured the attention with both sides having nothing more than a couple of half chances. Perhaps, Jonny Henly was the slightly busier goalkeeper.
Perhaps the guests were voting with their feet as they opted not to stray to far away from the bar for the second half and watched from the terrace!
It might have been my birthday and my guests but my superstitions forced me back to my place on the rail as it has done for far too many years.
The second half was much better and hopefully more enjoyable for the uninitiated.
Henly made the first serious save of the match keeping out a Kadell Daniel strike that was en-route to the top corner. Tonbridge responded well but only asked routine saves of ex-Gillingham goalkeeper Alan Julian.
The game got scrappy again; there was a lengthy delay as Henly required treatment but then a top quality strike from a free kick put the visitors in front with 12 minutes to play. Ricky Modeste gave away a foul on the left hand edge of the box and David Fisher executed a perfect curling free kick round the wall and beyond the reach of Henly. It had been a game where one piece of quality would win it and seemingly this was that moment.
But, in fairness to the Angels, if there is one element to their game that is never lacking it is spirit and they mounted a grandstand finish to the game.
After 84 minutes, Modeste hit the bar with a header and two minutes later substitute Ibrahim Olutade’s effort was saved at point blank range by Julian.
Into the last couple of minutes of the lengthy time added for Henly’s injury and enter stage left, the bad guy! As per usual, the winning team makes a substitution to wind down the clock and Ryan Gondoh was intent to remove as much as he could of the remaining time from the clock but he incurred the wrath of the referee who showed him a yellow card during his dawdle to the touchline. As the ball bounced towards the Hampton dugout for a throw-in, Gondoh thought it would be a wise, time wasting action to turn the ball over the dugout and into the crowd. Referee Jack Packman failed to see the non-existent funny side and brandished a second yellow followed by a red and as he walked around the ground to the dressing room his fingered signal to the home supporters reminding them of the score was about to also horribly backfire.
The referee had initially indicated seven minutes and as the game ticked into the 99th minute courtesy of Gondoh’s antics retribution was well and truly served. One last ball forward saw Tommy Wood bearing down on Julian but the goalkeeper saved at his feet only for the ball to rebound into the path of Olutade, who made no mistake. Cue, delirium on the home terrace and the pedestrian Gondoh who was continuing to make his slow passage to the sanctuary of the dressing room. My joy was obvious but it was great to see that my guests had engaged with the moment and delighted at the outcome.
It had been a great day, Tonbridge Angels had done me proud, both on and off the pitch.
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