Bearsted 2 Canterbury City 2

Match 79/21/1943 - Monday, 3rd January 2022 - SCEFL Premier

Bearsted (1) 2 Irvine 38 Stace 57
Canterbury City (0) 2 Amgbaduba 80 O'Donnell 85
Attendance: 113

Admission: £4 Senior
Programme: Included
Mileage: 15/4,297

No disrespect to Bearsted but they were a last minute, third choice destination for a game on Bank Holiday Monday. Waterlogged pitches at Tunbridge Wells and Staplehurst (a novel reason for a postponement these days, rather than Covid) had led to the change of plan, but as is quite often the case, it brought an enjoyable afternoon with a entertaining game of football.

As I senior citizen, with £4 for entry that included a programme, I could hardly go wrong with a 15 mile round trip from home an added bonus.

The context of the game centred on Bearsted losing their goalkeeper, Tom Barns, after 10 minutes. Barns went down injured within the first five minutes but soldiered on for a few more until he needed to be replaced by Joel Wakefield, normally an outfield player. For 70 of the remaining minutes, Bearsted protected him and whilst he had been onfield for an hour before he needed to use his hands, he swept well behind his defenders clearing everything that got behind them.

It makes it hard to fathom that Canterbury barely produced a heart beat flutter for 80 minutes but then produced two goals, the equaliser a wonderful strike from Harry O’Donnell, in the last 10 minutes. It was almost as if it took them that long to realise Wakefield was a stand-in keeper who brought cheers from the home support with every clearance.

Bearsted had the best of the first half chances with City goalkeeper, Tom Benham, saving well from Jordan Tingley and Andy Irvine before Irvine rolled back the years on 38 minutes as he cruised through some pretty feeble defending to put the Bears a goal to the good at the break.

On 57 minutes, Sam Stace curled a beauty from 25 yards to double Bearsted’s advantage and they were looking very comfortable with it.

Bearsted should have put the game to bed with chances for Jon Rogers who struck a post and then, in the 76th minute, clipped the top of the bar.

After an hour of barely dirtying his mate’s gloves, Wakefield was brought into serious action and he excelled making a couple of decent saves before, in the 80th minute, a poor clearance from Wakefield went straight to Eniye Amgbaduba in a clear shooting position and he gave Wakefield no chance with a unerring finish.

Canterbury sensed that there was something to be had from this game and with five minutes to go, O’Donnell, who had looked City’s most likely outlet for a goal, latched onto a loose ball on the left hand side of the six yard box and volleyed in a fine strike into the far corner.

City might well have gone on to win the game and it took a save from Wakefield that any goalkeeper would have been proud of to preserve a point for the home side.