Havant and Waterlooville (0) 1 Oastler 57
Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Coombes 90+2
Attendance: 1,037
Admission: £10 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 202/4,845
When the manager of the home side admits that the visitors deserved their point, however late it may have came, there is no sense of bias in saying to lose would have been a great injustice.
The weather continued with the cold snap but it wasn’t quite as extremity biting as the last few evening games.
Luke Jenkins picked up a hamstring strain on Saturday as was replaced by the returning Tommy Parkinson.
Since my last visit to Westleigh Stadium 10 years ago, Havant have installed a FIFA approved surface (just don’t call it 3G) but strangely did nothing about the slope on which they laid it. But, as it was in 2012, it is a nicely appointed ground with cover on all four sides. Once strange anomaly in these times was that the stadium was virtually cash only, which actually caught me on the hop, arriving with very little cash!
Havant & Waterlooville, under the managership of Paul Doswell, has built a full-time squad based on experience with many hundreds of Football League appearances between them including Nicky Bailey, who once left Charlton for Middlesbrough for £1.4 million.
But, on the field, this squad have not reached the expectations of their supporters, and I would guess their board, and suffered a highly embarrassing 8-0 defeat at Dorking over Christmas with the return at Westleigh also ending in defeat.
Joe Turner was the first to test the home defence after a couple of minutes, with a run through on goal but ex-Sutton goalkeeper, Ross Worner was out quickly to smother the ball.
The first half-hour of the game wasn’t exactly a thriller but it was certainly the Angels that were having the best of the exchanges with Tommy Wood firing a shot narrowly wide and also having a header that wasn’t too far wide.
On 35 minutes a surging run from Craig Braham-Barrett ended with him brought down for a credible penalty appeal but the referee was having none of it.
Tom Beere put another shot marginally wide of the post before the referee called a halt to a half that Tonbridge had enjoyed the better of proceedings.
Probably with the words of Doswell ringing in their ears, the home side quickly seized the second half momentum and when they went ahead after 57 minutes it was a goal that appeared to be coming. A left wing corner was met with a towering header from John Oastler, but it left Tonbridge aggrieved that goalkeeper Jonny Henly had been impeded in his attempt to cut out the cross.
This sparked a period, their only in the game, when Havant were the dominant side and it took a wonder save from Henly to deny Andrews, it felt like a major moment in the game.
Another of those moments came at the other end on 78 minutes when Worner made an equally brilliant save to deny Turner after an initial shot had been blocked.
Steve McKimm had thrown caution to the wind replacing Harry Hudson and James Taylor with attackers Adam Coombes and Aaron Smith-Joseph. For their part, Havant decided to rest on their lead and shut up shop and as the clock ticked into time added it looked like they would see it out.
But this Tonbridge side has a spirit that never gives up and two minutes into the four added minutes they got the break that their efforts thoroughly deserved. A cross from the right from Jamie Fielding saw the ball only half scrambled to safety but to the feet of Coombes whose unerring finish into the far corner brought delight to the Tonbridge faithful, who had travelled in their numbers, positioned behind the goal.
There was one last scare for the Angels as with the last foray of the match a shot across the face of the goal was helped on its way to safety whilst the home supporters desperately called for a penalty.
Home at just about midnight, a journey well worth it.
Additional photos: Kathryn Bell and Dave Couldridge
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