Tonbridge Angels 1 Hemel Hempstead Town 1

Match 87/21/1951 - Saturday, 22nd January 2022 - National League South

Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Turner 8
Hemel Hempstead Town (1) 1 Hughes 25
Attendance: 853

Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 38/4,643

When is a draw at home a good draw; when is it a point gained rather than two points lost? Unless your team is stuck in the middle of the table at a point of the season when the result is virtually meaningless it is a debate that is widely debated, up and down the country, every Saturday. It was a debate following the sharing of the points with Hemel Hempstead Town, personally I thought Tonbridge just about deserved their point, whilst my friends both thought that it would be Hemel that were going home feeling that it was two points lost and the Angels’ goalkeeper, Jonny Henly, being made Man of the Match, adds weight to their argument.

Tonbridge fielded an unchanged team from their midweek victory at Chippenham with the unexpected, but very welcome, news that Adam Lovatt was extending his term at Longmead until the end of the season.

Hemel Hempstead have recovered from a poor start to the season when they could not buy a point that culminated with a change of manager. Since Mark Jones has taken over that have pulled themselves clear of danger with an accumulation of points away from home but very few back at Vauxhall Road where last Saturday they won for the very first time this season.

A surprisingly large crowd of 853 didn’t witness a classic, one of those games when searching for a kind word you would come up with absorbing.

Hemel showed the confidence gained on their travels, starting the better, but it was the home side that took the lead after eight minutes. An innocuous looking cross into the box from Craig Braham-Barrett brought a horrible miskick from Jack Westbrook that gave Joe Turner a tap in a the far post.

The goal did nothing to knock the visitors out of their stride and Henly was brought into action with a parrying save from Charlee Hughes with the follow-up effort from Alfie Cerulli being blazed over.

Hemel’s equaliser on 25 minutes subsequently came as no surprise. A through ball from Alfie Williams found Hughes whose shot took a wicked deflection that wrong-footed Henly.

The visitors went on to dominate the half but without causing major concern to the Tonbridge goal.

An earlier foul on Luke Jenkins that brought a caution for Hemel’s Hughes brought a half-time substitution of the youngster with Tommy Parkinson returning to the action after missing a couple of games through injury.

The Angels came out of the break and took the game to their hosts. Harry Hudson had an effort that was deflected away for a corner and Braham-Barrett made a similar foray on the hour mark but his shot cleared the bar.

Henly was exercised when a shot from Gus Scott-Morriss brought a fine save and as the game entered into the last quarter hour it became stretched and Henly saved well again from Hughes.

Henly confirmed his man of the match status with another fine save this time from substitute Chris Paul to secure a valuable point for Tonbridge.

It was a point with added value as defeat for Welling meant that Tonbridge climbed a place in the table.