Bearsted 3 Tunbridge Wells 2

Match 126/21/1990 - Saturday, 16th April 2022 - SCEFL Premier

Bearsted (2) 3 Stace 5 Wakefield 45 Irvine 90+4
Tunbridge Wells (1) 2 Gething 23,47
Attendance: 130
Admission: £4
Programme: Included
Mileage: 15/7,254

Such was the lushness of the grass at Bearsted’s Honey Lane and the pleasant 20degC of warmth, it suggested this was the opening day of the season not a virtual dead rubber on Easter Saturday. But the game carried an intensity that was a credit to both sides right to the very end when, in the 94th minute, who else but a Tunbridge Wells Wembley 2013 legend, Andy Irvine, came from the bench to score a winner for the Bears.

I know of no better grass pitch in Non-League football, it truly is a thing of beauty that is far more suitable for a stately home, cream teas or a film set for Downton Abbey. As football clubs around Kent tear up their green, green grass of home for the artificial variety, I would imagine the committee at Bearsted will be the last to employ the diggers to their manicured lawn.

Two teams with very little to play for, bar pride, might just as well play with an entertaining freedom and this they did.

Both sides had early opportunities with Bearsted’s goalkeeper, Billy Johnson, saving with his feet from Fjord Rogers after four minutes and, a minute later, Aaron Lee Wharton also using his feet to deny Jonathan Rogers. But that reprieve was only to last seconds as Sam Stace was sent clear to tuck the ball home into the far corner.

The game also had a little edge to it that didn’t suggest end of season nothingness as Bearsted’s Joel Wakefield found his way into the referee’s notebook after a couple of challenges had gone unpunished.

Tunbridge Wells got themselves level after 23 minutes when a peach of a through ball from James Nurden found Matt Gething to run on and slip the ball past the advancing Johnson into the bottom corner for his 31st goal of the season.

Gething might have had his 32nd a couple of minutes later but the ball got stuck under his feet before it fell to Kyron Lightfoot who shot over.

The home side finished the first half in the ascendancy with a goal on the cusp of the break from Wakefield who capitalised, in much the same way as the opening two goals, a long ball forward and rolled home. It was a goal that had been coming as Jordan Ababio and Stace had previously tested Lee Wharton.

Only two minutes of the second period had elapsed when good work from Frankie Griffin was rewarded with Gething doubling his tally for the afternoon.

A draw would have been a fair result as the teams had equal chances to get their noses in front before Irvine’s intervention. For Bearsted, a 77th minute free kick saw Irvine narrowly miss and Tunbridge Wells had a great opportunity created by Regan Corke but substitute Jack Hope fired wide.

The winner came in the blink of an eye and one wonders if in a different time in the season game management would have avoided it. Tunbridge Wells were attacking, the move broke down and with one hefty clearance, Irvine was clear and, to be fair, he finished well and the celebrations also suggested much more than a mid-table win.

It had been a good afternoon’s entertainment but my abiding memory will be that beautiful green baize!