Tonbridge Angels 0 Ebbsfleet United 1

Match 129/21/1993 - Saturday, 23rd April 2022 - National League South

Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Ebbsfleet United (1) 1 Coulthirst 6
Attendance: 1,129
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 38/7,414

Tonbridge Angels continued presence in National League South is all but assured as Billericay’s defeat at home to Bath leaves them nine points behind with three games remaining an with an inferior goal difference of 16. So it is going to take a catastrophic run of results for the Angels to be relegated but this game was a clear indication of the chasm that exists between those at top of the table and those (not just Tonbridge) at the foot.

It is to Tonbridge’s credit that they remained in the game till the end and, unluckily, a tight offside decision went against them in time added, but in truth, Ebbsfleet should have put the game to bed a long time before the Angels’ late rally as they wasted a series of gilt edged chances in the second half.

Such is the lot of a club volunteer that my stint on the turnstiles saw Ebbsfleet score what turned out to be the only goal of the game whilst I continued to take admission money from late arrivals. So my description is a straight lift from Ebbsfleet’s Twitter: “Paxman weaves his way through the Tonbridge defence and offloads the ball to Coulthirst and he fires low and hard into the corner.”

From the time that I took my place on the rails, Tonbridge actually had more than a decent share of the game against their lofty, full-time opposition and had a great opportunity to level the game after 22 minutes when clever work from Ricky Modeste saw him volley a shot that was blocked with the follow-up parried by the goalkeeper, Louie Moulden for what became a series of corners that ultimately brought no reward.

The second half opened with the first chance falling to Ebbsfleet’s Dominic Poleon who saw his effort well saved by Jonny Henly at his near post.

Tonbridge were nearly gifted an equaliser on 51 minutes when Moulden sliced a clearance which Joe Turner collected and set up Aaron Smith-Joseph for a shot but the goalkeeper redeemed himself with a save.

Ebbsfleet were starting to open up the Angels back line a bit too regularly and Henly was needed to save from both Rakish Bingham and Coulthirst and further chances for Chapman, Paxman and Romain who failed to find the target.

After making all their substitutions, Tonbridge went down to 10 men when substitute Teddy Perkins couldn’t continue following an injury. But with the man disadvantage, Tonbridge had to throw caution to the wind and in the last minute of the 90, momentarily we thought an unlikely point and absolute safety had been won. A corner from the right was punched away by Moulden but the ball was returned into the box and Ibrahim Olutade made a run to meet the ball at the near post but his celebration was cut short by the linesman’s raised flag. It was tight, very tight.

In time added, Sonny Miles stayed up front and for the final two corners of the game Henly came forward but the visitors held firm for three vital points towards their goal on direct entry to the semi-finals of the play-offs with home advantage.

For Tonbridge, next Saturday at Bath, hopefully we can celebrate as well. Maybe we will need a helping hand with both Billericay and Welling needing to win their respective games at Eastbourne and Hungerford.

Photos: Kathryn Bell