Tonbridge Angels (2) 2 Fielding 3 Gard 20
Farnborough (0) 1 Kasimu 90+6
Attendance: 614
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 38/1,695
Those couple of hours probably provided the highlight of a forgettable week away (but enough of that) and although I was looking forward to this wet Tuesday evening encounter with Farnborough, I had my doubts that such heights could be reached again, but for 45 minutes at least, my fears were unfounded as the Angels turned on the style.
So much has happened in the last week with the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II that the cafe in Amsterdam seems a lot further back in time than just 10 days ago as Jay Saunders named an unchanged side. With both sides assembled around the centre circle the referee blew his whistle for the attendance of 619 to perfectly observe a minute’s silence.
Within three minutes of the kick-off, the sombre silence was turned into joyous cheers as a Lewis Gard corner, flighted to beyond the far post found Jamie Fielding who met it with a thunderous volley that gave the visiting goalkeeper, Jack Turner, not a whiff of a chance of ceasing its passage into the roof of the net.
The goal heralded a half of football in which the Angels were a joy to watch. Gard, admirably protected by James Taylor, was able to do his thing; Louis Collins’ pace was unsettling the visiting back line whilst the sporadic Farnborough attacks were being mopped up by Sonny Miles and Ben Swift.
After 18 minutes Collins saw an effort cleared from the line but despite their best efforts it wasn’t until five minutes before the break that the Angels doubled their lead with a fine effort from Gard who chased down a through ball into the left channel and with a deft touch that took him inside of his marker, he passed the ball into the final corner.
The goal that might have killed the game completely might have came almost immediately as Gard forced Turner into a fine save.
Joe Turner forced his namesake into a good stop after five minutes of the second period but an injury to Fielding, who would have been a contender for man of the match, just part of the hour disrupted the Angels which led to several reshuffles as Saunders wrestled with problem of replacing his full back who hobbled painfully back to the dressing room with his ankle heavily iced.
Whilst Tonbridge struggled to regain momentum, Farnborough were proving also pretty impotent and the game descended into a middle of the field stalemate.
Farnborough finally broke the Angels resistance with a virtual last kick of the match goal by Hishim Kasimu from close range that initially looked like it had been cleared from the line but the official deemed it had crossed.
Perhaps, I didn’t quite get a completely payback for missing Dulwich, but I’ll happily take the first half performance.
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