Tonbridge Angels 2 Oxford City 2

Match 30/22/2037 - Saturday, 8th October 2022 - National League South

Tonbridge Angels (0) 2 Soares-Junior 53 Santos 67
Oxford City (2) 2 Ashby 26 Parker 45

Attendance: 1,073
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 38/2,381

A friend of mine, from another club, contacted me to ask how I thought the opening couple of months of Jay Saunders tenure had gone. “What’s not to like, we are ninth; the football is mostly pleasing on the eye, but I just wish he was a bit luckier”, was my assessment.

There is a criticism banded about, supposedly drawn from a season at Maidstone in which Saunders used 50 players that he operates a revolving door policy and with 29 players used by early October the argument might have merit, but I think most people could name correctly at least nine of his starting XI, if he had a full squad to choose from.

Injuries turned this game into farcically chaotic at times. The signing of Scott Wagstaff after last week’s friendly had left me excitedly anticipating a midfield spine of James Taylor, Wagstaff and Lewis Gard but these hopes were dashed in front of our eyes as Taylor went down during a warm-up routine to limp away from the session and out of the game. Out of adversity, step up Jeremy Santos, promoted from the bench to start and my, oh my, what a way to grasp the opportunity.

The opening 10 minutes saw Louis Collins shoot wide, but after seven minutes came the first talking point as Ruben Soares-Junior was clearly body checked in the area for what looked a stonewall penalty but referee Aaron Farmer set his template for the afternoon inexplicably waving away the claims.

Tonbridge had almost total domination, so it was very much against the run of play when Oxford City went ahead after 26 minutes. An initial through ball from Josh Parker sent Klaidi Lolas clear but he was well marshalled by Tommie Fagg before the ball was laid out to the right from where Jean-Baptiste Fischer laid the ball back to Josh Ashby who angled a drive into the far bottom corner.

The goal didn’t change the momentum of the half with a Soares-Junior header saved low by Ben Dudzinski, although Sonny Miles produced a goal-saving tackle before Parker struck, right on the cusp of the break, with a header at the far post following a beautifully flighted cross from substitute Lewis Coyle.

The Angels didn’t deserve to be behind at the break, let alone two behind, and it was going to take a monumental effort to salvage something in the second period.

Something special was needed and it came, firstly from Soares-Junior after 53 minutes. The Portuguese man collected a crossfield pass from Gard to the right hand side from where he cut in to the angle of the 18 yard box before letting rip a shot into the far corner with the keeper grasping at air.

Tonbridge drew level in equally stupendous fashion after 67 minutes. Santos picked up the ball deep in his own half and passed forward to Gard who laid the ball back into the path of Santos, who, first time from 30 yards fired past the bemused Dudzinski.

Unfortunately it was injuries that took most of the attention after the second half goals. Joe Tyrie, who had been a half-time replacement for Fagg, took a ball square in the face and was unable to continue, so another reshuffle saw Craig Braham-Barrett moving into the centre of the defence with Joe Turner, for about the third time this season, filling in at left back.

There were long breaks in play firstly for an Oxford player before Tyrie and even an medical incident behind the goal that saw the Tonbridge physio attend and whilst all that was going on, another Tonbridge player went down that necessitated Tommy Parkinson acting as stand-in physio!

There were 14 minutes of added time in which Jonny Henly was brought into the action with a couple of smart saves to preserve the hard-earned point.

Saunders luck must surely change soon and then we can make a sound judgement, but for now, ninth will do nicely.

Photos: Kathryn Bell