Staplehurst Monarchs Under-23 (2) 2 Sargeant 16 Morrell 18
Hollands & Blair Under-23 (2) 3 Davies 20 Prudger 35 Hall 62
Headcount: 45
Admission: £2 Senior
Programme: None
Mileage: 1/2,520
My first foray into SCEFL Development League football took me to my local club, to watch Staplehurst Monarchs Under-23’s take on Hollands & Blair. They provided a watchable game, but one which lacked the quality of Isthmian Under-18’s of which I was interested to make compare.
On a chilly evening, where the wrong choice of coat was made, Blair started the brighter with chances falling to the heads of Richard Davies and Oliver Everett and followed, in the ninth minute, with a superb block from Staplehurst's Keaton Courtman to deny Davies, but it was the home side that found themselves two goals ahead by the 18th minute.
After 16 minutes, a cross from the left, found Toby Sargeant with time and space to drive a shot into the bottom corner and two minutes later, the score was doubled when Hollands goalkeeper, Jason Hayward, saved an initial shot but Harry Morrell was on hand to bundle home the rebound.
But the Gillingham-based side quickly hit back and the endeavour of Davies was rewarded when he finished via a post following a surging run from the middle of the pitch.
Blair continued to have the better of the game with Staplehurst goalkeeper, Tom Klegwegt saving from Fred Searle before they got on level terms, after 35 minutes, when a shot from 30 yards by Dallas Prudger could only be helped into the net by Klegwegt.
Staplehurst enjoyed their best period of the half in the closing 10 minutes with James Found narrowly going wide and Hayward saving from Ruben Sammut and Sargeant but half-time parity was a fair reflection.
After four minutes of the second half, a 30 yard shot from Searle cleared the bar but two good chances followed for Staplehurst with a header following a corner being cleared from the line and then another header from Found after a good cross from Morrell also went over the bar.
But, after 62 minutes, some dreadfully naive defending from the home side allowed Hollands & Blair to take the lead. A quick throw-in to George Hall, stood in an offside position, but, of course, you cannot be offside from a throw-in and the Blair winger cut in to bury his chance into the far corner.
A succession of chances should have seen the visitors through to a comfortable last 15 minutes but Hall put a chance wide and Prudger headed into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Staplehurst rallied to try to extract something from the game but Hollands comfortably managed the game to its conclusion.
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