Tunbridge Wells 0 Erith & Belvedere 0

Match 104/22/2111 - Monday, 17th April 2023 - SCEFL Premier

Tunbridge Wells (0) 0
Erith & Belvedere (0) 0
Attendance: 251

Admission: £5 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 38/7,234

Erith & Belvedere duly earned the point they needed to take the Southern Counties East Premier League title and promotion into Step Four, Isthmian South-East, but they were made to work hard for their reward by a spirited Tunbridge Wells, who could easily have proved the party-poopers with late scares for the champions.

The scheduled fixture was postponed on Saturday because of a waterlogged pitch at Culverden Stadium and with this the final week of the league season, it had to be quickly rescheduled to fit in with another home fixture on Wednesday and Saturday’s end.

A warm, almost Spring day, had played its part in the drying out process and the pitch was perfectly playable, in fact, played well.

After a start to the season in which Erith & Belvedere (E&B) looked to be cantering towards the title, they have somewhat staggered over the line with Phoenix Sports making up ground, but also faltering in the run in.

Perhaps, it was the knowledge that a point was enough and with two further chances to acquire that point, E&B didn’t particularly look champion-material and were far too dependent on the Rory Delap styled long throws from Lewis Chambers to exert pressure on the home defence which, on the whole, were competently dealt with.

It made for a dull first half with the Wells going reasonably close with a Robbie Bissett effort and E&B brought saves out of Jacob Bennett with shots from Marcus Elliott and Anthony Adesite.

The game was not helped either by an over-fussy referee who punctuated the game with stoppages and yellow cards.

Adesite was denied after 52 minutes with a close range save from Bennett and E&B had the ball in the net a minute later but this was ruled out, presumably for a foul on the goalkeeper, who was left prostrate on his goal line.

The game meandered its dull way until the 80th minute when a shot from Jacob Feasey rattled the bar and then, in the final moments of time added, a 25 yard shot from Connor Pring was goal bound until the E&B goalkeeper produced a spectacular save to preserve his side’s championship-winning point.

Two final games for Tunbridge Wells probably won’t move them too far from the middle of the table where they have been marooned for much of the season. If there is one word that I’ve heard too many times, for too many years, at Culverden it is the description of “underachievers”. Shifting that title, for Luke Carpenter, has to be his mandate for next season.