Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Higgs 29
Kingstonian (0) 0
Attendance: 311
Admission: £7
Mileage: 38/515
Tonbridge Angels ended their pre-season campaign with a single goal win against Kingstonian at the Yeomans Community Stadium.
A Jordan Higgs goal, on 29 minutes, proved enough but the Angels will reflect on a total of 17 attempts on goal that should have brought a greater margin of victory.
Much speculation among the attendance of 311 would have been around how close to next Saturday’s opening National League South line-up was Craig Nelson’s starting XI, for that we have to wait and see, but the first half brought a fluent performance that only lacked better finishing.
In the sixth minute, Kingstonian’s goalkeeper Liam Allen was pressed into action saving from Brody Peart and within seconds he was denying Brandon Pierrick, who had been set up by a sublime flick from Marcus Sablier.
When twice in the space of three minutes the ball smacked against an upright, it started to become clear how the afternoon would unfold. An 11th minute free kick from Bailey Akehurst hit the right hand post and, after a great interchange between the Wagstaff and Peart, the latter’s effort struck the left hand woodwork.
The chances continued to come and go before the Angels finally opened the scoring when Sablier lofted a ball forward for Higgs to run onto and despatch into the bottom corner.
The home side continued to dominate, creating chances almost at will, whilst in the Angels goal, Jacob Adams was barely troubled. With Peart giving his marker a torrid time down the right further opportunities fell to Higgs, Sablier and a Bradley Williams header from a corner but, at the break, the single goal lead remained.
Mass substitutions, and a marked improvement from Kingstonian, saw some of the momentum of the opening half diminish but Peart continued to create havoc bringing another good save from Allen.
Bumni Babajide was through on goal after 70 minutes but Allen was equal to his effort deflecting the ball to safety and, five minutes later, the Angels suffered a big scare when a free kick lofted into the area brought a scramble and couple of blocked shots.
So, chances aplenty but only one goal that proved enough, Craig Nelson said of the performance in his post-match interview: “I’m really happy with the way the boys applied themselves, particularly in the first half they were excellent. They’ve learnt a lot in pre-season and it is starting to come together. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed that we didn’t score more goals, but it will come. They are in the right areas, doing the right things and replicating what we have asked them. But we could have had a couple more for sure and put the game to bed.”
No comments:
Post a Comment