Chesham United (0) 1 Williams 61
Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Attendance: 752
Admission: £10
Mileage: 184/4,395
CABBAGE PATCH WOE
After three wins on the spin that have assured National League South safety and cup success it was almost inevitable that there would be a fall to earth with a bump and a cabbage patch pitch with a robust home side were the perfect recipe for such a happening.
Chesham United have been this season’s surprise packet and with this single goal win against Tonbridge Angels continue to sit on the fringes of the play-off places looking to take advantage of any slip ups in front of them. This was their third Saturday home game in a row and, unsurprisingly, they have won them all, their style is geared to the limitations imposed by the surface and they do it well.
The Meadows, with its picturesque backdrop of the rolling Chiltern hills, is approaching its century of years as home to Chesham and treading the fine line between being charmingly quirky and dilapidated. It has large areas of terracing, but the steps are high and higgedly-piggedly, at places inviting an accident. The main stand, that just about makes the National League minimum amount of seats, is quaint.
Non-League Day brings his advantages, to which a tenner admission as a reward for arriving before 2pm was gratefully accepted, but also brings the downside of young children being allowed to run about to the point of the stadium announcer needed to make the aforementioned point that the terraces are an accident waiting to happen.
Hale showers preceded our arrival and pre-match and the bright sunshine was negated in terms of warmth by a cold wind. I cannot remember, although there surely would’ve been, feeling quite as cold this late into the football season.
News of the re-signing of Ricky Korboa and Brad Williams was appreciated by the Tonbridge supporters who were pleased to see the planning for next season underway at this early stage. No blank piece of paper going into June this year!
The aforementioned state of the pitch dictated that this was never going to be a classic and, as poor as the Angels were, it was to their credit that they remained in the game for its duration.
Manager Alan Dunne made three changes from Tuesday’s penalty shootout, Kent Senior Cup, success at Chatham with Bunmi Babajide, Frankie Baker and Naz Bakrin starting.
The home side had the better of an uneventful first half in which neither goalkeeper was particularly stretched to a save of note, with the main point of interest being the large black cloud overhead and what it was about to dump on us. As it happened it reflected the on-field action, very little.
The second half was marginally better with Chesham going close with a header before taking the lead just past the hour when a clearance whilst stretching to intercept from Ethan Sutcliffe fell at the feet of Alfie Williams, who angled a shot into the far corner for a composed finish.
The goal gave impetus to the last 20 minutes with the visitors responding well, but not before Matt Rowley was needed to save at his near post from Kai Yearn to deny the home side doubling their advantage.
Tonbridge’s efforts mostly foundered on the solid defensive partnership of Steve Brown and Callum Adebiyi and when they managed efforts on target from substitute Sean Shields, goalkeeper Ben Goode was sound.
It was hard to disagree with Dunne’s assessment that it has been a long but rewarding month and perhaps this was a game too far.
1 comment:
Thank you for an interesting report and pictures from an exiled ( Norfolk ) Angel
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