Colliers Wood United 0 Tonbridge Angels 2

Match 01/21/1866 - Saturday, 26th June 2021 - Pre-Season Friendly

Colliers Wood United (0) 0
Tonbridge Angels (1) 2Beere 6 Turner 66 (pen)
Headcount: 120

Admission: £3 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 120/120

I doubt that a pre-season game has been so eagerly awaited. Non-League football is back, its supporters are back and though we are not out of the Covid woods, there are plenty of reasons to believe that this coming season can be played to its conclusion.

As a game this was like every other first pre-season game that I’ve watched since 1850! A clutch of trialists that we won’t ever see again; players that obviously have to get weeks (in some cases months) of inactivity out of their legs; the odd one or two that took the eye with their sharpness and a lovely story to end the match.

My only other visit to the Wibbandune Sports Ground brought a late arrival due to missing the entrance and difficulty parking so it was a massive relief to quickly find a space in the slip road opposite and close to the footbridge.

As with many pitches at this time of the year, the grass was a bit too long but it’s a nice little ground beside a busy stretch of the A3.

Colliers Wood United, from the Combined Counties League, provided good opposition for a Tonbridge team that played most of its trialists in the first half leaving us spectators playing the annual guessing game of who’s that?

Tonbridge went ahead after six minutes when a quick bit of thinking from Tom Beere left the home goalkeeper motionless from a free kick curled into the top corner.

A free kick to Tonbridge that ended up bouncing towards the oncoming traffic on the A3 and some unnecessary bookings from Santa Claus, filling in time between gigs as a referee, were the highlights of the rest of the first half.

New signing Ibrahim Olutade and Tommy Wood brought an extra edge to the visitor’s attack in the second period and a header from the former into the side netting from a tight angle was the best of the early exchanges.

In the 66th minute Tonbridge were awarded a penalty for a trip just inside the box and Joe Turner powered the ball into the top right corner.

Tonbridge brought on three 16-year-olds to play out the last 20 minutes. Toby McKimm, son of manager Steve, took over from Jonny Henly in goal; Bobby Moore, son of assistant manager Barry, slotted into midfield and Eoin Bolger, on the right of midfield. None of them looked out of place, they did things simply and in the case of Eoin produced a pin-point cross that Wood headed narrowly wide.

This was the fresh start that everybody wanted but on a day when 18,270 new cases of the virus were reported, we can but pray that this is not another false dawn.

Colliers Wood United 5 Tonbridge Angels U21 1

Match 15/18/1608 - Tuesday, 31st July 2018 - Pre-Season Friendly

Colliers Wood United (1) 5
Tonbridge Angels Under-21 (1) 1 Jones 38
Headcount: 31

Admission: Free
Team Sheet: None
Mileage: 128/773
New ground: 325

One of those nights when anything destined to go wrong did. I always knew that my departure time was going to leave it tight to make the kick-off but as it was a new ground I decided to give it a go. In fact, the traffic on the M25 dissipated as the journey progressed and a made good time and was on schedule to arrive in time. But now the tale of woe ...

For the information of groundhoppers that have yet to tick Colliers Wood United bear in mind the following. When your satnav tells you that the ground is 800 yards on your left, slow to a crawl. Despite there being a sign 50 yards or so from the turning, the entrance is concealed and once you have drifted just a few yards past such is the nature of the A3 there is no turning back and a 15 minute travel to turn yourself around ensues. I finally arrived at least 10 minutes into the game with Colliers Wood already a goal to the good.

On a warm evening at the Wibbandune Sports Ground the parched pitch adjacent bore testament to the hot summer but in contrast the playing area was a beautiful, lush green surface that almost defied reason.

After conceding the early goal that I missed, the Angels worked their way back into the game with chances falling to Dominic Touissant and Sam Jones before Jones followed up to tuck away an equaliser after the goalkeeper had parried an initial shot.

If anything, the Under-21s finished the half in the ascendancy and should have sensed their opportunity to press on in the second period. But they were quickly set back on their heels as a Colliers Wood player (no team sheet for identification) was allowed to travel across the face of the goal before shooting past Stuart Copeland.

Tonbridge produced a decent move that ended with Touissaint bringing a save out of the goalkeeper before, on the hour, a cross to the far post found a man, hopelessly unmarked, to slot home Colliers’ third.

Things might have got worse still but Copeland produced a fine save to deny the home team from the penalty spot, but goals in the 77th and a 87th minute effort that gave the Colliers man a hat trick left a Tonbridge Angels defence with some soul searching.

Chris Wye’s preseason has been made difficult by player unavailability through the holiday period as he has for the coming season implemented a policy of limiting the use of over age 21 players to an absolute minimum, of which at the present time he has just the one.

To complete my tale of woe, the parking space in which I hurried dumped the car proved to be a total block-in and it took a 30 minute wait to extricate the car from the Wibbandune.