Needham Market 4 Tonbridge Angels 2

Match 88/17/1538 - Saturday, 3rd February 2018 - Bostik Premier

Needham Market (2) 4 Ingram 8, Sands 23, Mills 75,78
Tonbridge Angels (0) 2 Bantick 85, Turner 87
Attendance: 233

Entrance: £7 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 220/6,377

If I was based in Suffolk, I would be a Needham Market supporter as I rate it as the friendliest place in the Isthmian Premier. From the man on the gate through to the bubbly tea ladies to supporters in the bar there is a warmth that is the ethos of non league football. Sadly the charitable side on the pitch came only from the visitors as individual mistakes consigned them to a fourth defeat in five games.

Needham Market opened the scoring after eight minutes when Luke Ingram met a corner from the right with an unchallenged header that crept past Jonny Henly at his near post. Tonbridge responded and in a five minute spell directly after the goal they created, but failed to convert, five chances. Craig Stone planted a header at Market goalkeeper, Danny Gay who then saved low to his left to deny Joe Turner within a minute. Gay then made a brilliant save to push a heavily deflected shot from Sam Bantick over the bar. From the resultant corner, Sonny Miles saw his header cleared from the line by Callum Sturgess and, seconds later, Bantick had another effort cleared from the line. It was quite unbelievable that in such a short space of time, Tonbridge had failed to equalise.

Gay saved from Alex Akrofi before a catastrophic error from Stone saw a misplaced pass find Adam Mills who sent John Sands through to convert past Henly.

Once again Tonbridge responded positively but without the ruthlessness required in front of goal. Tashi-Jay Kwayie heading over on a couple of occasions.

After five minutes of the second half, Turner had a shot from the edge of the box brilliantly pushed onto the right hand post by Gay and following a corner headed on Miles, Bantick lobbed a shot onto the top of the bar. Kwayie fired narrowly over with his final contribution before being replaced by Nathan Elder just past the hour mark.

The game was all but put beyond the Angels’ reach with 15 minutes remaining when a breakdown in communication between Henly and Stone allowed Mills to walk the ball into an empty goal.

Three minutes later it was four. An overhit free kick beyond the far post found Mills whose side-footed volley went back across the face to nestle in the far corner. Was it an intended cross? Only the goalscorer knows and he is not going to care.

Still Tonbridge made chances, Bantick managed to find the woodwork again and Gay denied him with his feet once more. Consolation came with five minutes remaining when substitute Dan Thompson headed on for Bantick to volley home and the scoreline gained some semblance of respectability when Turner’s shot from the edge of the box went through Gay, for the Market goalkeeper’s only mistake of the game.

For those not there, this is just another defeat and at 4-0 nobody was going to convince those supporters of anything different. But from my notes, 17 attempts on goal have been made; the woodwork struck three times and a goalkeeper has been found at the top of his game. Just sometimes, the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story.

Glum and Glummer. Picture by Chris Coolbear

Needham Market 0 Tonbridge 2

Match 54/16/1361 - Saturday, 19th November 2016 - Ryman Premier

Needham Market (0) 0
Tonbridge (2) 2 Blewden 2, Elder 23
Attendance: 258

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 225/4,296

We can argue until we are blue in the face about the rights or wrongs of Steve McKimm's post-match interview following the FA Trophy defeat to Kingstonian, but we cannot deny that it engendered the response he was looking for.

A great run up to Suffolk had us arriving in plenty of time to make acquaintance with the friendly folk of Needham Market, although we were slightly disappointed that the most enthusiastic tea lady on the Ryman League circuit was not, this year, wearing her yellow Doctor Martens! She was as bubbly as ever though and is a great asset to the club.

Standing with us in the burger queue, if Steve McKimm is reading this, they were drinking tea, was Luke Allen who was suspended and Tommy Whitnall who had taken a knock to the knee. This left a strange looking starting line-up with Damian Scannell in the midfield holding role and Luke Blewden playing wide right with new signing, Alex Akrofi, alongside Nathan Elder.

Since last year's visit to Bloomfields there has been a new covered terrace behind one of the goals erected. The pitch looked better than last season, although it was heavily leaf-strewn.

Tonbridge could not have got off to a better start. After two minutes, a short corner routine, straight off the training ground, saw Tom Phipp deliver an inch-perfect cross the the far post where Blewden met it with a firm header to open the scoring.

Scannell and Phipp quickly found a good understanding in the middle of the field and the visitors created chances with Elder heading wide; a speculative shot from Phipp going over and Sonny Miles directing a header wide from a Wheeler corner. We had reached the 18th minute before Needham's Luke Ingram shot straight at Anthony Di Bernardo.

After the 22 minutes, the referee took a substantially hit cross field pass from Phipp on the side of the head, knocking him out. Sadly, and I'm guilty as charged, when the referee takes a hit, the natural inclincation is to laugh, but it quickly became evident that the poor guy was in trouble. A 15 minute delay ensued before he was stretchered away and taken to hospital.

As with the opening of the game, Tonbridge roared into action on the restart. A Wheeler free kick was sent into the box where it was met by the head of George Beaven, who nodded it down for Elder to shoot into the bottom corner to double their advantage.

Akrofi enjoyed a lively debut with three efforts either side of the break only marginally wide but after 68 minutes was guilty of a glaring miss when set up by Elder his shot was badly mishit.

The game sadly ended with an unseemly fracas that began with an flailing arm into the face of a Tonbridge defender and spilt over to the respective benches.

After Tuesday's exit from the FA Trophy this was a return, perhaps not to the early season form, but nevertheless a thoroughly good professional performance against a side well-placed in the division.

Pictures below courtesy of David Couldridge

Needham Market 2 Tonbridge 1

Match 40/15/1245 - Saturday, 7th November 2015 - Ryman Premier

Needham Market (0) 2 Brothers 52, 65
Tonbridge (0) 1 Elder 56
Attendance: 300
New ground: 282

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 224/2,891

Match Report

In terms of distance, Suffolk is as far as it gets and for Tonbridge it seems it is a step to far. An almost impeccable away record disappeared into the mud of Needham Market as the home side, firmly ensconced in the bottom four of the Ryman Premier, belied their position with a performance that, if not blessed with any quality, would give their supporters a great lift with the resilience they showed, especially a last 10 minutes assault on their goal from the visitors.

Tonbridge will also be glad to see the back of their Brothers Grimm. Patrick Brothers scored the winning goal for Leiston at Longmead back in September and was a thorn in their side in the 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Victory Road whilst his brother Michael scored a brace to put three points on the board for Needham for only the second time this season. Sadly, Patrick (and Suffolk) needs to be encountered once more.

There was a warm welcome on arrival at Bloomfields, no more so than the wonderfully enthusiastic tea lady who almost theatrically dispensed her food and drink orders with a cheery smile whilst showing a colourful fashion sense in her yellow Doc Martens!

Taking their place in the tea queue, rather than the team line-up were Sonny Miles and Tommy Whitnell although Tom Parkinson and Nathan Elder were fit to return, whilst new loan signing from AFC Wimbledon, David Fitzpatrick took his place in the line-up.

The pitch, before a ball was kicked, looked pretty bad. It didn’t take long, and was certainly not helped by a heavy rain shower during the opening quarter-hour, before it turned into a real cow patch.

Bloomfields was a nice facility with a wooden main stand straddling the half-way line that probably held around a couple of hundred people and behind one goal was another seated area, of the more modern, uninspiring design that held a hundred or so more.

Needham Market were swiftly out of the blocks and Anthony Di Bernardo was at full stretch to turn away a shot from Adam Mills after just 20 seconds. After that initial foray, it was the visitors that made the early running. Luke Blewden shot wide and Fitzpatrick had a shot that was blocked before the Needham goalkeeper, Daniel Gay was tested for the first time with a low shot from Elder.

After 26 minutes came the first controversial moment of the match; a free kick awarded just outside the box was curled into the net by Nick Wheeler, but the delight of the substantial Tonbridge following was cut short when the referee ruled it out, supposedly for Elder creating space in the wall with a push. It seemed very harsh and at the end of the day, it was a moment where you felt Tonbridge would have gone on and won comfortably if they had got their noses in front.

After 33 minutes, there was more hands in heads among the visiting supporters when Gay produced an absolutely magnificent save to deny an Elder header from a Wheeler corner.

A friendly half-time chat was had with the home support and it was the Bloomfield faithful that were celebrating after seven minutes of the second period. A re-taken free kick into the box was poorly dealt with by a James Folkes header that landed at the feet of Brothers who needed to no second asking to smash a shot past Di Bernardo.

Tonbridge responded quickly and with a goal worth the mileage in itself. A cross from the left was cushioned on the chest of Elder before the dropping ball was volleyed into the net.

In what had become a frantic 13 minutes, Di Bernardo turned a shot from Jay Davies away but from the resultant corner the ball was only cleared to the penalty spot and the waiting feet of Brothers who made no mistake.

Elder and Blewden were withdrawn as the heavy pitch took its toll leaving Tonbridge with a strikeforce of Parkinson and Ellis Brown, and with caution thrown to the wind they set up an assault that deserved some reward. But with the goalkeeper saving brilliantly from Brown and a series of shots being denied by bodies thrown in front of the ball, the Needham defence held firm.

Many with an interest in the non-league game would have looked on the BBC1 documentary "Class of 92: Out of their League" and identified, if not the arrival of a group of five sugar daddys, but with the small army of volunteers that make every match day possible. Babs, the tea lady at Salford City, has enjoyed her deserved 15 minutes of fame, there are tea ladies up and down the country that go unnoticed, but not if you wear yellow Doc Martens!