Tonbridge 1 Peacehaven & Telscombe 2

Match 55/14/1164 - Tuesday 6th January 2015 - Ryman Premier

Tonbridge (1) 1 Carey (pen) 17
Peacehaven & Telscombe (2) 2 Burton 19,25
Att. 248

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 36/3,908

Match Report

The old joke goes, that such and such club’s form came down with the Christmas decorations. On 12th night, the optimism that Tonbridge supporters took from two good festive performances, took a severe dip as they produced one of their worst performances of the season against Peacehaven and Telscombe.

If the FA Cup performance at Redhill can be ignored, which obviously it cannot, then Tonbridge have reserved their poorest form for Peacehaven, having taken a season’s worst beating on the Sussex coast and then allowing the visitors to comfortably take home the points from this reverse encounter.

The ever-changing back four featured new signing Frantz Tchonang Ngassa from Whitehawk with Kyle Merson replacing the recalled Tom Hadler in goal.

Tonbridge started brightly and were rewarded in the 17th minute when Lee Carey scored from the penalty spot after Marvin Williams had been brought down.

The goal seemed to have the reverse effect from confidence building and the hosts went into a shell from which they never emerged.

Peacehaven quickly restored parity with Tom Burton converting a cross to the far post and, with 25 minutes on the clock, Burton was once more in the right place when a corner wasn’t cleared.

Although Williams’ speed and directness caused the visitors problems he became something of a lone ranger whilst his team mates were struggling to recognise each other as pass after pass found only an opponent.

A little while back I was discussing with a fellow Gillingham supporter the reason why I have found my football a lot more enjoyable with Tonbridge than with the Gills this season. Whilst they are in similar positions in their respective divisions, I felt that at Tonbridge you could see light at the end of the tunnel, there were reasons to be optimistic. Unfortunately this was the type of performance that categorised those opinions as delusional.

Chatham Town 0 Aveley 5

Match 54/14/1163 - Saturday 3rd January 2015 - Ryman North

Chatham Town (0) 0
Aveley (1) 5 Holland 16 Baker 53 Elliott 62, 75 Elbi 70
Att. 143

Entrance: £5
Programme: £2
Mileage: 32/3,872

Match Report

For the first time this winter weather decimated the non-league programme and I was left to search for a game.

As both the Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells games had disappeared from the fixture list before I got out of bed following my night shift, a first look at kentishfootball’s updated fixture list showed very little choice available, but an old favourite fall-back Chatham were still holding out hopes of getting their game on.

When the Game On message appeared on Twitter it was a pleasant surprise as the rain was still tumbling outside of my window. At the ground, I was informed by a local resident that the area sits on chalk, literally a spade’s depth below the surface which always gives the Maidstone Road ground a chance.

In fact, the pitch looked in pretty good shape all things considered and the groundsman can only be congratulated on his efforts, but a couple of hours later he must have wondered why he bothered.

Chatham were unbelievably poor and, once Aveley had ridden some early pressure from the hosts, and a 30 yard effort from Billy Holland nestled in the bottom corner after 16 minutes, they were always in control of the game. Unfortunately, my head was in my phone at the time, taking in a goal for Port Vale against Gillingham.

Chatham responded in sorts and created a couple of chances with Maidstone loanee, Richard Davies, rising above the mediocrity.

The second half was nothing less than a disaster for Chatham as Aveley picked them off almost at will. A poorly defended free kick allowed Junior Baker to head in from close range and five minutes later when a cross from the bye-line was converted with a tap in from Marcus Elliott the game was over.

A bizarre goal on 69 minutes, Chatham goalkeeper Tom Welham’s clearance rebounding off Petrit Elbi and into the net made it four and within five minutes a surging run from Paul Preston created another close range finish for Elliott to complete Aveley’s nap hand.

The most satisfying part of the afternoon was being able to throw a few bob into the collection bucket for Matt Solly who broke and dislocated his ankle at Thurrock the previous week and is unable to work until such times as he is mobile once more. Evidently, Kevin Watson, Chatham’s manager was so disappointed with his team’s performance he ordered that the team’s wages for the match was donated to the fund.

Maidstone United 1 Tonbridge 1

Match 53/14/1162 - Thursday 1st January 2015 - Ryman Premier

Maidstone United (1) 0 Greenhalgh 45
Tonbridge (0) 1 Miles (o.g.) 84
Att. 2,226

Entrance: £10
Programme: £2
Mileage: 26/3,840

Match Report

It was an unsavoury end to this A26 derby between two bitter rivals that captured the headlines after the two clubs had contested a hard-fought draw in front of an all-ticket, capacity crowd with Tonbridge finding an unlikely equaliser, seven minutes from the time, when their former player, Sonny Miles deflected a free kick from Lee Carey past his own keeper.

Tonbridge saw out the final minutes of the contest and on the final whistle celebrated the result perhaps a little to heartily for some of the more fickle Maidstone supporters. What happened next did neither club any favours and dishonoured the values of non-league football.

The game itself had largely gone off without incident; Maidstone carved out the lion’s share of the chances but, without the cutting edge supplied by Alex Flisher and the bustling centre forward play of Jay May, were fairly toothless in front of goal. Two sets of supporters, who are supposed to dislike each other intensely, stood side-by-side without segregation and with no apparent problem.

The vocal element of the Tonbridge support had followed the time-honoured tradition of changing ends during the half-time break whilst the Town End Maidstone support always choose to remain in position. Even with that close proximity there was little to concern the stewards; at least it appeared that way from a distance.

At the final whistle, the Tonbridge players went to the Town End to acknowledge their support and unwittingly ignited the disturbance that followed. I can only draw my conclusions of what occurred from a safe distance of 30 yards of so. Two wrongs have never made a right and this occasion was no different. In their celebration, the Tonbridge players perhaps strayed a little too close to the fencing behind which both sets of fans were gathered and when beer was thrown at them, some sought the perpetrator and a punch was thrown before some sort of order was restored.

The Maidstone United Unofficial Forum has made for interesting reading in the aftermath with a serious introspection of their own club’s role in the disturbance. The beer throwing was not, it appears, an isolated incident and the club’s policy of selling beer from a stand outside of the clubhouse for people to take pitch side is brought into question. This practice is one that I have always felt was trouble waiting to happen and have stated that point previously on this blog. From a Tonbridge point-of-view, it is impossible to condone the throwing of a punch and, doubtless, serious disciplinary action from the Football Association will follow.

The ending was such a contrast to the warm welcome that had been offered as we entered the Gallagher. Wearing our colours, we were not hiding our allegiance to the visitors and were met by a club official who guided us to the various facilities on offer, including, of course, the beer stand! And, although there were a couple of misguided comments in our direction on the way out, there was no tension as we took our place alongside Maidstone supporters.

The game itself was one of very few chances. Tonbridge, shorn of the services of Marvin Williams, whose achilles could not be risked on the 3G surface, struggled to create anything at all going forward, but with one piece of magic from Dee Okojie, whose 20 yard shot clipped the bar with Lee Worgan beaten, they may well have found themselves in front.

In the ten minutes prior to the break, the hosts mounted a continuous assault on the Tonbridge goal with Tom Hadler saving well from Tom Mills and Ben Greenhalgh. The pressure finally told on the stroke of half-time. Matt Bodkin, a serious threat throughout, had a goalbound shot blocked by Laurence Ball but the rebound fell kindly for Greenhalgh to drive his shot into the centre of the goal.

The second half was largely one-way traffic with Hadler making a good save from Greenhalgh before a Steve Watt header was cleared with claims that the ball had crossed the line.

The livewire Alex Akrofi placed a shot millimetres wide of the far post after a run into the penalty area with defenders frightened to put a foot in to stop him.

The points seemed destined to reside with the hosts and bring to an end to a run of 10 matches without defeat in all competitions against Maidstone when Miles’ moment preserved the record.

Maidstone should, in reality, get promotion this season. Even if they fail to overhaul Margate at the top of the table, they are going to enter the play-offs as hot favourites. Perhaps it was with this in mind, that four old fools gathered together for the photograph below, sensing that it might be somewhile before we are once again assembled at the Gallagher.

Peter Taylor sacked

As of lunchtime on New Year's Eve, Peter Taylor was no longer the manager of Gillingham Football Club.

After a phone conversation with Paul Scally, the chairman made the decision that it was time for a change and Taylor was relieved of his duties.

Mr Scally, who had previously backed his man after the defeat by Chesterfield just prior to Christmas, and also stated that at the outset of this morning's conversation he had no intention of sacking Taylor, made reference to what he called "huge adverse public response and serious abuse."

Taylor had been in charge for 14 months and took over at a time when Gillingham were bottom of League One after a poor start under Martin Allen. Taylor was never universally accepted by Gillingham supporters, many of whom were not happy with the dismissal of Allen. Taylor guided the club to safety by the end of the season and overhauled the squad in the summer with the introduction of several younger players. Few of those signings have been what could be considered a success, John Egan being the exception.

Taylor's perceived negative style of football, heavily weighted defensively even at home has brought much criticism and, for my part, has been painful watching. Words such as turgid have been widely used, and it hard not to agree with those opinions.

Andy Hessenthaler takes over as the interim manager for the trip to Port Vale, but despite his legendary status, it is hard to see him as the way forward having now been a part of this particular regime.

Gillingham 1 Bristol City 3

Match 52/14/1161 - Sunday, 28th December 2014 - League One

Gillingham (0) 1 McDonald 47
Bristol City (1) 3 Flint 34 Smith 44 Wagstaffe 55
Att. 6,216

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 52/3,814

Match Report

There are occasions when a game has so little redeeming features that you can only have the utmost of respect for the “proper” journalists who can put together 500-plus words when they barely have any raw material to work from.

Gillingham’s match against league leaders Bristol City is one such instance. Prior to kick-off, it didn’t take a football genius to realise that despite City being short of their two principle goalscorers in Aaron Wilbraham and Kieran Agard, they should have more than enough ability in the squad to maintain their position at the top of the table.

Football can be very exciting when matches don’t go to form, but they can be equally quite boring when the expected manifests itself.

Cody McDonald raised the level of excitement with an individual goal a couple of minutes into the second period to half the deficit but those hopes were quickly extinguished within eight minutes when Scott Wagstaff restored Bristol City’s two goal advantage.

When there is little to write about, it can be quite interesting to gauge the feelings of Gillingham supporters through the window of social media and they are not a happy bunch. Two successive away wins have kept the club above the relegation line but a home form that reads one league win in seven games can only lead to discontent with Peter Taylor taking the brunt of the criticism. At the last home game he was subjected to abuse, and whilst none was reported after this game, I cannot imagine there was not the odd disgruntled voice directed at him.

Taylor opted to go with five at the back including playing Jake Hessenthaler at right back, for home matches this is perceived as negative by many supporters. The three in the middle were initially matched up with three from Bristol City, but as Gillingham sank deeper and deeper towards their own penalty area, the visiting full backs were virtually redundant and pressed on into midfield leaving Gillingham hopelessly outnumbered in that area.

Bristol City finally took the lead after 34 minutes of largely one-way traffic. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas had a goal ruled out and Luke Freeman and Marlon Pack brought saves before a corner from Freeman was headed across the face of goal by Aden Flint for Matt Smith to head in from close range.

A second, killer goal came a couple of minutes prior to the break when Greg Cunningham was allowed to run unchallenged down the left hand side before delivering a cross that, it would nice to say evaded the Gillingham defenders, but truth is none of them barely raised an effort to intercept it, leaving Smith to tap home.

McDonald’s run from the inside right channel to the edge of the box and finish with a crisp shot into the far corner raised spirits and hopes of a comeback but when Freeman deftly back-heeled into the path of Wagstaff who finished with a fine curling shot into the top corner, the game was over.

Loud voices of derision rang around Priestfield and the inquest on Taylor was about to begin once more on social media. As this is to be published a couple of days after the event, all is now irrelevant because, as of lunchtime on New Year’s Eve, Peter Taylor was no longer the manager of Gillingham Football Club.

Tonbridge 2 Margate 2

Match 51/14/1160 - Saturday, 27th December 2014 - Ryman Premier

Tonbridge (1) 2 Okojie 45, Carey (pen) 71
Margate (1) 2 Moss 15, Bull 90+3
Att. 610

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 36/3,762

Match Report

As I switched on the car engine and prepared for the drive home I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, in truth I could barely believe what I had witnessed. Three hours previously, I hadn’t expected to watch the most entertaining game I’ve seen this season with just about every element of drama the game can offer.

As I pulled out of the Longmead car park, formulating in my head how I would write up the afternoon’s events, one thing was at the forefront of my mind . . . I was immensely proud of my Tonbridge club.

The thrilling, heartbreaking climax to this game was set up in the opening minutes. The Ryman Premier League leaders, Margate, with all their wealth borne of a sugar daddy that other supporters loathe until their club is the beneficiary, should not have been in need of a helping hand on their way to an expected three points to keep their noses in front of Maidstone at the summit of the table.

But a helping hand was offered after just three minutes when the Tonbridge Angels centre half, Laurence Ball, was shown a red card for a professional foul as Jamie Taylor bore down on goal. At first look, from a distance of 50 yards, it looked a straightforward decision for the referee, but doubt has since been cast whether Taylor was offside in the first place and also to amount of contact Ball actually made. But red it was, and what was always going to be an uphill struggle became just a little steeper.

As Tonbridge struggled to reorganise, Taylor clipped the bar before, in the 17th minute, Ryan Moss looped a header over Tom Hadler for the opening goal. It was a goal that you felt the young keeper could have done better with, but that is probably the first goal that he can be criticised for since his arrival.

One suspected that this would be the beginning of potential hammering for the Angels and those thoughts were further compounded when after 25 minutes, Jerrome Sobers went down injured and the physio quickly signaled that his game was over. A man light, no recognised centre half, this game could only have one conclusion.

Margate dominated, but the makeshift defence were standing their ground and limiting the visitors to just the odd moment that sent the heart fluttering. Then, as the clock ticked to the last minute of the first half and out of nowhere, Dee Okojie receiving the ball 25 yards from goal, produced the most delightful chip over the head of Nikki Bull, who was little more than a yard off his line, for an unexpected equaliser that must have changed the drift of Steve McKimm’s half-time talk as he sprinted towards the dressing room.

The early part of the second half took its expected course with Margate continuing to dominate, but signs were there that the pace of Marvin Williams was presenting them with problems and as their possession wasn’t really leading to chances let along goals, the more frustrated they became. All of a sudden the referee was brandishing yellow cards and it was the visitors that were receiving them.

After 71 minutes, the Tonbridge support was pinching themselves in disbelief as their side took the lead. Williams was sent clear, leaving Lewis Taylor in his wake before the former Tonbridge favourite clipped his feet for a penalty which was confidently converted by Lee Carey. The only regret was there was the best part of 20 minutes remaining and a siege on the Tonbridge goal was a certainty.

And so it was, but once again the chances were limited, a header that drifted wide and Hadler made a plunging save at his near post, but overall Tonbridge looked quite sure footed with their central defensive pairing of Tom Parkinson, a midfielder and Charlie Slocombe, a full back repelling all that was thrown at them.

The game entered its time added on period of four minutes and more than three of those had elapsed when Margate won a corner. Up came goalkeeper Bull and the corner from the right was cleared only to produce another corner from the left. This time the delivery required a positive clearance but the ball only found its way to the feet of Bull who produced a shot of a seasoned striker before running to the visiting supporters in a celebration reminiscent of Jimmy Glass.

In the cold light of reflection, would we have taken a point before a ball was kicked, probably; would we have taken a point after Ball’s sending off, most definitely. But to be denied victory so late and in such bizarre circumstances was heartbreaking.

These are the afternoons that make football the game it is. Unexpected, unpredictable and thrilling.

Colchester United 1 Gillingham 2

Match 50/14/1159 - Boxing Day, 26th December 2014 - League One

Colchester United (0) 1 Szmodics 51
Gillingham (2) 2 Martin 25, Dack 34
Att. 4,544

Entrance: £16 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 162/3,726

Match Report

Somewhere in the bowels of your digital television menu an obscure movie channel will be showing The Great Escape. Steve McQueen will, once again, clear the fence on a motor cycle and Dickie Attenborough will be there masterminding the plot. Gillingham enacted their own version of the storyline on Boxing Day at the Weston Homes Community Stadium with Stuart Nelson cast in the role of hero with the unlikely compatriot of the linesman who carried the red and orange flag.

Having rode their luck in the opening minutes, Gillingham grew into the game and by half-time had established a two goal lead before being pegged back early in the second period, but going on to survive an onslaught on their goal that resembled that of another feature film, The Alamo.

Christmas has brought with it a blast of winter and a bitter wind that cut through however many layers of clothing with which you chose to protect yourself.

Colchester United’s out-of-town stadium retains the irritatingly expensive problem of parking, of which £6 for a space with a 15 minute walk has to be considered excessive. The parking fee was at least offset with a senior ticket £6 below the match price for adults and the welcome sight of a hot cup of tea for a princely quid!

Just five minutes had elapsed when Gavin Massey skipped past the challenge of John Egan, thankfully restored to the centre of the defence, before unleashing a shot the came back off the underside of the bar before being hoofed to safety.

After 25 minutes in which the visitors had been principally on the back foot, Gillingham fashioned an opening goal. Cody McDonald was set free down the right to cross in the general direction of the centre of the goal. Colchester’s Kasper Gorkss’ header did nothing more than loop the ball into the path of an unmarked Joe Martin whose clinical volley found the bottom corner. Quite how the Gillingham full back found so much space will be a matter of much consternation to the United management team.

One became two ten minutes later with once again McDonald the provider. A combination of passes between McDonald and Bradley opened the Colchester defence and although McDonald lost his footing after the first pass he got back up to dink a cross to the near post for Dack to convert.

It would be amiss to mention that, having slightly criticised Dack following the last home game, the youngster showed was Gillingham are missing with his usual energetic display.
Massey, who was the livewire of the home attack, brought a good save from Nelson, turning over the bar a well hit shot just prior to the break.

Gillingham were forced into a half-time substitution when Dack made way for Amine Linganzi and with it any control in the midfield was lost.

Linganzi proved to be particularly ineffective in the second half and I hope, for the lad’s sake that he is one of the players that Peter Taylor has earmarked to be moved out of Priestfield in the January transfer window. A combination of injury and poor form has not allowed Gillingham fans to see any of the expected potential and in this 45 minutes where he just tracked the ball without getting anywhere near it, his confidence looks absolutely shot.

Colchester quickly halved the deficit when ex-Gill Sean Clohessy crossed to the near post where a combination of Gillingham debutant Harry Lennon and the home side’s Sammie Szmodics forced the ball over the line setting up a siege that few of the 680 travelling fans would believe could be fought off.

Freddie Sears had the ball in the Gillingham net within 10 minutes, but the celebration was cut short with the sight of the red and yellow flag before the ever-dangerous Massey brought another good save from Nelson.

In the midst of the second half one-way traffic, McDonald appeared to have restored Gillingham’s two goal cushion but Trevor Kettle ruled out the goal for what could only have been the lightest of a push by the striker.

Nelson produced a blinding low, diving save to deny Sears before the game entered into the four minutes of added time. With less than one of those minutes remaining, Sears managed to steer a header over the line for what appeared to be a heart breaking equaliser before attention was,once again drawn to the red and yellow flag raised high to the joy of the travelling support.

The Great Escape was complete. League leaders Bristol City are next up in Sunday’s Priestfield fixture, now somewhere I should be able to find Mission Impossible.