Staines Town 1 Tonbridge 1

Match 40/07/657 - Saturday, 22nd December 2007 - Ryman Premier

Staines Town (1) 1 Nwokeji 5
Tonbridge (0) 1 Westcott 86
Att. 270

Entrance: £9
Programme: Sold Out
Mileage: 136/3,559
New Ground: 221

Match Report

Tonbridge looked to be suffering a hangover from their famous victory on Tuesday as Staines sliced through their defence with a beautifully crafted opening goal within five minutes of the start. For 15 minutes from the beginning Staines looked every bit a side amongst the pacesetters of the division. Their passing and movement was good to watch, albeit it is your side that is being given the runaround. But following this first quarter hour Tonbridge gained a foothold on the game and whilst their style might not have been so pleasing on the eye, slowly but surely the effectiveness of Staines was being eroded. By half time Staines deserved their lead, but the feeling was that Tonbridge were far from out of it.

The referee decided to take centre stage in the second half. I’ve refrained from using these postings to criticise referees, but this one was a real shocker, and a “homer” to boot. Tonbridge were generally on the wrong side of some very poor decisions, no more so than when Richard Harris scored with a powerful header but was penalised for shirt pulling or pushing, neither of which was apparent from my viewpoint, which was unobstructed. From that same viewpoint a second disallowed goal for offside from Carl Rook looked a more justifiable decision, but you got the distinct impression that is was not to be the Angels’ day. These fears proved unfounded with four minutes to go when Staines failed to deal with a long throw-in that eventually fell to John Westcott to slot home a deserved equaliser. A one-on-one opportunity for new signing Luke Fontana went begging as Tonbridge could so easily have come away with all the points.

My first time to Staines’ Wheatsheaf Park and a nice set-up it is once you have negotiated the town centre one way system and complex roundabouts. The main stand is the rear of a leisure centre which houses a very nice bar with just about the biggest television I’ve seen. Opposite is full length covered terracing and behind one of the goals there are some strange shaped houses whose windows seem very vulnerable to the mishit shot.