Billericay Town (2) 3 Green 8, Wild 38, Poole 58 (pen)
Tonbridge (1) 3 Lovell 2, Collin 85 (pen) Judge 90
Att. 469
Entrance: £12
Programme: £2
Mileage: 103/744
Match Report
As the game was heading towards its last five minutes and after being clearly second best for the best part of 80 minutes, Tonbridge were handed the lifeline of a penalty which was converted by Frannie Collin. As the tide changed and Tonbridge went in search of an unlikely point, Swaine went to ground, not for the first time, following a challenge from George Purcell. From my vantage point it looked as though he went down very easily and this clearly incensed the majority of Tonbridge fans positioned behind the goal who saw the summoning of the physio to the field as nothing more than time-wasting. They gave the Billericay captain absolute dogs-abuse and when he got to his feet he gestured to them with his back to the referee that he had dived and this served to further wind up the visiting supporters. The abuse continued and when Swaine turned to face his own goal following another clearance he spat in the direction of the Tonbridge supporters. This I saw clearly, in my opinion he did not spit with any venom that was likely to reach any of those behind the goal, I would say it was only a gesture, but he clearly spat. Two wrongs never made a right and the player compounded his irresponsibility by getting into a Twitter row later in the evening when he admitted spitting but denied that it was at the fans whom he labelled as idiots and morons.
Players week-in, week-out get abused and do not respond; clearly with the victory slipping away from Billericay the abuse got to Swaine and the rest is history.
The game could not have started better for Tonbridge, who took the lead after just 90 seconds when Mark Lovell headed into the bottom corner from a left wing cross. Strangely, as the game had kicked off a couple minutes early, the home side found themselves behind before the scheduled start!
That was as good as it got for Tonbridge for the next 80 minutes. Billericay overran Tonbridge’s narrow midfield with Sam Lechmere giving an eye-catching performance. After eight minutes the home side were level following an uncharacteristic error by Lee Worgan. A high cross into the penalty area was dropped by the goalkeeper and Nathan Green headed home. It looked, from the length of the pitch, suspiciously like the ball had been headed from the hands of Worgan, but the keeper did not protest with any great conviction.
The Tonbridge goalkeeper made amends with a series of saves before he was beaten again in the 38th minute. A corner was headed towards goal by Swaine, Worgan made a fine parrying save but only into the path of Chris Wild who scored from close range.
The one-way traffic continued early into the second half with Tonbridge being opened up almost at will. It was no surprise when Billericay doubled their lead in the 58th minute. The hosts were given a penalty from which Glenn Poole converted after a Tonbridge defender had handled a goalbound shot.
The turn in the visitors’ fortunes hinged on the introduction of Nathan Koranteng and Rory Hill adding much needed width in the middle of the field. The big central defenders who had dominated throughout were being pulled out of position and panic set in. I have to admit I’m not sure what happened for the penalty, from the ball bobbling about in the area to the referee pointing at the spot for Collin to convert.
The rumblings of the Swaine dispute were continuing when in the final minute, Koranteng crossed from the left, the ball was headed back across the face of goal and Ben Judge turned it in from close range to the delight of the travelling faithful who probably saw it as rough justice following the spitting incident.
New Lodge has to be among the poorer of the grounds in Conference South. The pitch slopes badly and the floodlights fail to illuminate certain areas of the pitch, around the dugouts in particular. There is a small covered stand on the halfway line alongside the clubhouse in which the posters and programme covers from their Wembley visits in the 1970s take pride of place. The clubhouse is presently shrouded in scaffolding adding to the untidy appearance. On the far side of the ground there is covered seating and standing accommodation that was originally two stands that have been joined together. The overall impression is that the ground has been assembled bit by bit with no thought given to the previous structure or the next one.
Tonbridge slipped into the bottom three with Billericay a point and a couple of places better off.
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