Cray Valley (PM) 1 Tunbridge Wells 1

Match 14/13/1041 - Tuesday, 13th August 2013 - Southern Counties East

Cray Valley (PM) (0) 1 Springett 60
Tunbridge Wells (0) 1 Spackman 85
Att. 80

Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: Included in entrance
Mileage: 66/1,026
New Ground: 256

Match Report

This was a game that will fall into the "No quarter asked and no quarter given" category as two teams, both with aspirations of winning the Southern Counties East Football League this season, fought a feisty encounter.

Cray Valley (PM) will be feeling the greater aggrieved of the two, having had two men sent off and hotly disputing Tunbridge Wells' equalising goal with only five minutes left on the clock, but the home side were victims of their own making.

Midway through the first half, Cray's livewire centre forward, Adam Marsh tangled with Perry Spackman and, despite the protestations that contact had barely been made, a raised hand generally means a card of some sort, and on this occasion a yellow sufficed. Treading a fine line, a few minutes later, Marsh impeded the taking of a free kick and the referee brandished the red card to the furious striker.

Cray had enjoyed the better of the first half, the two strikers, diminutive in height, but quick and a real handful are going to cause headaches for most of the defences at this level. Unfortunately, the only headache that is caused, is to your own manager when you are going to spend an hour or so on the sidelines.

Against the run of play, Jack Harris was brought down in the area and the referee duly awarded the spot kick. Tom Davey, appearing to be the reluctant taker, shot wide of the target to reprieve the home side.

On the hour, a cross lofted into the box was met with a glancing header from Steve Springett to give the 10 men of Cray a deserved lead.

Despite the appeals from the Cray management team on the sidelines to keep out of the referee's face, they continued to harangue the official and when Josh Stanford was upended, the offender was shown a second yellow card to reduce the home side to nine men.

Tunbridge Wells now had to gamble and Spackman was sent forward in a desperate attempt to retrieve something from the game and with five minutes remaining they got their reward in a controversial manner. A corner appeared to be dropped by goalkeeper, Bobby Sturgeon, under pressure from Spackman and the ball ended up in the net. Furious protestations ensued as the Cray Valley players felt that the makeshift centre forward had pulled at the arm of the keeper causing the fumble but the referee was unmoved.

The points were shared at the final whistle of this feisty match and one would suspect that when these teams meet again in October at Culverden another spicy, very watchable encounter will ensue.