Ebbsfleet United 3 Staines Town 0

Match 58/13/1085 - Saturday, 15th February 2014 - Conference South

Ebbsfleet United (3) 3 Bricknell 5, McMahon 33, Acheampong 38
Staines Town (0) 0
Att. 791

Entrance: £8 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 62/5,838

Match Report

Stonebridge Road provided the perfect riposte to all those that continue to push 3G forward as the only resolution to the glut of postponements that continue to blight this winter. As, once again, the Saturday fixture list was decimated by another week of heavy rain and high winds, the investment that Ebbsfleet United made in state-of-the-art drainage paid dividends as the gathered 791 looked down on a grass playing surface with no standing water and just a couple of small bare patches in the six yard boxes. In fact the only doubt that this game would have to be postponed was due to one of the floodlight pylons being badly damaged by the strong winds during the week, but the groundstaff were also equal to the challenge of repairing the pylon in time.

From a position of strength inasmuch that they have been able to get their games played as consistently as Maidstone have on their 3G, Ebbsfleet’s vice-chairman Peter Varney attacked the decision of Maidstone to contest the Conference decision not to allow artificial surfaces in their competition.

In a straight lift from his programme notes, Varney wrote: I think it is well documented that we are against the introduction of artificial surfaces for all the reasons I have written about previously in my programme notes. In short it is a football argument versus a commercial argument. Maidstone are directing a lot of criticism at the Conference Board which is unfair as this was a decision taken by member clubs and of course Maidstone is not a member club. If the matter does go to court it will be for clubs like ours to fund the legal costs, which again is unfair. If member clubs democratically come to a vote on any key issue and those against the decision taken resort to threats and legal action to try and overturn the decision, it is not in my view the way to do business.

Mr Varney did his talking off the pitch, whilst his players certainly did theirs down on the grass as they produced a first half performance that blew Staines out of the water, opened the floodgates with an early goal and any other water-borne cliché that you can think off.

From the moment the enigmatic Anthony Cook slid a pass through the vacant areas of the visitor’s central defence for Billy Bricknell to fire home after five minutes there was very little doubt as to the outcome of this contest. A second goal was almost another half-hour in the making but in between the Staines defence was pulled apart with alarming regularity.

A long ball over-the-top of the Staines defence saw Bricknell heading for the box on the edge of which he was brought down bringing claims for a penalty which the referee turned down awarding a free kick a yard outside. Cook shaped to float a cross towards the throng at the far post but instead squared a pass to Daryl McMahon who delightfully picked his spot with a side-footed shot into the bottom corner.

Anthony Acheampong buried a header at the far post from a Cook corner before the break to complete a first half rout that left the visitors with little more than pride to salvage from the second half.

In the immediate ten minutes after the interval, Bricknell skied a shot over the bar from close range and Jerel Ifil managed to hit the underside of his own crossbar in his desperation to clear another cross from Cook, who with three assists caught the eye.

With nothing to lose, Staines with the aid of a couple of substitutions that added some forward threat, produced a couple of chances that Ebbsfleet managed to shepherd to safety, once with the aid of McMahon’s chest on the line.

For Ebbsfleet, the green, green grass of home is a magic carpet that soaks up what the elements can throw at it like a sponge, whilst on the pitch, the Kuwaiti owners are seeing their investment heading towards the retrieval of their Conference Premier status.

The weather forecasters are telling us that, finally, we have seen the last of the conveyor belt of storms that have headed across the Atlantic causing the disruption to the fixture lists. Hopefully the likes of Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells will be only days away from football breaking out at their home grounds.