Phoenix Sports (1) 1 Freeman 20
Tunbridge Wells (0) 0
Att. 85
Entrance: £3 Senior
Programme: £1
Mileage: 70/4,462
New Ground: 272
Sugar Daddy’s have come and gone at places like Salisbury, Darlington and Kettering, bringing initial success but leaving nothing but turmoil. The old Kent League didn’t exactly attract the Russian oligarch or a Saudi prince but, nonetheless, each year one club would be the beneficiary of a cash injection that would skew the league in their favour.
This season Phoenix Sports have bucked the trend. Whilst it was rumoured there was cash on tap at Greenwich Borough, Phoenix have preserved an unbeaten run in the league that now extends to 20 games and have progressed to the last 16 of the FA Vase where they face the daunting trip to the north-east to meet North Shields.
On a bitterly cold night at Mayplace Road, 85 hardy souls slowly felt the chill getting through to their bones as Tunbridge Wells were the latest club to exit Barnehurst without a goal and without a point.
It all left one to wonder how a club that has counted attendances of 43, 46 and 48 this season have managed to attain such success. The answer must reside in a team spirit that is palpable from the sidelines and it never does your cause any harm when you can call on a striker that is going to give you 30 goals in a season.
Phoenix Sports have, in theory, so little to offer players of the quality of Ricky Freeman, Yacine Gnahore, Harrison Carnegie and the ex-Tunbridge Wells favourite Scott Whibley that their appearance in the green of the club can only be down to the persuasive powers of manager Steve O’Boyle.
From the moment they left the dressing room and awaited the call from the referee to take to a heavily sanded pitch that had passed a 5 o’clock inspection, the geeing up and encouragement from player to player was clearly audible but not without the occasional confrontation. After a fairly slow start, O’Boyle was getting frustrated on the sidelines and berated Carnegie when he made a poor choice of going for goal instead of a cross. Freeman was quick to his colleague’s defence and in a sharp retort the manager was told to get off the youngster’s back.
In those opening minutes, Tunbridge Wells started much the brighter and half-chances fell to Paul Booth and Brendan Cass to which Phoenix keeper, Steve Phillips was equal, but after 20 minutes the Tunbridge Wells on the front foot disappeared and only resurfacing in the last 10 minutes in which time they might well have secured an unlikely equaliser and an undeserved point.
On the half-hour, Phoenix opened the scoring with a goal simple in its making, clinical in its finishing but a nightmare bit of defending. Carnegie crossed from the right, the ball cleared Brad Potter and Rory Head and dropped to Freeman who swept it home for his 19th goal of the season.
The second half was one-way traffic in favour of Phoenix until a last 10 minute assault from the Wells could so easily have stolen a point. Chris Seenan was brought down when through on goal but appeals for a penalty were waved away and a final, desperate effort on goal following a Jake Beecroft corner saw the ball cleared from the line by Whibley to deny his old mates. From a distance of 70 yards it was impossible to confirm or not claims that it had crossed the line, or indeed had been handled, but even from that distance the Seenan penalty claim looked to have merit. But nobody will ever know, because the area behind the goal, the full length of one side and half of the length of the side where the 108 seated stand is situated was closed to spectators.
It would appear that an awful lot of work needs to be done to bring the Mayplace up to Ryman standard, but Phoenix must be confident they can satisfy the criteria as they have put themselves forward for promotion should they earn it on the pitch.
Good luck to Phoenix Sports, I hope they make it on the strength of their team spirit rather than somebody’s wallet.
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