Witham Town 2 Tonbridge 2

Match 68/14/1177 - Tuesday 24th February 2015 - Ryman Premier

Witham Town (1) 2 Charles 31, Blackman 47
Tonbridge (1) 2 Williams 40, Taylor 51
Att. 124

Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 132/5,004
New Ground: 273

Match Report

Perhaps it just a sign of approaching old age that this season, since round November, seems to have had one very cold Tuesday evening followed by another and then another. So it was that following an unexpectedly easy journey round the M25 and up the A12 to Witham Town Football Club I left the nicely heated car to approach the turnstiles like Scott of the Antarctic. At least there was no snow in the air like the last trip to Essex and Canvey Island.

On entry to the Spa Road stadium, the clubhouse side has a long stand that has seating in its centre part and terraces either side. Behind both goals are covered enclosures with a couple of steps of terracing. The opposite side of the ground was mostly cordoned off. The lighting was a little on the dim side. The pitch itself, along with most other Ryman Premier League pitches, had suffered a postponement on Saturday and looked pretty threadbare.

As I positioned myself toward the goal that Tonbridge would be attacking, I noticed there were a couple of people that had brought their well-behaved dogs with them and thought to myself, come the day my Molly will be able to sit quietly alongside me whilst I watch the game, there again, perhaps not!

Following Kyle Merson’s decision to take a break from the game, there had been much speculation as to who would be the Tonbridge custodian. It was very pleasing to see that Tom Hadler had returned to Tonbridge, this time on a loan from Gillingham that will take him through to the end of the season.

Tonbridge started well and there were a flurry of penalty appeals as Witham desperately tried to clear their lines. I wasn’t particularly well-placed to make an informed judgement, but when Tom Parkinson was pushed to the ground in the ninth minute, referee Gary Jerden pointed to the spot. It was perhaps a bit on the soft side, but there was contact. The aggrieved home supporters around me saw it differently (of course) and were suitably satisfied when Lee Carey’s poorly struck penalty was saved by the home goalkeeper.

Whilst the visitors dominated possession it was Witham that took the lead on the half-hour mark. A cross into the box wasn’t properly cleared, the ball falling to the feet of Lewis Godbold who saw his effort parried by Hadler but Ryan Charles was able to stab home the rebound.

Tonbridge managed a deserved equaliser five minutes before half-time when Marvin Williams fired home after a cross was only cleared to the edge of the box.

I spent the second half at the other end and just to the left of the Tonbridge dug-out. Within the first minute the contentious moment of the match went against the visitors. Williams was clearly brought down, I had an identical view to that of Steve McKimm and can only concur with his admonishment of the referee stating that if it wasn’t a penalty, then it should have been a booking for diving.

McKimm’s mood was to go from bad to worse almost immediately when a long punt upfield found Ryan Blackman who raced clear and coolly lobbed Hadler. McKimm stared in disbelief, I almost felt like asking the Tonbridge manager how the hell that happened, but I guessed it was neither the time nor the place.

Tonbridge showed good spirit though and within four minutes were back on level terms. Mitchell Pinnock put in a peach of a cross from the right onto the head of Joe Taylor, who found the bottom corner.

Tonbridge once again dominated for a 20 minute period but failed to really test Martyn Guest in the Witham goal before coming under serious pressure in the last 10 minutes. The home side made several chances and the final effort deep into injury time saw Charles put a header wide when it looked certain that the journey home would be a glum one.

Tonbridge can be satisfied with their point; it keeps the status quo of a comfortable 11 points between them and the bottom four and with Witham having gained a point at Maidstone and a decent home win against Harrow in the 10 days prior they are a team with a certain amount of form.