Erith & Belvedere 0 Phoenix Sports 1

Match 86/14/1195 - Wednesday 15th April 2015 - Southern Counties East

Erith & Belvedere (0) 0
Phoenix Sports (1) 1 Jeffery 18
Att. 178
Played at Park View Road, Welling

Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 76/6,214

Match Report

Phoenix Sports have duly won the Southern Counties East League and earned their promotion to the Ryman League. They have based their success on a strong defensive unit that has conceded just 17 goals all season and despite going to down 10 men when their goalscorer Aaron Jeffery was sent off for raising his hands towards Lewis Clark with 20 minutes remaining their resilience was there for all to see.

When I saw Phoenix earlier in the season in their single goal home win over Tunbridge Wells their defensive attributes were not severely tested and, if anything, I left their Barnehurst base not really realising how good they were. So, from this point of view, I was glad to have been at Park View Road to watch them see off their final challengers in Erith and Belvedere.

As an attacking force, Harrison Carnegie always catches the eye with his pace and quick feet and Jeffery was a threat even if his dismissal was pretty stupid.

As I have previously posted, I have no idea how a club that was playing in the Kent Invicta League two seasons ago and have an average home attendance of 98 (with a low of just 43 and 14 of their attendances have been lower than their average over 18 games), have financed their success.

Perhaps it has nothing to do with finance at all because it is clearly evident that Steve O’Boyle has a team with a fantastic team spirit to go with their resilience and ability. Their celebrations at the end of the game with their supporters that made up a fair proportion of the 178 attendance also portrayed that this is a club united on and off the pitch.

After a bright start from the visitors it was E&B that very nearly took the lead after 25 minutes when Ben Wilson headed against the crossbar. Five minutes later and the champions-elect were in front. Carnegie was sent clear down the right wing and his cross found Jeffery who drove a fine shot into the bottom corner from inside the box. The goal prompted a conga from the Phoenix fans gathered behind the goal, the party had started!

In the second half, E&B’s giant goalkeeper, George Kamurasi, began to take centre stage. After 68 minutes, he made a very good stop to thwart Chris Hill and as time was ebbing away he came up for a couple of corners to add his sizeable presence.

He was also caught off his line as Scott Whibley, an uncompromising central defender, tried his luck to do a Charlie Adam from 65 yards. As the goalkeeper scurried backwards he was relieved to see the ball drift a yard or so wide.

With a couple of minutes remaining the referee brought parity to the team numbers with the second daft sending-off of the evening. Wilson, taking exception to Yacine Gnahore standing in front of him for a throw-in, decided to throw the ball at him and a red card was the result of his action.

Phoenix saw out the remaining time and the final whistle brought great celebration with the League officials showing some clever forethought by having the trophy on-site to present to the champions whilst manager O’Boyle perhaps also saw the writing on the wall as he had booked the night off from his job at Smithfield Market, enabling him to celebrate alongside his players.