Tunbridge Wells 7 Lordswood 0

Match 79/14/1188 - Tuesday 31st March 2015 - Southern Counties East

Tunbridge Wells (5) 7 Luchford 6, 50, Radford 9, 42, Booth 27, 51, Bryant 25
Lordswood (0) 0
Att. 133

Entrance: £4 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 38/5,824

Match Report

Whilst hopes of promotion might have disappeared over the hill some little while ago, there is still some silverware for Tunbridge Wells to play for and with their League Cup Final against Greenwich Borough approaching, they are running into a rich vein of form at just the right time.

Lordswood are going through a torrid time following the departure of Jason Lillis and James Colllins must be wondering what he has taken on even if it is only until the end of the season. They shipped six against Lingfield, five against Corinthian, but, bizarrely took a point off Erith and Belvedere. But none of this could detract from a wonderful first half performance that saw the Wells four goals up in the first 27 minutes and threatening to run up a cricket score that certainly England would have been proud of in the recent World Cup. Those of us against public floggings were relieved that when the seventh went in with 40 minutes still to play, the Wells declared.

Tunbridge Wells not only scored goals aplenty, but they were quality goals as well. Hardly a cross was wasted as Lordswood struggled and failed to stem the tide. Two minutes was all that was required to set the scoreboard ticking. Jake Beecroft, who had a great night, put a pin-point cross onto the head of Dane Luchford, who with the freedom of the six yard box, buried an easy header past a goalkeeper whose night was about to go from bad to worse.

Lee Radford, who would have been challenging Beecroft for my man of the match, cut in from the left and drilled a shot into the far corner to double the score with less than 10 minutes on the clock. Lordswood defended valiantly for a quarter of an hour until two goals in two minutes left you fearing for their outcome. A corner was woefully defended and full back Tom Bryant stabbed the ball home after 25 minutes before Paul Booth took the ball past a couple of hapless challenges to rifle a shot into the net from the edge of the box.

Three minutes before the break, Beecroft and Radford once more teamed-up to give the winger a tap-in from inside the six yard box for a first half nap hand.

Within seven minutes of the second half, the score had also risen to seven and thoughts of double figures were quite realistic. After 50 minutes, Luchford’s header came down off the underside of the crossbar with the linesman deeming that it had crossed the line and sixty seconds later a Booth volley completed the scoring.

A third consecutive game without conceding would have brought Martin Larkin as much satisfaction as the goalfest and with outstanding performances all over the pitch, 2nd April and the Cup Final at Welling cannot come soon enough.