Tonbridge 1 Gillingham 2

Match 03/15/1208 - Saturday, 11th July 2015 - Pre-Season Friendly

Tonbridge (0) 1 Pearson 76
Gillingham (1) 2 Norris 43, Egan 86
Attendance: 793

Entrance: Senior £4
Programme: 50p
Mileage: 36/160

Match Report

A lovely video from Trevor

There was nothing about this day in which you could be anything other than being proud to be a supporter of Tonbridge Angels Football Club. The club has shown great dignity since the shocking events of Tuesday evening at Whyteleafe and the passing of a trialist, Junior Dian, wearing their colours for the first and only time.

The two teams took to the field side by side, preceded by the club chaplain, Neil Durling and Junior's brother, with Junior's pals, James Folkes and Jerrome Sobers leading the Tonbridge line and Cody McDonald for Gillingham each carrying wreathes to be laid in the area where suppporters and a large gathering of Junior's family and friends, had already laid their flowers.

The chaplain read a poem from Frixo, a forum member, that had been posted in the last couple of days, it read:

I never met Junior Dian, never saw him play
I was not down at Whyteleafe on that fateful, sorry day
There on social media is a bright, athletic man
Sharp and cool, and full of fun, the whole world in his hands
Loving playing football, winning with his mates
Looking for the opening to make his first big break
A bright start with much promise, so those who saw him say
By some tiny unseen hand cruelly snatched away
I mourn a young man's passing and can barely guess the pain
Of family and friends never seeing him again
But as the seasons pass and time softens the hurt
I'll never forget that Junior died in a Tonbridge Angels shirt
God Bless You
Rest in Peace

James, Jerrome and Melvin Slight were first to lay their tributes, followed by manager Steve McKimm and Cody for Gillingham. I can only voice my admiration for Melvin, who tried so desperately to save the young man's life, the turmoil that must have gone through his mind since Tuesday, but here he was medical bag in hand, ready once again to do his job for his club.

The Tonbridge team came forward, one by one, to lay a flower, reaching out and touching the photograph of Junior.

A minute's applause followed, which proved too much for James Folkes, who was quickly consoled by his captain, Jerrome. Courageously, as his team mates rallied around him, James recovered his composure to play his part in the ensuing match.

Gillingham supporters, of whom I would expect nothing less, having stood alongside them at many a minute's silence or applause, observed the proceedings with the greatest of respect and fully played their part.

As for the match itself, Gillingham paid Tonbridge the great compliment of bringing a first team squad complete with all of their summer signings so far, with only Doug Loft nursing a sore calf, missing.

Tonbridge more than held their own and Gillingham had to thank the agility of Stuart Nelson in keeping out two headers from Tom Phipp before Luke Norris opened the scoring just prior to the break.

The home side got the equaliser their efforts deserved when Tom Pearson latched onto a weak header from John Egan to his goalkeeper leaving Pearson to round Glenn Morris and fire into the empty net.

Gillingham were not to be denied though and with four minutes remaining, Egan made amends with a close range header from a Ryan Edwards cross that Anthony Di Bernardo could not prevent from crossing the line.

Football is a sport that suffers criticism at times for the obscene amounts of money that sloshes around the top end. The great dignity that was shown this afternoon shows that the game has a heart.

Perhaps, a few quid from those millions it takes from television, etc., could now be filtered down, so the simple, relatively cheap, test that can detect the heart problem that has taken, from Tonbridge alone, Jack Maddams before Junior Dian, can be offered to semi-professional players up and down the country.

RIP Junior Dian