Hollands & Blair (2) 4 McDonald 10, Greenfield (pen) 32, West 48, 58
Ashford United (0) 0
Attendance: 88
Entrance: £4 Senior
Programme: £1
Mileage: 56/4,213
New Ground: 284
Match Report
Hollands and Blair, once a factory team, are one of Kent's success stories. Just a dozen years ago, they were still playing their football in the Rochester and District League before winning the two lower divisions of the Kent County League back-to-back and going on to win the Premier League in 2008 and 2011. This led to their promotion to the Kent Invicta League on its formation; they were runners-up to Phoenix Spoorts in 2013 before winning successive titles that led to their elevation to the Southern Counties East League.
Anybody expecting their momentum to stall at the higher level have been proved wrong as they have opened up a five point lead on the well-heeled Greenwich Borough at the head of the table.
At the present time, I would guess that Star Meadow is some way from getting a suitable ground grading for Isthmian League status and, but from reports work is in progress to upgrade the facilities as necessary. The small seated stand with a capacity of no more than 150 is the only covered enclosure which falls short of the requirements. But, on the whole, it is a nice little facility, with room to put into place the necessary improvements.
As I left Star Meadow, a couple of minutes early, not exactly to beat the rush but because the bitterly cold wind was eating into the bones, I bumped into an old friend who had adopted Hollands as his team. Not wishing to burst his bubble, I passed comment that whilst his side had been good, that was the worst Ashford team I'd ever seen. On reflection that was pretty unfair, failing to take into account Ashford's FA Vase encounter coming up at Newport, Isle of Wight on Saturday coupled with suspensions to key players.
Nevertheless, nothing should be taken away from Paul Piggott's team. A mixture of youth and experience, they were quick on the counter attack with a couple of raiding full backs with a goalscorer in prime form alongside an older head up front. When they were forced to defend, the visitors found a goalkeeper in good form and defenders willing to put their bodies on the line.
Hollands took the lead after 10 minutes when a cross from the impressive Justin Ascheri was nodded back across the face of goal to the unerring head of the Southern Counties East leading goalscorer, James McDonald.
Just past the half-hour, Shaun Welford inexplicably hand-balled a cross from the left and Bryan Greenfield scored from the spot.
Two goals early in the second half left Ashford waving the white flag. Hollands' skipper, Stuart West got on the end of a free kick from Greenfield to score with a diving header and 10 minutes later, when Ashford tried and failed to clear their lines following a corner, West was on hand again to poke the ball in.
Ashford sacrificed the experienced Michael Phillips and Shaun Welford to save their legs for the trip to the Isle of Wight and the home side took their foot off the gas to save any further embarrassment.
Where can you get a decent evening's entertainment for a fiver? Certainly this would have been great value on a night when it wasn't quite so cold.
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