Ashford United 2 Tunbridge Wells 1

Match 73/15/1278 - Tuesday, 1st March 2016 - SCEL

Ashford United (0) 2 Pilbeam 70, Welford 74
Tunbridge Wells (0) 1 Nwoko 82
Attendance: 204

Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £2.00
Mileage: 36/5,452

Match Report

Today was the meteorological first day of Spring, not that the numbness of my extremities would attest to the fact. With this coming, there are green shoots of a revival in fortunes for Tunbridge Wells Football Club. Although, defeat in a tightly contested match was suffered, there was enough to convince that, finally, Jason Bourne has his troops marching in the right direction and offer hope for a seriously better season next term.

The fixture schedulers at SCEL were unsympathetic to the large followings of both clubs as a Tuesday date for this re-arranged match probably cost a hundred people through the gate (the reverse fixture brought an attendance of 293). There was the usual substantial contingent from Tunbridge Wells, but smaller than it would have been on a Saturday. Ashford Town, who have suffered financial instability this season, would have liked to have seen those extra bodies through the turnstiles and into the bar.

As has become the norm in this season of transition there was a new player in the Tunbridge Wells ranks that I hadn't seen previously, this time the bespectacled Charlie Cornford.

Ashford, who when I saw them at Hollands & Blair, were probably the worst Ashford team I have ever seen, were vastly improved on that performance. In fairness, on that night they had an upcoming Vase game which they won, but lost out in the quarter-finals at Salisbury. As an aside, my opinion is that reformed clubs like Salisbury and Hereford, who meet in the semi-finals, should not be allowed to compete in the Vase in their first season after reforming. They are Step 3 clubs that through mis-management find themselves in a Step 6 competition and are too strong.

The first half was combative with the sides cancelling each other out and few chances emerging. Ryan Crandley, the Gillingham youngster on loan at Tunbridge Wells, worked hard alongside Chris Seenan and brought an early save from the Ashford keeper, George Kamurasi with the home side working Steve Lawrence on a couple of occasions.

There continued to be a reasonable ebb and flow to the game in the second half with Ashford slightly the dominant side.

Ex-Tunbridge Wells' Paul Booth entered the fray as a substitute on the hour and it was his presence that had a hand in both of Ashford's goals in a four minute spell.

Booth's persistence won a corner and from it a header from another ex-Wells player Jon Pilbeam somehow eluded Lawrence and a man on the post to nestle in the bottom corner.

A long punt out of defence was headed on by Booth into the path of Shaun Welford who took no second asking to fire a rasping shot past the goalkeeper to double the home side's advantage.

Six minutes from the end, substitute Joe Nwoko hit a shot of equal venom past Kamurasi to offer the Wells' travelling support some optimism but the home side saw out the game with little alarm.

There was plenty to admire in Tunbridge Wells' performance against a team, unlikely to challenge Hollands or Greenwich Borough for the title, but probably not going too fall far short. The vision has to be next season and if this team can be kept together significant progress should be made, but whether the loan players will be available, leaves a big question mark. Bourne appears to have developed a good relationship with Maidstone United and if Crandley returns to Gillingham happy with his stay, who's to say there might not be more youngsters following in his wake. Gillingham will have no development squad next season in league action, so the players have to play somewhere.

This was my first trip to Homelands since they laid their 3G pitch. Having heard a few horror stories, I was reasonably impressed. It didn't appear to play much differently to Maidstone, although there are some visible ridges, which I would think need ironing out (forgive the pun) in the close season.

A borrowed programme, coincidentally Ashford v Tunbridge Wells, offered an insight into non-league football in 1951. One passage amused me concerning a practice match that had been played a week previously. Two wingers could not appear, one was sick and the other was prevented by unforeseen circumstances, but he did send a telegram to say he couldn't make it!

The tidying-up of the dressing rooms had not gone exactly to plan during the summer as somebody had managed to paint the stove in the visitor's dressing room and it was impossible to light the fire without smoking the place out!