Rochester United 1 Sevenoaks Town 2

Match 79/15/1284 - Tuesday, 22nd March 2016 - SCEFL

Rochester United (0) 1 Carr 59
Sevenoaks Town (1) 2 McKenzie 41, Edwards 78
Attendance: 66

Entrance: £4 Senior
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 39/5,838

Match Report

An empty Tuesday evening for my clubs allowed me a visit to Rochester United, a ground I haven't been to since a Pre-Season Friendly in 2008, and their change of name from Bly Spartans on entering the Southern Counties East League. The ground, obviously needed upgrading to enter into the SCEL is now fully enclosed with a turnstile, a small seated stand and floodlights that were in their embryonic stage eight years ago.

The match itself was, well, eventful with three well taken goals, three sent off and a bit of fisticuffs.

Sevenoaks came into the game in a rich vein of form, unbeaten in their last eight games and started very much on the front foot and the Rochester goalkeeper, Roddy Hayward, made early saves. After 10 minutes, Hayward was injured and was still unsteady on one leg when he produced an excellent save from Adam Marsh.

The visitors had the better of the first half and it was somewhat surprising that it took until five minutes before half-time to open the scoring. Chinedu McKenzie started and finished the move with a shot into the bottom corner following a cross from the influential Kieron McCann. An unseemly melee ensured following the goal and the red card was shown, at the time mysteriously, to Sevenoaks' Marsh who had a difference of opinion with the Rochester central defender, Rikki Holmes. Marsh had to be restrained as he made his way to the dressing rooms, with the claim made after the game that he had taken a kick to head whilst on the ground.

On the hour, Rochester equalised with a goal very similar to Sevenoaks' opener. Steve Rothery and Vince Collis combined down the left hand side with the latter crossing into the box for Tom Carr to score.

Twelve minutes remained when Sevenoaks retook the lead with a free kick from Chris Edwards that deflected off the wall and looped over the goalkeeper.

The referee, a very young official, then took centre stage for the remaining minutes. He evened up the teams to 10-a-side, when he sent off Carr for a second yellow after the Rochester midfielder had made a challenge on the right hand touchline.

Sevenoaks returned to a man disadvantage with five minutes remaining when McCann was sent off for his second yellow but successfully saw the game out.