Tonbridge 0 Burgess Hill Town 0

Match 79/16/1386 - Tuesday, 17th January 2017 - Ryman Premier

Tonbridge (0) 0
Burgess Hill Town (0) 1
Attendance: 256

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 38/5,553

Match Report

Tonbridge Angels' hopes of breaking into the Ryman Premier play-off places were put on ice on a pitch that, in my opinion, was barely playable. Temperatures throughout the day had risen only a couple of degrees above freezing and first view of the pitch showed a good deal of frost and by the end of the game the mercury had dropped to -4degC.

Of course, the old adage of the pitch is the same for both sides is very true but if you only set out your stall to avoid losing the game, then a difficult pitch plays to your advantage and in their perilous position at the wrong end of the table, nobody can really blame Burgess Hill for their tactics.

Whether this game should have started, or not, Tonbridge created more than enough chances to win the game but a combination of good goalkeeping from Max Huxter and poor finishing denied them.

The Angels created seven good chances during the first half. Alex Akrofi dragged a shot wide of the far post barely a minute after the start and Luke Blewden shot past the same post after six minutes. Huxter made his first fine save when he saved low to his left following a Nick Wheeler free kick that was headed goalwards by Akrofi.

Huxter was next in action on 15 minutes this time tipping a Nathan Elder header onto the crossbar.

The ex-Tonbridge striker Billy Medlock brought the only first half save out of Anthony Di Bernardo when his low, angled drive was turned around the post. From the resultant corner, Anthony Richmond rose to head wide.

Tonbridge created two early second half chances when, from outside of the box, Luke Allen shot straight at Huxter, but perhaps the chance of the match came after 52 minutes when Blewden crossed from the right to the head of Tommy Parkinson who steered his header wide of the far post. It was the type of chance we have seen Parky bury many, many times.

As the pitch became whiter by the minute, the game fairly died on its feet, whilst all of the 256 people watching were struggling to feel theirs.

Sid Sollis came on with 16 minutes remaining and injected a bit of life and might have done better than steer his 83rd minute header straight at Huxter.

Having managed to avoid my third goalless draw of the season on Monday night with a 90th minute goal, this time there was to be no reprieve. The only consolation of the evening was the car heater easing those blocks of ice on the bottom of the legs back to life.

Pictures courtesy of David Couldridge