Chatham Town (0) 1 Zanone 70
Tunbridge Wells (0) 0
Attendance: 103
Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 32/6,967
Never mind, any opportunity to watch Tunbridge Wells is worth taking. True, on the field they are as inconsistent as it is possible to be, unless you go back six months when they were consistently poor, but the people that support them are never anything less than good company for a couple of hours.
Chatham Town have also had a season that they will probably want to forget as soon as the last ball is kicked and were just a little nervously looking over their shoulders as Hollands & Blair have started to put the odd point on the board. A new influx of players including the much-travelled Stuart Zanone, Jason Goodchild and ex-Tunbridge Wells man Joe Nwoko have been brought in, as much for next season as this one would hope, to stave off any threat of relegation.
The first half was a pretty even affair without either team laying too much of a glove on the other. Zanone had the ball in the net after six minutes but was clearly offside and the Wells had a shot from Jack Harris comfortably saved by Ben Nourse whilst a better save was needed to deny Jared Trespaderne after 19 minutes. Sadly, it turned out that these would be the Wells only efforts on target all evening.
Trespaderne’s work ethic is to be admired, example a 60 yard back track in the second half, but he doesn’t appear to be an out-and-out striker in these formative years.
There was a bit of handbags after a poor tackle put Chatham’s Jack Matthews in the book but largely an uneventful first half drew slowly to its close.
Chatham were by far the better team in the second period and only an excellent performance from Cameron Hall between the Wells sticks, kept the score line blank until the 70th minute when the home side finally broke the deadlock.
The early warning signs for the second half were there as Chatham’s Russell Bedford flashed a shot across the face of goal.
Cameron Hall produced a brave save at the feet of Zanone as the introduction of substitutes Billy Brown and Taylor McDonagh gave the home side fresh impetus.
It was Brown’s run that set-up the opportunity for Zanone to bury his shot into the bottom corner to give the Chats the lead.
Hall made saves from Brown (twice) and Nwoko whilst Zanone shot over and Greg Skinner made a goal line clearance as the traffic became largely one-way.
Three important points for Chatham, of which they were more desperate than the Wells, and this was clearly evident in the second period.
1 comment:
Post a Comment