Tonbridge Angels Ladies (2) 2 Underhill 41 Gibb 43
Thamesview Ladies (0) 1
Headcount: 45
Admission: Free
Programme: None
Mileage: 38/8,305
It was disappointing that a well-contested match between the Division’s top two sides ended with a situation in which two Thamesview players traded punches with a group on the sidelines who had made disparaging remarks in their direction. As the fight escalated other players from both sides became involved as the incident became very ugly. The two teams meet again in a Cup Final on 17th May, hopefully without the recriminations that dampened the celebrations for Tonbridge Angels Ladies who had inflicted the first defeat of the season on the champions.
Tonbridge went into the game missing a couple of players including their top scorer, and player of the year following the previous evening’s presentation night, Becky Janes.
The Angels started the game creating the opening opportunity after just 29 seconds when Megan Akehurst and Maisie Gibb set-up a chance for Becky Jarvis who drove her shot into the side netting.
Thamesview settled into their rhythm and they created a couple of openings that were fired wide before a long ball over the top was chased down by Gibb but her shot was wide of the post.
Tonbridge goalkeeper, Sam Wright, saved from the pacy visiting centre forward and dealt comfortably with a close range header from a corner.
Thamesview had a free kick that narrowly went the wrong side of the far post before Tonbridge took the lead after 41 minutes when a clearance from the goalkeeper hit Jarvis in the face with the ball falling for Akehurst to lay-off to Lauryn Underhill to fire home.
One quickly became two when Akehurst won the ball in midfield before releasing Jarvis to lob the goalkeeper. Remarks from the sideline following this goal sadly planted the seed for the later events.
Thamesview quickly reduced arrears in the second half when their centre forward stabbed the ball home to set up a second half onslaught that took resilience of the highest order to withstand with Sharon Lyons absolutely outstanding.
In truth, the second half was one-way traffic as the champions created and missed chance after chance, at times due to brave defending and others through sheer wastefulness.
The final whistle brought relief and should have brought great satisfaction to the home side but the disgraceful scenes at the end were not befitting of a pub side let alone ladies that had actually given the right-minded spectators a compelling encounter.
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