Faversham Town 0 Tonbridge Angels 1

Match 12/18/1605 - Tuesday, 24th July 2018 - Pre-Season Friendly

Faversham Town (0) 0
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Beere 2
Estimated Attendance: 150

Admission: £3 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 48/479

It was only a preseason friendly, so it was not going to exorcise any of the ghosts of last season’s visit to Salters Lane, but for 45 minutes Tonbridge’s football was good enough to file those memories into the box marked Do Not Open. The passing and movement was crisp and purposeful with an early goal to build on. The only possible complaint would have been that for almost total domination, one goal was a poor first half return.

The management conducted their team talk on the pitch after initially going to the dressing room, but what more could have been said other than, more of the same. Sadly, it didn’t happen.

Tonbridge were ahead within two minutes of the kick-off. A surging run and cross from the left from Jack Parter found Tom Beere, whose somewhat scuffed shot found the bottom corner.

Beere was excellent in the first 45 and his after match interview in which he told of his signing for a year will make for blissful listening for the Angels’ faithful.

The visitors survived a scare after nine minutes when a corner found the head of Ollie Lee but he steered it narrowly wide. From that let off the half was one-way traffic.

Joe Turner, who has been sharp as a tack preseason, tested Mark Overland on a couple of occasions; Alex Reid fired wide and Beere saw an effort deflected onto the crossbar as the Angels carved out chance after chance. The only fly in the first half ointment being a head injury to Callum Adonis-Taylor.

In fairness to Faversham, they made a better fist of the second period which probably contributed to Tonbridge losing their first half momentum.

A rash of substitutions further disrupted the game and apart from a sublime pass from Beere that almost put in Tommy Whitnell who was denied at his feet by Overland, the only occurrence of note was a worrying moment when Sonny Miles needed treatment for concussion and looked very wobbly as he left the field. But he reported that he was okay after the match.

There is not too much left of the phoney war of preseason but the general worry of the Tonbridge support is the isolation of Reid up front and whether support for him can be found, be it by a signing (is anything left in the budget) or from within the squad. For 45 minutes, it looked the last missing piece of the jigsaw.