Merstham (0) 0
Tonbridge Angels (2) 3 Small 15 Jones (o.g.) 37 Reid 49
Attendance: 209
Admission: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 84/1,009
I wouldn’t like to say that the summer brought a wave of optimism from the Tonbridge support but with each signing that was made, people started to raise their expectations as the makings of a good squad were realised.
Unfortunately the dreaded B-word (budget) has limited Steve McKimm to a 16 man squad and we wait until the darker days of November onwards when the odd suspension or injury kicks in to see if this is going to be a telling factor in the long-term. Perhaps some more money might find its way into the pot before this comes to pass.
The first 15 minutes of the new season passed uneventfully with neither goalkeeper seeing action.
Merstham’s goalkeeper, Chris Haigh, would have hoped that situation had lasted longer as he got hopelessly underneath a long cross from Joe Turner for Jared Small to loop a header into the net for his first goal for the club following his transfer from Harlow Town.
Jack Parter, who enjoyed an impressive afternoon, surging forward on countless occasions, sent a cross fizzing across the face of the goal begging a touch that was not forthcoming after 24 minutes.
The second goal that the first half performance from the Angels justly merited came after 37 minutes when a ball pulled back by Small was inadvertently bundled into his own net by Merstham’s Jelan Jones.
Tonbridge ended a total dominant first period with a shot from Turner that was narrowly over the bar.
It only took five minutes of second half play for the Angels to effectively put the game beyond their hosts with a finely crafted third goal. James Folkes, getting forward from full back, linked well with Tom Beere who found Alex Read to curl an outside of the foot shot into the far corner for his first competitive goal for the club.
Unfortunately for Merstham, the situation went from bad to worse when, having made a treble substitution, Calum Davies suffered a blow to the head and suffering from concussion was unable to continue leaving the Moatsiders a man short for the remainder of the game that was delayed 10 minutes by the injury.
If one was to be hyper-critical of the Tonbridge performance it might be that they didn’t put their hosts to the sword given their dominance and man advantage. Sonny Miles planted a header against the crossbar as did Folkes but no further additions were made to the score sheet.
But nobody should be churlish about a result and a team performance that saw goalkeeper Jonny Henly not asked to make a single save in the entire game.
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