Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Fielding 5
Dorking Wanderers (0) 0
Attendance: 1,202
Admission: Season Ticket
Mileage: 38/1,682
Tonbridge Angels produced a performance of defensive resilience to return to winning ways with a single goal home defeat of Dorking Wanderers.
After taking a lead within the first five minutes through a Jamie Fielding goal, the Angels produced a defensive determination polar opposite to the one that conceded three poor goals at Worthing.
Jay Saunders, commenting on his team’s performance after the game said: “We needed that after back to back defeats and really pleased with the clean sheet. We were well organised, we looked hard to break down which we need to be when we are competing against these sides with the players they have got. You need to be, first and foremost, solid and hard to break down. I don’t think we’ve been that in the last two league games, so I was pleased with that, pleased with the clean sheet.”
A record Tuesday evening league attendance of 1,202 with a raucous following from Dorking giving as good as they got in terms of the drums at the opposite end to our own Blue Army.
Saunders made two changes from the starting XI at Worthing with Jeremy Santos coming in for Ryan Hanson and Noel Leighton for Trevan Robinson. On the bench, Deondre Date was brought back from his dual registration at Leatherhead.
Tonbridge got away to a fast start and were ahead on five minutes when a free kick on the left was driven in low through a cluster of bodies at the near post to Fielding, who with the deftest of back heels scored from the edge of the six yard box.
For 20 minutes, the Angels dominated and might have gone two up after 13 minutes when Leighton headed over and Leighton’s square pass just evading Sean Shields as the Angels threatened to take the game away from their visitors.
But, after that initial 20 minutes, Dorking gained momentum in the game and began to cause concern for the Angels backline as Toby Steward saved well from Josh Brooking, who moments later shot over the bar from a good position.
After 23 minutes, Shields bent a shot wide of the post as the pressure was mainly on the Angels goal, but without really testing Steward.
Five minutes remained in the half when Santos painfully limped out of the game to be substituted by Mo Dabre.
In the last of six minutes of added time, Dorking had their best chance of the half when a Brooking cross found Alfie Rutherford in front of goal with an unchallenged header that he wastefully put wide.
Just past the hour, Jason Adigun released substitute Robinson through but the Dorking goalkeeper, Harrison Faulkes, was quick off his line to smother the ball with his legs.
For the last half-hour, the Angels defence were asked many questions but their resilience limited the Dorking forwards to very few clear opportunities with Steward only asked to make one save of significance from Rutherford.
Jay concluded: “We’ve dug deep, they’ve thrown everything at us and we’ve done that. You have to do that, that’s the bare minimum we require from the boys and tonight I’ve got a really good response after some harsh said on Saturday with regards to the goals conceded and to be fair to them they’ve come in and given me the response I expected.”
Picture: Wes Filtness
No comments:
Post a Comment