Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Eastbourne Borough (1) 2 Innocent 38 Shamalo 67
Attendance: 800
Admission: Season Ticket
Mileage: 38/4,384
A game that is best filed in the soonest forgotten and move on drawer.
There are strict guidelines regarding opinion of refereeing performances on National League club’s websites, but thankfully they have no control over a humble blog so I can say my piece. I'm not anti women in football and we've had referees that have been good one match and then not so good the next time they officate, much the same as any male. My gripe is not actually with Emily Heaslip but with the powers that be that have promoted an inexperienced referee far too quickly and left her out of her depth. .
On a thankfully milder evening than of late, Jay Saunders made three changes from Saturday’s side with Bailey Akehurst, Jeremy Santos and Gianluca Botti coming in for Scott Wagstaff (injured), Nazir Bakrin and Trevan Robinson who took places on the bench.
An eagerly awaited contest, for a decent Tuesday night attendance of 800, between an Eastbourne Borough team, for whom a win would see them climb into third place whilst for the home side would place them in touching distance of the players-off positions. But, within the opening five minutes, the game was set on an entirely different course.
The Angels had started the game brightly, forcing an early free kick and from that a third minute corner that brought the usual jostling for position in the six yard box as Sean Shields prepared to deliver. The jostling developed into something a little more which ended with Eastbourne’s Brayden Johnson going to ground and with that Ms Heaslip produced a red card and Garrett Kelly’s involvement was at an end.
The game plan was ripped up in a moment and Tonbridge needed to find a level of commitment that impressed their manager greatly: “I’m proud of the boys’ effort, to play 90-odd minutes with, at first, 10 men against a full-time team. I’m frustrated we had an opportunity to show what we’re capable of and close the gap. A lot’s happened out there but I don’t think there was a bad tackle and there’s been God knows how many yellow cards and red cards.”
When the corner did eventually get taken, Ronny Nelson headed marginally over.
As Tonbridge adjusted to the man disadvantage, Eastbourne pressed forward with Pierce Bird bringing a low save from Matt Rowley and a header from John Shamalo that was narrowly wide.
After surviving the opening half-hour, the Angels became to pose a threat of their own with successive corners but, on 36 minutes, the visitors took the lead when a right sided cross found its way to the left side of the box from where Kai Innocent drove his shot into the bottom corner.
The second half opened with then 10 men of Tonbridge containing their opponents relatively comfortably whilst looking to counter on the break. On 65 minutes, an innoculous booking for tossing the ball away a few inches for Botti was to have greater consequences soon after.
Eastbourne doubled their advantage on 67 minutes when Shamalo headed in from close range following a corner and with frustration playing its part, Botti challenged the Eastbourne goalkeeper, Joe Wright as he cleared the ball to bring a second yellow and subsequent red.
The visitors, strangely with a two man advantage, called time on their evening and played out the remaining quarter-hour with possession mainly played out in their half before the referee’s final whistle brought a chorus of irate boos from the home support.
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