Hemel Hempstead Town (0) 1 Dowrich 90+5
Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Attendance: 651
Admission: £12
Mileage: 160/3,670
Once is unfortunate, twice is careless, three times is a pattern and one that is driving Tonbridge Angels supporters to despair.
Three times in the last five games, the winner has been conceded in time added at the end of a match, goals in the 94th, 93rd and 96th minutes have cost the Angels vital points that would almost certainly have guaranteed safety.
That the latest, is the word heartbreak or annoyance, came without surprise at Hemel Hempstead Town, who after laying to rest the hoodoo’s that were Worthing, Torquay, Salisbury and the Gallagher, now take the title of the Angels ultimate graveyard.
In truth, it was a nothing game from which neither team deserved the full complement of points.
Larry McAvoy taking the post-match interview: “It’s not the first time this season, over the past month we have been burning points in terms of these late goals. It is not fitness, not desire, but we are young in terms of mentality and making mistakes.”
The omens were good, a trouble-free drive through the tunnel and round the M25 to the most out-of-form team in the league, but it’s Hemel, where something always happens and it’s never good.
On a dry afternoon that was deceptively cold, Manager Alan Dunne made two changes from Tuesday’s home win against Hampton with Naz Bakrin and Sean Shields starting for Matt Warren and Bunmi Babajide.
In charge, for her first National League South game, was Grace Lowe and she made her mark on the game with a yellow card for Tonbridge’s Tom Leahy for a high foot within the first minute.
Chances were at a premium throughout the game and the Angels goalkeeper, Matt Rowley, was called upon to deny the first half’s best effort on eight minutes when an outstretched leg denied Isiah Noel-Williams.
A minute later Ms Lowe had her second Angels name in the book that of Noah McCann.
In a tight first half, Tonbridge just about edged the possession without overly stretching the home goalkeeper, Michael Johnson.
The second half produced much of the same although, now kicking down the slope, it was the home side that now enjoyed the better of the possession with a mounting corner count and on 73 minutes a shot from Kyran Wiltshire rebounded off a post.
And so the game entered its added time of four minutes and when Ms Lowe booked Rowley for time wasting the game edged into its 95th minute with a cheap free kick given on the left. The ball was lofted into a crowded penalty area, blocks and half-clearances ensued before the ball dropped to Dorian Dowrich whose sweetly hit volley gave Rowley no chance.
McAvoy concluded: “We are trying to get the players to be better at game management. It does come with experience but we’ve got to learn and learn quickly and deal with those moments in the game, be more streetwise.”
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