Tonbridge Angels (1) 3 Thompson 14 Leahy 51 Sutcliffe 72
Salisbury (0) 2 Coppin 67 Odokonyero 77
Attendance: 858
Admission: Season Ticket
Mileage: 38/4,613
SEASON HEADING FOR CLOSURE
At the point of the season when it could be that two teams have nothing to play for, it has to be expected that you get a game that smacked of nothing to play for.
Three-two sounds entertaining and, at times it was, but overall it just had that end-of-season feel of two teams with their foot slightly off the pedal.
Salisbury, mathematically, still had to get over the line to avoid relegation and following this defeat, and results elsewhere, are still not safe, but only extraordinary results might see them go down other than Bath City.
On a day of bright sunshine but a very brisk wind, Alan Dunne’s team selection indicated that he was looking at players with a view to next season with already contracted Ricky Korboa and Bradley Williams taking places on the bench. The chatter on the sidelines is very much along the lines of who might stay and who might go and, in fairness, there seems to be a case made for retaining the majority of the Angels' players, but our idle chatter doesn’t make those decisions.
The attendance slipped below a thousand, but 858 is very respectable given the lack of any jeopardy in the game and the relatively small number making the journey up from Wiltshire.
In the visiting side were Mo Dabre, who still runs on Duracell batteries and Nathan Odokonyero, who had a quiet game but still managed to find the net and claim an assist.
The Angels started brightly with Bunmi Babajide (sign him up, Alan!) shooting over and forcing the Salisbury goalkeeper, Will Buse, into a save within the opening four minutes, quickly followed by Buse saving again, this time from Alfie Pavey. There was also a warning for Tonbridge as an intended cross from Tommy Willard caught the wind and rebounded off the crossbar.
Tonbridge went ahead on 14 minutes after a Bailey Akehurst corner nearly caught out Buse at the near post but from the resultant second corner, Salisbury failed to heed the lesson and Jordon Thompson stole in to head home from an acute angle at the near post.
On 26 minutes, the home side thought they had doubled their advantage through Frankie Baker who poked home after Buse made a hash of punching the ball to safety, but the referee decided to take the soft option and disallow the goal for a foul on the keeper.
This led to a strange moment when Tonbridge felt they should have been awarded a penalty. From the free kick, the goalkeeper side-footed the ball a couple of yards in what could easily have been interpreted as the free kick being taken. The defender stopped the ball with this hand leading to appeals for handball. The referee opted, it seems, to give Salisbury the benefit of the doubt, something I’m not sure is within the referee’s remit and restarted to game with a drop ball to the relieved goalkeeper.
Tonbridge were good value going into the break a goal to the good with further efforts that saw Leahy fire over and a header from Ethan Sutcliffe that was saved low by Buse. Salisbury also had chances in the final moments of the half with Rowley saving at the second attempt a 25 yard shot from Willard and Josh Hedges’ shot that cleared the bar.
The Angels increased their lead six minutes into the half with a peach of a goal, both in its making and its finish. Scott Wagstaff played an exquisite pass from deep that was collected by Tom Leahy, who cut in from the right before burying his shot into the far corner.
Dunne rattled the changes and subsequently the Angels lost a bit of momentum and when Francis Mampolo lost possession, Max Joliffe played the ball down the right flank to Odokonyero and from his cross Noah Coppin found the net with the aid of a wrong-footing deflection from Tobi Omole.
Five minutes later, Tonbridge regained their two goal advantage when Akehurst’s corner, which had been on the money all afternoon, was met with an arching heading from Sutcliffe to make it 3-1.
On 74 minutes, Salisbury were once again back in the game when Hedges crossed for Odokonyero to finish from close range and when the former Angels loanee had another header that drifted wide, but really should have been on target, there were thoughts that a comfortable win could be thrown away. But the remaining time was seen out without too much alarm.
Dunney’s stated aspiration is 60 points, and with two games to go, that it is only three points away and could be achieved at Farnborough next Saturday, something that wasn’t high on the expectation list back in September.
Pictures: David Couldridge
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