Billericay Town (2) 2 Benton 1 Long 40
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Brown 27 Tanga 65
Attendance: 1,065
Admission: £10
Mileage: 120/926
A DAY OF TWO HALVES!
That’ll be the day that started badly, seemed to get worse but came good in the end with an entertaining game and a decent point.
It just has to be a Bank Holiday weekend when the downstairs loo springs a leak and, after much mopping, the drive into Essex is brought to a crawl at the Dartford Tunnel. Experience built half-an-hour into the estimated journey time, so the 40 minute delay was irritating rather than desperate. Just 52 seconds into the game, calamitous goalkeeping saw Tonbridge behind, is this day going to get any better?
Thankfully, yes.
A lot has changed at Billericay Town since those heady, madcap days of the Glenn Tamplin era, three hedonistic years from 2016, that brought the relatively humble Essex club to the front pages of national newspapers, mostly, for all the wrong reasons.
The chaotic multi-million wage bill with high profile ex-Premier League players has been replaced by a local consortium of businessman who have steadily returned the club to a stable structure and, this season, find themselves back in National League South following their promotion via the Isthmian League Premier play-offs.
The legacy of Tamplin, however it was funded, remains with the ground improvements in which he invested including the 3G surface and modern clubhouse and, even the blessed mural remains but now, somewhat more tasteful, with the self-indulgent elements painted over and replaced with club-themed depictions.
Tamplin remains a fugitive, having failed to appear for court proceedings on drugs charges in 2023 but the stand with the mural on the rear still bears his name.
The drought has been brought to end with some decent rainfall that had eased to a drizzle by the time we reached Billericay. Alan Dunne had Sam Corne back at his disposal and he took a place on the bench alongside the returning Bunmi Babajide and Lamar Reynolds.
We hadn’t completed the process of changing ends to the goal we were attacking before Billericay opened the scoring. A ball headed forward should have been dealt with easily, but Alfie Pavey, taking a call from Nathan Harness, ducked under the ball, only for the keeper to drop the ball at the feet of a grateful, probably astounded, Jon Benton who had the simplest of chances to tuck it home.
The helter-skelter nature of the early stages continued, in fact didn’t really change all game, with Ricky Korboa testing Joe Wright and a cross, after six minutes, frustratingly begged any touch which didn’t happen.
Billericay’s Taylor Clark spurned a great chance before the game started to settle down and, once a little structure was added, the visitors became the better side and finally equalised on 27 minutes when a ball forward was headed backwards by Pavey to Jepthe Tanga who laid the ball into the path of Jayden Brown to pick out the top corner from the edge of the box with a curling shot.
Billericay employed an unusual kick-off to restart the game with a ball hoisted so high into the sky that it endangered homecoming aircraft into Stansted, it was novel and certainly caused a bit of confusion.
The home side retook the lead on 40 minutes when a long ball forward found Elliott Long, who brushed off a challenge before burying his shot into the bottom corner.
The Angels were offered the chance to go into the break on level terms on 44 minutes after Tanga was brought down in the box but Bailey Akehurst’s spot kick was well saved, down to his left, by Wright.
Alan Dunne chose to replace his goalscorer with Corne at the break and the dividend was almost instant as his first touch in a competitive Angels shirt rattled the bar.
It set the tone for the second period with Tonbridge dominating before they equalised on 65 minutes when substitute Babajide weaved his way into the box before his shot was palmed by Wright into the path of Tanga at the far post leaving him with a tap-in.
Corne stood up an exquisite cross for fellow substitute Reynolds to steer a header inches wide.
Tonbridge survived a late penalty appeal, later pictures appear to show that it would have been another soft one given, leaving the Billericay faithful to voice their displeasure of the newly-promoted match referee, Henry Harvey, who had a good game that he allowed to flow into the entertaining affair it was.
As if to prove my point, that days can get better, a trouble-free sail over the bridge was a welcome end.
No comments:
Post a Comment