Braintree Town (0) 0
Tonbridge Angels (2) 4 Reynolds 14 Tanga 34,51 Baker 90+6
Attendance: 543
Admission: £14
Mileage: 188/602
WHAT A START!
I, or any other Tonbridge Angels supporter I guess, didn’t see this coming! Or, perhaps we might have. Braintree Town, relegated from the National League, have spent the summer under a transfer embargo that was only lifted in the week prior to the fixture and, subsequently, much of their business has been done with signings from the steps below, albeit that some came with a good CV.
After a somewhat difficult journey with Doris the satnav that hasn’t been updated for some years, leading us into roadworks and diversions that could have been avoided if we had just taken the M11 as we did on a trouble-free ride home, Cressing Road had seen little or no improvement during their time in non-league’s top tier. Toilet facilities, in particular, are just not fit for purpose.
But, the real shock came with the state of the pitch. I have never seen a first day pitch in such a state in all my years following the game. It was barren, rock hard and it was hard to disagree with Alan Dunne’s assertion that the game should have been called off as it posed a danger to the players.
All of us with gardens know how difficult it has been to keep a little bit of green in the lawns as the drought continues and my garden has seen about a pint of rainwater fall on it in the last two months, but I’ve managed to keep it looking reasonable without breaking the hosepipe ban. I get it that a football pitch is a much larger scale but there are people spending far more time on it than I am my lawn and it was somewhat ironic that one of the pitch side sponsors were the Lawn Doctor.
Historically there was also nothing to suggest the outcome. Tonbridge have failed to score in any of their last seven games against Braintree and the eighth, in 2020, brought a 1-0 win courtesy of an own goal.
New faces, drafted in during the 24 hours prior to kick-off, included a loan signing Hayden Bullas, from Bromley whilst trialists Jaden Brown, Brody Cockerill and Paul Osew were added to the squad.
With yet another roasting day, 28degC at kick-off, we were glad to find some shade on the side that houses the main grandstand and with a gentle breeze it actually made for comfortable spectating.
Tonbridge, resplendent in their new lilac change kit, took the lead after 14 minutes after the home side had had the better of the opening exchanges. Harry Gardener, dropped a cross from the right, into the near post and Lamar Reynolds reacted the quickest to lift the ball over the advancing goalkeeper.
Having waited nearly six years for a goal at Braintree, a second came along on 34 minutes when short corner saw Gardner cross and as a Reynolds shot from the edge of the box came back from the bar, it was the smallest player on the pitch, Jepthe Tanga who rose the highest to steer a header home via the junction of the post and bar.
The Angels, now thoroughly in control of the game, had three good chances to put the game beyond Braintree in added time with Tanga heading wide, Gardner shooting likewise and goalkeeper, Rylee Mitchell, smothering at the feet of the industrious Tanga.
Gardner, who had provided energy, bite and assists, was withdrawn at half-time following a needless booking for kicking the ball away, making way for Bunmi Babajide.
Babajide was straight into the thick of the action and, six minutes into the second half, slipped an exquisite pass into the path of Tanga who finished past the advancing Mitchell.
With a comfortable lead, and in the heat, Dunne had the luxury of introducing Frankie Baker, Osew and Cockerill from the bench and in the closing moments of added time, Cockerill fed Baker to complete the scoring.
It was a memorable start but one that has to be treated with a certain amount of caution given that I very much doubt we will meet a worse National League South side, for them I fear a very long season. Sadly, the afternoon was also tainted by some unacceptable behaviour from a group of youngsters purporting to support Tonbridge, they are not what our club is about and we don’t need them.
No comments:
Post a Comment