Havant & Waterlooville 2 Tonbridge Angels 2

Match 90/23/2213 - Saturday, 9th March 2024 - National League South

Havant & Waterlooville (2) 2 McCarthy 14 Seager 25
Tonbridge Angels (1) 2 Hinds 6 Dabre 47
Attendance: 975
Admission: £10 Senior
Mileage: 204/6,556

Motivation might well be the watchword for the last six weeks of the season.

For Tonbridge Angels, the season is done. The last eight games will designate whether a finish is top half or not and the manager will shape his squad for another tilt in August.

Off the pitch, thankfully the long journeys are done and so the lack of motivation to get up on a Saturday morning and hack 150 miles or more west is no longer an issue.

The last of the long car journeys took us on a 200 mile round trip to Hampshire and a game that felt like an end of season affair but really should not have done with Havant and Waterlooville fighting for points to avoid relegation. It was a game of missed chances, four goals but there was something lacking in its intensity and on the terraces there almost seemed an air of disinterest.

Who knows what has gone wrong at Havant? There are players there that other clubs would covet, there are players such as Jack Jebb, that are sitting on their bench that I would covet.

Jay Saunders, without Scott Wagstaff serving the second of his two match suspension, fielded the same side as against Eastbourne last time out, with the only changes, significant ones, on the bench where Jordan Greenidge will no longer sit following his departure to Dartford and the arrival of Josh Popoola.

The Angels gave their slightly smaller than usual away following early cheer with a sixth minute lead from Tariq Hinds, who fired in from 12 yards following an excellent run into the box from Nathan Odokonyero.

The lead wasn’t to last when a pass from the left from James Roberts was laid across the edge of the box from where Jake McCarthy was afforded time and space to pick out the top corner.

Odokonyero was leading the Havant defence a dance and once more jinked his way into space but lifted his shot over the bar before, on 25 minutes, the home side went ahead with a well-taken header from Ryan Seager from a right wing cross by Callum Kealy.

Havant had two headed chances to extend their lead before, on 35 minutes, goalkeeper Ross Worner was forced to make a good reaction save to deny Joe McNerney turning Odokonyero’s cross into his own goal.

The Angels came out for the second half positively with Sean Shields testing Worner early before a short corner routine from Shields and Lewis Gard fed the ball to the edge of the box from where Mo Dabre curled a shot into the bottom corner.

A home point was of little value to Havant and Waterlooville and they pressed hard for an winner but their shooting was wayward on several occasions.

A draw was probably a fair result and for a fourth time in four visits to Westleigh Park there was no winner but at least the goalscoring was doubled on this occasion.

Havant & Waterlooville 1 Tonbridge Angels 1

Match 90/22/2097 - Saturday, 17th March 2023 - National League South

Havant & Waterlooville (0) 1 Faal (pen) 86
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 J. Wood
Attendance: 1,001

Admission: Pass
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 209/6,347

Would I have taken a point on the way in? YES. Would I have taken a point at half-time? NO. Am I pleased with a point? YES. That goes some way to summarise the pattern of this game. So let’s break in down those three phases.

Despite a recent poor run of form that has resulted in Havant’s Paul Doswell removing himself to an upstairs role of Director of Football, albeit that he was serving a 12 match touchline ban for a colourful turn of phrase directed at Ebbsfleet’s German manager Dennis Kutrieb, they still sat handily placed within the play-off zone, three points in front of the Angels. So, it was never going to be easy against one of the better resourced clubs in the division, but one that has, once again, massively underachieved.

The first half saw Tonbridge dominant. Jack Wood scored a fine goal; struck a post and Jordan Greenidge wasted a one-on-one opportunity with very little alarm at the other end. So it is fair to say that at half-time, the game could, and possibly should, have been put done and dusted, home and hosed.

But it was not and the Angels were left clinging on to their point and had Jonny Henly to thank for a added time save after the home side had equalised through a dubious penalty with four minutes remaining.

Despite a journey that had been stop-start with M25 and M3 hold-ups we arrived in Hampshire with a reasonable amount of time to spare and finding the weather spring-like for what seems the first time in months. Team news saw Jamie Fielding out with a broken hand and Tommy Wood rested to the bench.

Almost from the outset, to even the most untrained of eyes, it was clear that Jack Wood was about to lead his full back a merry dance setting up an opportunity for Greenidge on 11 minutes that the home side scrambled to safety.

Wood gave the Angels a deserved lead, after 23 minutes, when he received the ball from a throw-in; rode a challenge and from the right hand edge of the box, curled in a shot from the right into the far corner with a strike very reminiscent of his recent goal at Eastbourne.

The Angels had a scare immediately after the goal as Henly needed to be alert to avoid Tariq Hinds conceding an own goal, and personally, I was uncomfortable every time Mo Faal, surely a player destined for a move upwards, was on the ball.

A big chance fell to Greenidge, five minutes from the break, when he picked the pocket of Joash Nembhard to go one-on-one with goalkeeper, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, but his attempt to clip the ball over the advancing keeper was charged down and scrambled to safety.

Into first half added time and Jack Wood fastened on to a loose headed clearance and in an identical run to that of his goal almost produced the same outcome but this time the ball rebounded of the far post.

Four minutes into the second period, Tonbridge had a goal ruled out for offside after Sonny Miles had run onto Ben Swift’s head-on following a free kick. His cross was converted by Swift but Miles was deemed to have strayed a yard offside.

Havant were awoken from their slumber and started to impose themselves on the game as any team losing at home should. A snap shot from Charlie Ruff was comfortably dealt with by Henly and, on the hour, the goalkeeper fumbled a cross under pressure but Faal’s effort from the loose ball cleared the bar by some distance.

A through ball saw Tyrell Miller Rooney take a heavy touch off his chest allowing Henly to save at his feet, but the pressure was mounting.

The big chance to put the game to bed for the Angels came on 77 minutes. Hinds played the ball forward to Lewis Gard after Miles had broken down a Havant attack. A deft touch from Gard saw him clear to lay the ball into the path of Joe Turner, who from the edge of the box lifted his shot over the bar.

Shortly after some superb defending from Craig Braham-Barrett, the Montserrat-bound defender was judged to have brought down Josh Passley, a decision that could easily have gone either way, on the very edge of the penalty area for the award of a penalty, that was fairly leathered home by Faal, giving Henly absolutely no chance.

In the dying embers of seven minutes of added time, Henly produced a brilliant fingertip save to deny a header from James Roberts and avoid a cruel defeat.

Perhaps it’s an indication of just how far the Angels have come to leave Havant with a sense of disappointment, but that was the way it felt.

Havant & Waterlooville 1 Tonbridge Angels 1

Match 88/21/1952 - Wednesday, 26th January 2022 - National League South

Havant and Waterlooville (0) 1 Oastler 57
Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Coombes 90+2
Attendance: 1,037

Admission: £10 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 202/4,845

A lane closure on the A3 at the Hindhead Tunnel; further lane closures on the M25 and finally, notwithstanding several minor roadworks with traffic lights, a road closure on the A21 slowed the ride home but nothing was going to dampen the mood that had been created by a 92nd minute equaliser at Havant & Waterlooville.

When the manager of the home side admits that the visitors deserved their point, however late it may have came, there is no sense of bias in saying to lose would have been a great injustice.

The weather continued with the cold snap but it wasn’t quite as extremity biting as the last few evening games.

Luke Jenkins picked up a hamstring strain on Saturday as was replaced by the returning Tommy Parkinson.

Since my last visit to Westleigh Stadium 10 years ago, Havant have installed a FIFA approved surface (just don’t call it 3G) but strangely did nothing about the slope on which they laid it. But, as it was in 2012, it is a nicely appointed ground with cover on all four sides. Once strange anomaly in these times was that the stadium was virtually cash only, which actually caught me on the hop, arriving with very little cash!

Havant & Waterlooville, under the managership of Paul Doswell, has built a full-time squad based on experience with many hundreds of Football League appearances between them including Nicky Bailey, who once left Charlton for Middlesbrough for £1.4 million.

But, on the field, this squad have not reached the expectations of their supporters, and I would guess their board, and suffered a highly embarrassing 8-0 defeat at Dorking over Christmas with the return at Westleigh also ending in defeat.

Joe Turner was the first to test the home defence after a couple of minutes, with a run through on goal but ex-Sutton goalkeeper, Ross Worner was out quickly to smother the ball.

The first half-hour of the game wasn’t exactly a thriller but it was certainly the Angels that were having the best of the exchanges with Tommy Wood firing a shot narrowly wide and also having a header that wasn’t too far wide.

On 35 minutes a surging run from Craig Braham-Barrett ended with him brought down for a credible penalty appeal but the referee was having none of it.

Tom Beere put another shot marginally wide of the post before the referee called a halt to a half that Tonbridge had enjoyed the better of proceedings.

Probably with the words of Doswell ringing in their ears, the home side quickly seized the second half momentum and when they went ahead after 57 minutes it was a goal that appeared to be coming. A left wing corner was met with a towering header from John Oastler, but it left Tonbridge aggrieved that goalkeeper Jonny Henly had been impeded in his attempt to cut out the cross.

This sparked a period, their only in the game, when Havant were the dominant side and it took a wonder save from Henly to deny Andrews, it felt like a major moment in the game.

Another of those moments came at the other end on 78 minutes when Worner made an equally brilliant save to deny Turner after an initial shot had been blocked.

Steve McKimm had thrown caution to the wind replacing Harry Hudson and James Taylor with attackers Adam Coombes and Aaron Smith-Joseph. For their part, Havant decided to rest on their lead and shut up shop and as the clock ticked into time added it looked like they would see it out.

But this Tonbridge side has a spirit that never gives up and two minutes into the four added minutes they got the break that their efforts thoroughly deserved. A cross from the right from Jamie Fielding saw the ball only half scrambled to safety but to the feet of Coombes whose unerring finish into the far corner brought delight to the Tonbridge faithful, who had travelled in their numbers, positioned behind the goal.

There was one last scare for the Angels as with the last foray of the match a shot across the face of the goal was helped on its way to safety whilst the home supporters desperately called for a penalty.

Home at just about midnight, a journey well worth it.

Additional photos: Kathryn Bell and Dave Couldridge

Havant and Waterlooville 1 Tonbridge 1

Match 56/11/943 - Saturday, 24 March 2012 - Conference South

Havant & Waterlooville (0) 1 Nanetti 69
Tonbridge (1) 1 Browning 90+2
Att. 708

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 202/4,388
New Ground: 248

Match Report

The sun shone down on Tonbridge Angels at Havant, and many would say that the sun has shone on them for the most part of their inaugural season in Conference South. This hard-earned point at Westleigh Park takes their total to 52, retains their position at eighth place, both of which were beyond most people’s expectations back in August.

This wasn’t one of Tonbridge’s better performances and it took a 25-yard strike from Lee Browning in time added-on to rescue a point against relegation-threatened Havant and Waterlooville who had been reduced to 10 men with the sending off of Oliver Palmer on 63 minutes.

There was a strong Tonbridge presence enjoying the spring sunshine outside the home club’s Westleigh pub before the game and they were the set of supporter’s that celebrated the draw at the end of the match. The Havant support was infuriated by a refereeing decision that turned away a penalty appeal in the dying seconds, from a distance it was certainly a shout that I have seen given, but the referee chose to book Christian Nanetti for diving.

Tonbridge started brightly, a Chris Piper shot clipped the bar on its way over and Miguel Suarez headed wide when he had time to bring the ball under control and shoot. The visitors suffered a setback on 11 minutes when Jon Heath had to be withdrawn following a knock in the opening minutes, Robbie Kember replacing him at full back.

The game settled into an even contest before Tonbridge had an assault on the Havant goal on 25 minutes that should have yielded the opening goal. Frannie Collin shot low and hard forcing Hawks’ goalkeeper, Lyall Beasely into a parrying save into the path of Suarez. As the giant centre forward closed in, the keeper dived at his feet to smother his toe-poked effort.

Havant finished the half with greater attacking intention with, firstly, Scott Jones making the most of an Ollie Schultz error to cross across the face of goal, Palmer failing narrowly to get a touch and Lee Worgan gathered a well struck shot from Scott Ramsey. In between Palmer picked up an unnecessary yellow card for petulantly throwing the ball into the ground after not getting a decision to his liking.

The first half had been one in which Tonbridge had failed to utilise the width that is offered by Rory Hill and Nathan Korantang and far too often resorted to the long high ball to Suarez, of which he won most but the understanding between him and Collin seemed off colour. The start of the second half saw Tonbridge get the lively Korantang more on the ball and his pace was often too much for the Hawks’ back line.

The game appeared to turn in the visitors’ favour when Palmer was sent off for a late challenge on Danny Walder after 73 minutes. The Havant youngster has apparently attracted the attention of Chelsea, unfortunately he will need to adjust his temperament to find his way into their ranks as this was a completely senseless sending off. Walder had long since hooked the ball back to his goalkeeper before Palmer clattered in to earn a second yellow to add to his needless first half card.

Havant’s 10 men fought their way back into the game and when Chris Arthur seized on a mistake from Kember, he powered forward, rounded Worgan and crossed for Nanetti to poke home from close range, it was a classic counter attack that had left the Angels short at the back. Tonbridge suffered at the hands of Havant’s renewed confidence and Worgan had to be at his best to save with his legs from Jones.

With 15 minutes to go, Tommy Warrilow went for broke, substituting Kember for Joe Benjamin and going three at the back. It eventually paid dividends in time added-on. Collin’s free kick was only cleared to the edge of the box from where Browning fired into the top corner to the delight of the visiting support.

Time added-on proved to be the most dramatic period of the game. Havant had the penalty appeal that much infuriated their fans when Nanetti took his tumble in the box and Tonbridge might well have stolen the points in the very last attack of the game when Schultz crashed a header against the bar from a corner kick. The game ended honours even and fairly so.

Westleigh Park is a nice stadium with cover on all four sides. There is a main stand that I would estimate holds around the 500 mark seated and there is fairly shallow terracing on the other three sides. It is aesthetically not pleasing on the eye, but very functional at this level, in fact I would say it is precisely what Tonbridge require along their uncovered, unterraced side at Longmead.

Tonbridge’s ambitions for the season are chasing seventh place and perhaps overhauling old foes Dover, one might happen, one probably will not. The Hawks continue their relegation tussle and I wish them well, as my day in the Hampshire sunshine was most enjoyable.