Match 31. Erith & Belvedere v AFC Sudbury

Saturday 15^th February 2014 @ 3pm

Ryman League North Division

ERITH & BELVEDERE 0-4 AFC SUDBURY

Park View Road, Welling

 

Admission: £8

Programme: £2

Attendance: 85

Refreshments: Guinness, £3.50. Tomato Soup (nasty), £1

 

I had already decided on Friday evening that I wouldn’t be searching high & low for a new ground and would stay local, letting my wife have the hopmobile for the day. The only chance of a new ground was Metrogas but the secretary kindly told me it was very doubtful late on Friday evening after the amount of rain we have had in Kent all week.  My shortlist of re-visits was Ebbsfleet United, Thamesmead Town or Erith & Belvedere.  I chose Ebbsfleet and went to the train station, only to be told there were no trains running further than Crayford towards Gravesend, due to trees and other blockages on the line, so I went back home to pick up my Oyster card, by which time it was 2pm, so as I had received a tweet from E&B 30 minutes ago that the game was cleared by the match referee, it was a quick 15 minute bus into Welling to watch the end of the Sunderland v Southampton FA Cup match at the Earl Guy of Warwick pub. In the pub car park is a seafood stall which is there every weekend selling fish from Thai prawns to jellied eels. I wish I had more cash on me at that moment.

Entrance to the ground shared with Welling is through The Deres own turnstile entrance in the adjacent corner of the ground. From the entrance the home touchline has a toilet block, a covered seated stand and a tea bar and clubhouse underneath the stand, together with the dressing rooms.  There is uncovered terracing behind each goal and the Welling FC stand and facilities are on the opposite touchline, but closed for today’s game, I imagine through both clubs agreement.

 

The Deres had a shocking 10-1 defeat in midweek so I was interested to see both the change in personnel and if it was a one off.  Today’s team had 7 (SEVEN) changes to the midweek starting 11 and I’m sure it was availability issues rather than a Pottechino “resting” players. The home side style was very much 4-4-2 with a no nonsense approach and the strikers to chase any forward passes. Not much in the way of penetrating or supported running.  This is why they are finding goals difficult to come by.  Their application was good though and only when they went 2-0 down in the last 10 minutes did their heads drop and allowed Sudbury to put a flattering scoreline to the contest.  The Sudbury side had much more guile in midfield and attack.  I was just annoyed at the blatant diving whenever a challenge meant they lost the ball, together with the screaming and squealing to convince the referee that they had been pole axed by a juggernaut.  The referee to his credit was taking no nonsense and even gave a yellow card to the no7 for simulation.

The home side defended well until the stroke of half time, when an attack down the right and a cute back heel to the overlapping right back allowed a cross in for Ryan Henshaw to head low into the net.  The second half continued in the same vein, with the home boss getting more perplexed, shouting with his tie half mast over a “full” frame, the team were playing for their manager and even got a couple of half chances until the killer blow on 85 minutes with Spriggs scoring at short distance. With The Deres confidence running away faster than a Bolt a third was added when James Baker ran through the middle of the Erith defence and slid comfortably passed the goalkeeper.  Some of the home fans made their way to the exit in injury time but just caught the embarrassing 4^th goal, a gift for Ryan Henshaw to score his 2^nd with the head.

 

There are rumblings that manager Martin Ford fancies a return to the club to repeat his earlier success but apart from the last 10 minutes, manager Chris Cosgrove had the players support. But the lack of attacking play would worry the home supporters.