Saturday 15th March 2014 @3pm
Kent Invicta League
LEWISHAM BOROUGH 6-4 CROCKENHILL
Ladywell Arena, Silvermere Road, Catford.
Admission: £3
Programme: free with admission
Attendance: 38 (26 h/c)
Refreshments: coffee, £1
With the car not available and not able to travel far, I
chose this game with half an eye on a goal fest against rock bottom
Crockenhill. They have however recently
won their first game in over a year and Lewisham are struggling as well.
I took the train from Lewisham to Catford Bridge and walked
along Doggett Road parallel to the railway line to the ground. Ladywell station is about the same distance
if you use the footpath in the nearby park.
The pub next to the station is closed down and boarded up, with only
takeaway and grocers outlets near the station.
The ground is enclosed with a green meshed fence so in
theory you could watch the game for free, but with the pitch being inside a 6
lane running track, binoculars may be needed.
Facilities are quite sparse here.
The building holds the changing rooms and a small room with chairs, a TV
screen and a hatch for hot and cold refreshments. No hot food but sandwiches are
made to order for those that ask, as well as alcohol in cans available from the
fridge. There is 1 covered dugout for the away side and just seats for the home
team on this warm sunny afternoon. A
temporary rail is available to one side of the touchline, situated next to the
long jump track. This is where most of
the watching public stood. There are
floodlights but little else, so not a good venue but the home volunteers are
nice and friendly and even Manager/Chairman/Secretary Ray Simpson popped into
the clubroom for a pre-match chat.
Lewisham were given a soft penalty after 9 minutes when
their striker was body checked inside the penalty area. Johan Ebanks took an excellent penalty low
and hard into the bottom corner. The
home side were having more possession and added to their lead on 27 minutes. The visiting no5 fouled the left winger and
was yellow carded. To be fair, he was
the wrong side of 35 yrs as was a few of the Crocks side. The free kick was looped into the box and
following a scramble, the ball fell to Leigh Wise to score easily from 6
yards. Crockenhill then stunned the
spectators by drawing level within 3 minutes.
Firstly their number 10 Steve Shippeys quick thinking from a back pass
allowed him to touch the ball on and tap into the net. Then from the kick off, a Crockenhill attack
ended up being awarded a corner which bobbled around the 6 yard box before no8 Fairman
diverted the ball inside the post. A
breakaway from Lewisham 3 minute before half time allowed Kieran McMahon to
shoot over the advancing goalkeeper from 25 yards and just under the
crossbar. Soon after the Mick Mytil
received the ball from the right hand side and shot low into the corner from 10
yards. There was still another goal in 1st
half stoppage time when a free kick in the right hand corner was crossed and
tapped in by Crocks no9 Jeffrey on the goal line.
Half time: 4-3
After the break, the continuous end to end attacks just
resumed relentlessly. On 49 minutes
Lewisham increased their lead when a cross from the left wing was partially
cleared but Ebanks controlled the ball and hit it first time in the same movement,
volleying in from 18 yards. Crockenhill
kept their heads and got a goal back on the hour when a great run and shot from
a narrow angle by Reece Cullen ended up in the roof of the net. With only 1 goal in it, but both sets of
players tiring, the last goal arrived on 89 minutes when a K McMahon shot was
parried by the visiting keeper and namesake Connor McMahon arrived first to
turn the ball into the unguarded net for a 6-4 victory. This was my first 10 goal haul of the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment