Match 16. Lordswood v Ashford United

Saturday 12^th December 2015 @3pm

FA Vase 3^rd Round

LORDSWOOD 1-5 ASHFORD UNITED

Martyn Grove, North Dane Way, Lordswood, Chatham ME5 8YE

Admission: £7

Programme: £1 (24pp)

Attendance: 90

Refreshments: Bovril, £1.

With working in the evening and domestic duties running into the afternoon, I decided at 2pm to re-visit Lordswood, a club I last saw in their first season at Step 5 in 1996-7.  I couldn't remember too much about the ground but I don’t think there are any changes in the 18 years since my last visit.  Martyn Grove is part of a large sports centre including Rugby, Cricket and unusually, Pentaque.  The ground entrance is next to the changing room building and also has a tea bar just inside the turnstile. The teams enter from behind the near goal, with the dugouts on the left (green mesh) touchline and small areas of cover, for seating and standing area on a raised step on the right touchline. The area behind the far goal is out of bounds. The clubhouse is the social club which is outside the ground, between the 2 car parks.

This was definitely a game of two halves. Ashford just couldn’t seem to do anything right in the first half, allowing the limited skill in the Lordswood side to take a first half lead. The home side had a couple of half chances before the 20^th minute when a flick on found the path of Ben Francis to ran on and slotted the ball past the onrushing keeper. Ashford had more possession after the goal but the passing let them down and neither side troubled the keepers for the rest of the half. 

The half time break did the trick for Ashford, who drew level 10 minutes into the second half when from a corner the ball ran loose for Palmer to score from the 6 yard area.  A few minutes later Ashford took the lead when a shot from the edge of the penalty area flew into the net. It was soon 4-1 to the visitors when they were awarded 2 penalties, each for handball, which were equally clumsy.  The second half rout was completed in stoppage time when an attack on the left by Palmer gained momentum going into the area where he shot passed the home keeper.