The last league game of the season and the fixtures secretary couldn’t have picked a better game for us to sign off. Although the title had gone we still needed the win to secure 2nd place and garauntee promotion to the Premier Division.
After the win away at Pembury player manager Bignose wanted to pick the same line up but decided at the last minute that he fancied a bit of a tan for the coming summer months so buggered off to Egypt leaving fans favourite Dan Harrison to look after things in the sticks. The only other change was KenDog coming in for the injured Adam Harrison at left back.
With a nasty wind blowing across the pitch the boys were told to get the ball on the deck and play football. This is what they did, and they did it well. Most of the 1st half was played deep in the Wells half. Hobbit gave an early warning shot when he was played through by Mitch but the ball bobbled at the key moment and he ended up blazing high and wide. Hobbit knocking on the door and eventually got his scraps. The relentless attacking play forced a corner on the right side. Mitch drilled it in to the box straight on to the head of the on charging Hobbit who powered into the back of the net. This sparked wild celebrations from the little fella who was so chuffed to have finally scored with his head.
5 minutes later we had the ball in onion bag again when Hathaway found himself wide on the right and whipped in the perfect textbook cross that was met by Ferg who powered it low and hard past the hapless Yorky. The crowd went wild until they realised the Linesman had his flag up. The ref consulted him and awarded a free kick to Tunbridge Wells. Everyone else at the ground could see that Ferg was onside and even their own players knew they had been very lucky.
At half time it was still 1-0 but could have been 2 or 3. Everyone was getting a serious sense of dejavous. B&A continued to play their attacking football and although it wasn’t a vintage performance by a long stretch they were looking dangerous going forward. Mitch picked out Shaggy with a great cross but he hadn’t timed his run and came at it from the wrong angle. Mitch then picked another fantastic pass this time splitting the back and putting Gozzy clean through, you would of bet your house on him smashing it home every time but this time he blazed over.
At the back the boys were soaking up what pressure was being pushed on them and snuffing out danger. Gammon continued his good run of form in his new position at centre back and kept the wells No. 9 quiet for 90 minutes not giving him a sniff at goal. And Dan Harrison deputising in the sticks had a great game dealing well with everything that came his way. The rare occasion that the Wells front man snuck through the rear guard Kenny turned up the pace and tracked back to make an unbelievable tackle.
1-0 it finished and we never really looked in doubt, except maybe when Kenny and Mitch got away with fouling people in the box. It was another competent but less than impressive performance but it was another win, another clean sheet and enough to clinch 2nd place and guarantee top flight football next season
