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West Kent Sunday League Report – Sunday 2nd April 2017
The focus was on Cup matches, with no League matches being scheduled. Top of the list were three WKSFL Cup semi-finals
Senior Cup semi-final
The semi-final between Tonbridge Origin and Dormansland Rockets was abandoned. The League is investigating.
Junior Cup semi-finals - updated 4th April
Bricklayer's Arms, Division Three winners, will meet FC Grinstead,
Division Four runners-up, in the Junior Cup Final on April 30th.
Extra time was needed to separate two in form teams when Rusthall Club
Athletic hosted Bricklayer's Arms
at Southwood Road. It was the visitors
who came out on top after eleven goals had been scored. For the
record Brick's goals were scored
by Harry Sansbury (2), Rob Gordon, Ollie Hyland, Craig Bishop and Ben
Freeman, while for the Club the marksmen were Adam Saunders (2), James
Scott, Jamie Law and Dave Waters. It had been 3-0 to Rusthall Cub at
half-time, 4-0 not long afterwards but Bricks fought back to make it 4-4
at the end of 90 minutes. Extra time went the way of the visitors.
Additional words later received from Terry Harman of Bricklayer's Arms, slightly edited by me :-
The Club started the faster of the two creating a chance with their
first attack ,resulting in a corner in which they nearly converted only
to be denied by Bricks 'keeper Alex Gunn who, luckily for the Bricks,
had turned up awake this week. Rusthall continued to push and a cross
flew to the centre to an unmarked striker. Alex Gunn got in the way
again. The warning signs was there for all to see.
That seemed to spring the Bricks into life and they started to make
chances of their own. A long goal kick found its way to fans favourite
“Bobby Gordon” who brought the ball down then shifted it to Danny
Lawrence for a shot, which he managed to put over the bar.The pressure
from the away side continued when Bert Freeman floated a trade mark
corner to an on-coming James '50 pence head' Gould, which nearly went
out for a throw.
As the game ebbed and flowed, Rusthall began to gain momentum and had a
goal ruled for offside. Warning number two!!! There to be no more
warnings. Moments later as the Rusthall striker Saunders rolled the
Bricks defender and slotted home. 42 minutes in and a mistake in the
bricks midfield caused Rusthall to break and score again 2-0 to the home
side. This half wasn’t over though as on the stroke of half time they
made it 3-0.
The Bricks came out for the second half with a change of formation and
an attitude change.Looking fired up they went on the attack. This soon
put to a stop when a mistake at the back from normally very reliable
defence let Rusthall in to score the 4th. The management team took
action! Off came Tommy Mulcahy, who was having a unusually quiet game
and on came Harry Sansbury. This sparked the Bricks into life. John Jo
Mulcahy went into a rampaging run down the right hand side to deliver a
ball to the back post met by the sub Sansbury and it was 4-1. Bricks,
with the bit between their teeth, now went all out on attack, with
Rusthall not seeing much of the ball. Good running and passing from Bert
Freeman, Danny Lawrence and Ollie Hyland resulted in the latter being
brought down in the box. Penalty to Bricks, which Craig Bishop stepped
up coolly to put the ball in the bottom right hand corner for 4-2.
The game carried on in the same vein, with Bricks pushing hard, J J
Mulcahy just missing from thirty yards. Then came the break through.
Bert Freeman made it, with a delicate through ball for the Harry
Sansbury to go one on one with the goalkeeper, he kept his cool keep his cool and slotted it past. 4-3.
With eight minutes to go, the game became blur of the Bricks going
gung-ho for the equaliser. Five minutes into injury time, everyone was
up for a corner even goalkeeper Gunn had been ordered into the box with
the manager Terry Harman praying for the ball to drop to one of his
players. Bert Freeman floated in another one of his trade mark corners
and Bobby Gordon seemed to leap higher then anyone else, scored, 4-4 and
we went to extra time.
Extra time started tentatively. Bricks gave an early free kick away in
the middle of the park. Club launched a high ball into the area, causing
confusion between Gunn and skipper Craig Murphy, the ball sliding off
the latter´s head into the net and it was 5-4 Rusthall Club.
Bricks went straight back at it. A quick throw from Danny Lawrence was
flicked on from Craig Bishop to Ollie Hyland to put the ball in from
five yards and it was 5-5.
The rest of the game went on with both teams going at each other in what
was proving to be a great game. Bricks won a late corner. Could they do
it again? The ball was floated in and pin balled round the box before
being cleared. With the ref's alarm going on his watch, the ball dropped
to Bert Freeman 40 yards out. Manager Harman was heard to say
deliver it - but did he did listen? Instead he saw the 'keeper off his
line and looped the ball high into the net over his head into the back
of the net for an astounding 5-6 final score.
Bricks' management would just like to say well played to both teams who
put on a real show for the many fans that were there and also a huge
thanks to the three officials, who was brilliant on the day. at the end,
Mr Harman said ' I’m sorry if I’ve missed some the game out of this
report, but it could have gone on forever.'
Meanwhile, it was a beautiful spring day in Crowborough, where Town were at home to FC Grinstead.
The game proved to be just as good as the weather. Played in a good
spirit, but competitive throughout, and really excellently controlled by
the three match officials. It was how Sunday morning cup semi-finals should always be.
FC Grinstead came out of the blocks like greyhounds and for the first
fifteen minutes they put the home team under real pressure. Gradually
Town came into the game and with twenty minutes of the half to go, a
square ball from the left beat the visitors defence and Chris (Biffa)
Martin was at the far post to bundle the ball home. Far from denting
Grinstead's confidence they continued to press forward and this told
when three minutes later they were awarded a penalty. Not for the first
time this season Crowborough's keeper, Ryan Hunt, came to the rescue
when he pulled off an excellent save from the spot kick to keep the
score at 1 - 0 and then moments later made the save of the season when
he palmed the ball over the bar from a point blank header that deserved a
goal. Undeterred the visitors kept coming forward and with little of
the first half left they eventually found the net through Joe Moulding
to make the score 1 - 1.
The second half saw a more even game. It looked as if extra time might
be called for to settle the tie, until a rare, unforced error from one
of Town's young defenders saw Grinstead's leading scorer Connor Tobin
steal the ball and beat the keeper to make it 2 - 1. With
Crowborough now needing to step up a gear they found their best spell of
the game but they couldn't find the net to level the scores. The need
to keep pressing forward proved to be Town's undoing when the visitors
broke away and with just seconds left they made the game safe with a
well taken goal from Charlie Barwell.
Spring Cup - Senior Section
Gardener's Arms lead Group 1 with six points from two games after what
sounds like an interesting morning in their game against Artois United at
Tonbridge Farm. A highly competitive game saw both teams reduced
to nine men just before half time. Gardeners missed a host of chances,
but ran out two nil winners with goals from Stuart Crush and Leo Hall,
plus a clean sheet for Karl Smith. Smith, continuing to deputise in goal
for the injured Ben Carter, kept
his second clean sheet in as many games.
Group 1 standings
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Gardener's Arms | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Artois United | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 3 |
| Tonbridge Origin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 0 |
| Insulators | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
Group 2 will go down to the wire. In this five team group, Green Lane
lead the way after a 3-0 win at Armada, but with teams close on
points there is still plenty to play for. The Lane's 3-0 win was with
goals from Josh Harris, James Donaldson and Aaron Dawson. Jack Page in
goal kept the clean sheet.
Group 2 table as it stands
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Green Lane | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Armada | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Simla | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Goudhurst Utd | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 3 |
| Paddock Wood | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 8 | -6 | 0 |
In Group 3, last week's abandoned match between SE Spitfires and
Brenchley was replayed at Brenchley. Spitfires won 2-1, both goals
from Sean Ludlam in reply to a goal by Tom Lowe for Brenchley. It was
later discovered that Spitfires had played an unregistered player, thus
the three points were deducted and awarded to Brenchley - subject to any appeal.
Group 3 table as it stands, again this is a pretty open group.
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Brenchley (3 points awarded) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 6 |
| SE Spitfires (3 points deducted) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Cassidy's Phoenix | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Langton Green | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Spring Cup - Junior Section
Two teams have now qualified for the semi-finals.
Group 1 will see either Crowborough Town or TW Foresters join Green
Street Blues and St John's Yard in that line up. They play each other
next Sunday
Group 1 table as it stands
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Crowborough Town | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| TW Foresters Reserves | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Insulators Reserves | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | -5 | 3 |
| Tonbridge Invicta | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 0 |
Group 2 has been won by Green Street Blues following a 5-1 win
against Tonbridge Origin Reserves at Tonbridge Farm. Two goals each from
Ash Birchruffel and Rob Shearman did the job, to which Jon Sims added a
fifth. Origin's only goal was scored by Levi Caruana.
Group 2 table
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
Green Street Blues (Q)
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| Paddock Wood Reserves | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 0 |
| Tonbridge Origin Reserves | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 0 |
In Group 3, TW Ridgeway's run of fairly decent late season form
continued with a 4-0 win at Ticehurst Village Club, thus putting them
into second place behind St John's Yard and with a chance of finishing
as best runner-up.
They had two goals each Ben Adams and Matt Harman, both of whom have
been scoring regularly of late. Josh Higgins claimed the honour of being
in goal for their first clean sheet of the season.
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
St John's Yard (Q)
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| TW Ridgewaye | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| Ticehurst Village Club | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 10 | -5
| 3 |
| Tonbridge Casuals | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 | -9 | 0 |
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