West Kent Sunday League News Report 24th October 2021

Plenty of goals on Sunday, lots of big wins in the top division and half a dozen hat-tricks to report!

Division One / Two

Every game bar one had a top half team playing a bottom half team and those results went to form. There were big wins for all the top six, so it's as you were in terms of positions. Nerd fact is that there was a hat-trick in every game except one!

Leaders Simla went to East Peckham to meet AFC Valour and went home after a comprehensive 6-1 victory. Steve Smith scored four and Matt Coleman two. Ben Mansford scored Valour's only reply.

Artois United are in second place, three points behind with a game in hand. They also scored six, at AFC Borough. Borough have faced top teams in three of their last four league matches and have lost them all.  They scored through George Holman and Coner Bowesman, but Simla's powerful strikers put them to the sword. There was also a hat-trick in this game, hit by Taylor Galvin. The other goals in the 6-2 win were scored by Nathan Moseley, Regan Corke and Lucas Murrain.

Paddock Wood went one better than the top two, scoring seven times against Odukwe. There were two hat-tricks, from Matt Reed and Lee Chapman. Mark Mitchell scored the other. The Division's and Odukwe's leading scorer James Smith added two to his tally which now stands at thirteen. Odukwe have faded after a promising start to the season.

Pembury Sunday outdid everybody, crushing Insulators 8-1.  For 35 minutes this was a well contested game. Pembury opened the scoring on 10 minutes when a cross from the right was easily converted.  Insulators equalised on 26 minutes when a decent Cole Walsh free kick was headed in by James Dunn. Although Pembury were holding the upper hand, it wasn't until the final 8 minutes of the half that they put the game beyond the home side. On 37 minutes a run from the halfway line saw the Pembury player score under pressure from a defender. Then two free headers inside the six yard box saw the score move to 1-4 for half time.

After an hour another tap in from a cross followed by two more goals by the 75th minute including another free header from a corner saw Pembury go 7-1 up. To the Insulators players credit they continued to compete and Martin Page-Mitchell was unlucky not to register a second for the home side near the end. A late penalty for Pembury brought a bad day to an end for Insulators. Pembury's list of scorers included a hat -trick for Luke Packman, 3 Tom Price scored twice and there was one each from Scott Moran, Charlie Johns and Matt Rice-Tucker.

Dormansland Rockets have now won five games on the trot in League and Cup. For the third time in that run they scored six. The victims this time were bottom side AFC Tonbridge. There was yet another hat-trick in the 6-1 win, this from Rockets Ashley Hollom.

Dormansland Rockets comfortably overcame AFC Tonbridge 6-1 at the Colin Anderson to extend their winning run to five matches. The AFC keeper was busy from the outset and made a number of smart stops early doors to keep the sides level. Meanwhile AFC were finding some space to shoot from range but weren’t able to trouble Rockets goalkeeper Louis Stone with their efforts. The Dormansland pressure eventually told with Rich Wetton running on to a defence splitting through ball and finishing smartly into the bottom left corner with his right foot. The lead was quickly doubled when the AFC keeper punched a free kick into the back of Ashley Hollom’s head He might have celebrated but in truth he knew absolutely nothing about it. AFC were offered a glimmer of hope when they were awarding a penalty after veteran defender Martyn Bishop was adjudged to have fouled an AFC forward just inside the box. Referee Graeme Ions had a good game,though some would argue this was a harsh decision. AFC’s Tyler Richardson made no mistake from the spot sending the 'keeper the wrong way. Dormansland had the opportunity to nip any potential fightback in the bud when they were awarded a penalty of their own moments later for a foul on Ashley Hollom. Ross Waghorn however struck his penalty at an ideal height for the keeper who made a great save. It was however in vain as Rockets restored their two goal advantage on the stroke of halftime, Ashley Hollom running through and scoring at the near post.

The second half was a one way affair with halftime substitutes Lewis Warburton and Ali Jones offering Dormansland the control in the middle of the park that they had lacked at times in the first half. Rhys White extended the lead shortly after half time scoring the goal of the game. Cutting in from the left he beat four defenders before calmly finishing at the near post. Rich Wetton grabbed his second before Ashley Hollom completed his hattrick from close range. Despite what the scoreline may suggest Dormansland were wasteful throughout with Nick Elwood in particular guilty of missing several promising opportunities. Such wasteful finishing will see them punished on another day.

Green Lane have played only four League games and remain the Division's only unbeaten team. They hosted Goudhurst United and won 6-1. Bal Maher was this game´s hat-trick man. Harry Savva, Dom Welsh and Ollie Hyland also scored. Goudhurst's only reply was a penalty converted by Harvey Parks.

Next Sunday Green Lane will visit Simla in what will be an important game.

In the only game that was not a top v bottom clash, TW Ridgewaye recorded their first win of the season. They have played only three games however and are quite likely in a false position. Ridgewaye beat St John's Yard 7-2 with six different scorers to report - Devon Mighty, two for Jonny Hughes, then Callum Genery, Adam Davis-Knight, Callum Seal and Tyler Markwell. St John's Yard remain next to bottom. Their scorers were Dan Hunter and James Hatwell.


West Kent Sunday League Division One / Two mix
Phase One - each team plays the others once
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Simla 7 6 0 1 30 9 21 18
2 Artois United 6 5 0 1 32 8 24 15
3 Paddock Wood 7 5 0 2 23 20 3 15
4 Pembury Sunday 6 4 1 1 21 4 17 13
5 Dormansland Rockets 6 4 0 2 21 17 4 12
6 Green Lane 4 3 1 0 16 4 12 10
7 Odukwe FC 5 3 0 2 29 14 15 9
8 Goudhurst United 7 2 1 4 18 29 -11 7
9 AFC Valour 6 2 1 3 10 22 -12 7
10 AFC Borough 6 2 0 4 15 20 -5 6
11 Insulators 6 2 0 4 15 26 -11 6
12 Charcott 5 1 0 4 13 11 2 3
13 TW Ridgewaye 3 1 0 2 11 13 -2 3
14 Saint John's Yard 6 0 1 5 5 31 -26 1
15 AFC Tonbridge 6 0 1 5 3 34 -31 1

Division Three

Division Three is not quite a two horse race at this stage of the season, but Sedlescombe Rangers and Royal Oak are just starting to edge ahead of the pack.

Rangers followed up last week's massive scoreline with a harder fought 4-2 win at TW Ridgewaye Reserves. Rangers' Alvin Scott put himself at the overall top of the League goalscorers chart with his fourteenth of the season. Also scoring were Zak Boutwood (2) and Alfie Shand. Dan Thomas and Dom Lambert got Ridgewaye's two.

Royal Oak, having dropped points in last week's draw at Ticehurst, still hold second place after a 5-0 win at Tonbridge United.  Ashley Bell and Joe Rutland each scored twice, Frankie Fuller the other. Sam Catt in the Oak goal kept the day's only clean sheet across all the games played.

Speldhurst Rangers moved into third place, but have played more games than anyone else. On Sunday they had a hard game against Dunton Green at St Mary's, which ended in a 3-1 win for Rangers. Speldhurst kicked off and played liquid football for the first 90 seconds which resulted in a Ollie Crees shot ,which could only be described being carefully caressed into the bottom left hand corner. Dunton Green levelled through Frankie Ingram after he collected a parry by  Rangers' 'keeper Baldwin. A traditional Ollie Crees long throw (again) which resulted in Dan 'badger' Kelly smashing the ball into the roof of the net to make it two in two for the tenacious animal. Dunton Green created chances, but were thwarted by Baldwin by taking one in the nether regions and the defence was often clearing the lines .Dunton Green created more chances with a free kick hitting the bar and a couple of shots just missing the goal. Speldhurst went 3-1 up through a goal-kick flicked on by Liam O'Connor through to Joe Howse, who lobbed the 'keeper. Dunton Green then had a penalty saved by Baldwin, who pushed the shot onto the post and collected the rebound.

Brenchley were held 1-1 at Artois United Reserves, for whom Dan Edmonton scored his sixth of the season. Conor Williams, with his eighth of the season, levelled for Brenchley.

Riverside Colts showed strength of character to bounce back after last week's hammering by going two nil up in the first fifteen minutes in their game against Insulators Reserves, punishing a lacklustre start by their opponents. For their part, after a great performance last week, Insulators were in confident mood for the trip to play Riverside Colts despite the long injury / illness list currently being felt in the club.

After 25 minutes of being two goals down, the introduction for Insulators of Nik Weedon certainly began to change the direction of travel in the game and on 35 minutes Craig Smith, stepping out of his goalkeeping duties to play up front due to players missing, set up Jake Freeman to pull a goal back. Insulators were starting to get on top and after Josh Freeman hit the crossbar, Bailey Wright was fouled in the box on 43 minutes and Weedon stepped up to score and level up the game. There was still time for both teams to have a goal disallowed before half time as we went into the break at two a piece.

After the break Weedon played a long ball through to Craig Smith, who coolly finished to put Insulators ahead for the first time in the match. Insulators were certainly on top at this point but further goals didn’t come and on 58 minutes Riverside Colts broke through to equalise with a very accomplished finish. The game was very open after this point, but it was Insulators who took the spoils when Josh Freeman scored the winner with a fine finish on 81 minutes.  This was certainly a case of getting the three points and moving on as the game proved to be much tougher than expected and Riverside Colts will certainly pick up points soon if they continue to play like they did on Sunday

Insulators on the other hand will need to improve if they want to keep the pressure on towards the top end of the table. Hopefully some of the walking wounded will recover in time for next week´s visit of Ticehurst

It was a close game at The Bell Field in Ticehurst as AFC Borough Reserves took the points with a 3-2 win  after a late fightback from the home team. Ticehurst Village went 3-0 down in the first half after a mix up between their centre back and goalkeeper lead to the opening goal and then conceding from two set pieces. Ticehurst's Liam Francis slotted home from the back post just before half time and Tristan Holman scored a 25 yard strike late in the second half to give the home team hope. AFC Borough Reserves held on though to take the win.  Borough's scorers were Luke Holmes, Oscar Harrison and Matthew Pickett

West Kent Sunday League Division Three
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Sedlescombe Rangers 7 6 1 0 45 9 36 19
2 Royal Oak 6 5 1 0 27 11 16 16
3 Speldhurst Rangers 8 4 2 2 23 23 0 14
4 Brenchley 6 4 1 1 19 11 8 13
5 Insulators Reserves 7 4 0 3 17 14 3 12
6 Westerham 7 3 1 3 18 22 -4 10
7 TW Ridgewaye Reserves 5 2 1 2 22 15 7 7
8 Artois United Reserves 7 1 4 2 18 13 5 7
9 AFC Borough Reserves 5 2 1 2 16 13 3 7
10 Ticehurst Village Club 6 1 2 3 18 23 -5 5
11 Dunton Green 6 1 1 4 11 21 -10 4
12 Tonbridge United 6 0 1 5 5 29 -24 1
13 Riverside Colts 6 0 0 6 7 42 -35 0

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