Report

Jay jarred his knee in the warm up so we had to go with new ‘keeper Spills for the whole game rather than sharing the role of custodian.
The thunderstorm during the morning did little to clear the air, and during the latter stages of the game it was almost unbearable. Not football weather!
This was quite a good game despite the conditions, and with a crowd of around 80- mainly from Kent; but there were at least two “groundhoppers” in attendance, despite the baking sun.

Last season the score was 1-1 when Karim got a late penalty equaliser, but this time we were on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline. We could have opened the scoring on 19 minutes attacking the Winton End, when somehow the ‘Stones defence managed to contrive to clear the ball twice in as many seconds when Lamin went close, from my vantage point by the far end of the stand the second looked in!
However we were not to be denied and on 25 minutes a superb cross from the right from Gary Langrish picked out Leigh Phillips whose powerful header from around 12 yards steamed into the top corner of the net, a quality goal!
We relaxed too quickly and conceded an equaliser a couple of minutes later when Simon Austin equalised.
That was the action for the opening period really, we played and competed really well- winning most of the tackles and doing some good work off the ball. The second period was a bit like “after the Lord Mayor’s show” and we gave away two goals on 72 (Lynden Rowland) and 82 (Nick Hegley- who scored in the fixture last season as well). Perhaps when you consider that our visitors played a former central defender in goal- their third ‘keeper in as many games due to injuries picked up, perhaps in hindsight we should have taken our chances better, but we showed up well over the game as a whole.