Premier Division
Fleet Leisure 1 Bearsted 0
Saturday, 21 February 2009
During the first 25 minutes Bearsted found themselves having to defend against a Fleet Leisure side adopting the tactic of launching the ball forward at every opportunity in the hope of putting their opponents under pressure. However as it was to be throughout the whole of the match, time after time it failed as countless balls and crosses run fruitlessly into touch or sailed over the bar. This being the case the Bear’s began to grow in confidence and indeed should have gone ahead on the half hour when Steve Smith was put clear through only to be denied by a save by advancing goalkeeper Gary Arterton who also had to react to Jason Batt following up on the rebound. Five minutes later Fleet went in front courtesy of a most bizarre goal when a totally miss-cued shot from the right by Jack Cantwell found its’ way into the path of Ricky Holmes before ending up in the back of the net.
Ruing their misfortune after the break Bearsted came out displaying a fighting spirit which seemed to unsettle their rivals and it was only due to some desperate defending that they did not get a well deserved equaliser, notably when Batt saw his lobbed effort pass just over the bar following some confusion between Dan Wells and Arterton. In contrast to Bearsted’s more cultured style the home side found it very difficult to find any invention beyond relying heavily on deep balls trying to seek out the runs of Alex McKay and the long throws of Ricki Holmes. Needless to say they did come away with all three points and possibly still believing that they had a chance of taking the title.
Team: J.Reeves, S.Andrews, D.Thornycroft, R.Hayward, J.Etherington,
S.Benton, L.Fincham, Vennamore, S.Smith, R.Mcleish,J .Batt.
Subs: P. Joyce
A.Budden
|
|