Foresters push league leaders all the way in a thrilling match at Hilbert
10 Mar 2008
TW Foresters 'A' 2 v Westerham FC 3
Tunbridge Wells Foresters ‘A’ 2 v Westerham FC 3 09/03/2008 This week we entertained league leaders Westerham at Hilbert Rec.We entered the game full of optimism after a recent improvement in form. With only Jack not available we were able to choose from a strong 15-man squad. After the Coulsdon performance the team selection was difficult with Dan, Joe, Luke, and Phil starting on the bench.
Westerham attacked straight from the kick off and forced an early corner, which the tall midfielder headed just over unchallenged by our defence. Following some indecision and no one calling a name the ball broke to the lively Westerham right winger who exchanged some good passes which lead to the striker sweeping the ball into the net and give them the lead after only 7 minutes. This however seemed to settle us and allowed us to take the attack to them with Mirkan firing a shot that struck the post and Ed only just failing to convert the rebound. With Tom having to leave the pitch with a bloody nose this enabled us to bring Dan on to the right wing. Christian and Jake were winning the midfield battle against the tall Westerham players and Jake in particular was putting in some crunching tackles. We were pushing Westerham all the way and they became reliant on the long ball and trying to catch us on the break. However, the defence of Calum, George, Ryan and Shashi were equal to anything they had to offer, with Ryan always having the pace and skill to deal with the attackers. Mirkan sent in a thunderbolt from fully 30 yds, which just missed the bar. Dan and Mirkan (who was being marked by 3 defenders) switched wings and this seemed to confuse the visitor’s defence although despite all the pressure we were not having to many shots. From one of the Westerham breaks Jorge was forced into making a sharp save. One nil at half time we would have taken but in the third minute of injury time in the first half Westerham forced a corner which was eventually turned into the goal for I think proved to be the killer goal.
With Phil’s pace causing the defence problems and also testing the keeper with his shots, we went into the changing rooms hoping to reverse the score line. We made several changes with Tom coming back on, Luke going to right back and Joe coming on upfront.
For the first 5 minutes of the second half were having great difficulty clearing our lines as Westerham now piled on the pressure and worked our defence. George Chambers was staying strong and winning the ball despite being always under a lot of pressure, with Ryan sweeping up anything that beat the other 3 defenders. Having weathered this storm we started to create several chances with Joes intelligent passing and movement enabling Phil, Jordan and Mirkan to all test the keeper. The keeper making a fine one handed save from one of our attacks. Lukes passing on the right was finding Tom and this was troubling the visitors and a goal looked like it must come. The goal eventually coming from a looping Tom header for his tenth goal of the season .The goal seemed to liven Westerham who forced Jorge into a couple of good saves and were looking useful on the break. However, after a slip by our keeper Westerham added a third. Foresters added a second with a fine chip over the keeper by Joe to set up a storming last ten minutes.
Westerham then had a goal disallowed, and we now only had 5 minutes to get something out of the game. Christian and Jakes fine passing enable us to have several half chances and in the final three minutes we took off a defender and replaced him with Dan up front.
Despite all 10-outfield players being the Westerham half for the final minutes we were unable to force the equaliser we deserved. In the final minute Jordan went down in the area under a challenge but referee Jack who had an excellent game, judged Jordan to be backing in and awarded a free kick to Westerham.
It was the Westerham coaches & parents who were calling for and welcomed the final whistle.
It is a sign of our continued improvement that all the players, parents, and coaches were very disappointed that we did not get more from the game against the league leaders.
Thanks to all 15 boys for a marvellous effort
MOM - Ryan. Showed skill and composure throughout the match
Julian