Mead scrape through in Vase
Tuesday October 9, 2007
F.A. Carlsberg Vase 1st Round replay
Thamesmead Town 1 Tunbridge Wells 0
By Mead reporter Stewart Erridge
Thamesmead Town advanced into the second round of the FA vase with a hard fought victory against a resilient Tunbridge Wells side.
The Mead were without Lee Coburn (injury) and Bradley Killick who was unavailable, as well as Richard Dimmock, who completes his 2 match suspension by missing out tonight.
The games opening period was a pretty even affair with both teams sharing possession without really threatening to score. Thamesmead’s first real chance fell to Dean Burns with ten minutes on the clock, Scott Mulholland picked the ball up just inside their opponents half and put in a long cross field pass to find Burns who fired a bullet of a diving header just wide of the left hand post.
Peter Deadman went close with a 30 yard right foot thunderbolt on the half hour mark, and Robbie Tarrant was unlucky to see his effort from the edge of the box go wide.
Thamesmead’s best chance of a dull first half fell to Curtis Williams who with a great piece of individual skill rounded two Tunbridge defenders but then proceeded to fire his shot straight into the waiting arms of Tunbridge keeper Matt Bromby.
Tunbridge gave Thamesmead a scare just before the break when having won a free kick on the edge of the box, Dave Forster stepped up and smashed his effort against the mead bar and over for a goal kick to the home team, this would be the last action of the half and the two teams would go in with the scores 0-0 at the break.
The second half continued where the first had left off with neither team really able to take an advantage. Tunbridge Wells went closest to breaking the deadlock early on when Aaron Shade found himself in space and in a one on one position against mead keeper Chris Conneally, Shade blasted his effort wide when seemingly it would have been easier to score.
Ricky Cable went close for Thamesmead with a 30 yard free kick, which forced an excellent diving save from the Tunbridge keeper and Dean Burns also went close to getting his name on the score sheet with two separate efforts before he was replaced with Keiran Collins on the hour mark.
Thamesmead were the better team going forward in the final ten minutes of the game, with Robbie Tarrant and Curtis Williams both unlucky to see their efforts blocked by the excellent Bromby in the Tunbridge Wells goal.
Thamesmead had a heart in mouth moment, when an Aaron Shade cross was thumped against his own post by James Brown, thankfully for Brown the follow up was cleared away from the danger area by captain Dean Kearley.
Pedro Knight had a chance to win the game for Thamesmead with five minutes left to go when after picking up on a pass from Rikki Cable he turned a rifled in a shot from the edge of the area towards the bottom right hand corner, only to again be thwarted by the keeper, this time making a fine finger tip save.
If ever a game needed a hero this was it, the tie looked to be heading into extra time when with only one minute left of normal time to play it was Rikki Cable who grabbed the goal to answer the mead’s prayers.
Pedro Knight this time turned provider, playing a neat ball for Cable to run on to, Cable collected the pass, turned his marker and fired his effort into the bottom left corner, to the relief of the Mead’s home supporter’s.
Tunbridge could be proud of themselves when the full time whistle blew, although they had lost the game, they had frustrated table toppers Thamesmead for long periods and with luck on their side could have stolen a result late on.
Thamesmead can now look forward to a tie with local rivals Greenwich Borough at Bayliss Avenue on Saturday 17th November 2007 in the next round.
Line-ups and player ratings
Thamesmead: Conneally 6 , Watts 5, Deadman 6, Brown 5, Kearley 6 , Tarrant 5, Mulholland 6, Knight 6 , Burns 5 ( Collins 5 ), Cable 6, Williams 6
Subs bot used: Kemp, Chapman, Loveridge, Potts.
Tunbridge Wells: Bromby 8, Bourne 5, Garrett 5, Shea 5, Boyle 5, Clarke 5, Shade 6, Forster 7, Starkey 4, Fuller 4, Phillips 5