Beavers spoil the party
The sun was shining, there was a tape cutting ceremony to inaugurate the new 3G pitch, over a thousand supporters entered the ground and Angels were on an unbeaten three match run away from home....what could possibly go wrong ?
Well in football as we all know, plenty actually. It was if you like a banana skin waiting to happen.
It was supposed to be a day of celebration for Tonbridge Angels as they opened their new 3G pitch but the tables were turned by a good Hampton & Richmond side who totally deserved their three points.
It was an opening half to forget for Angels playing for the first time at home on their new 3G pitch but full credit to the visitors who took full advantage of a lack lustre performance from the hosts.
The goals came from mistakes made by the Angels but you still have to take full advantage for these mistakes and the reality was they might have even claimed a couple more so shell shocked was the home defence. Just to rub salt into the wound for Tonbridge was their ex striker Tommy Wood got on the scoresheet.
We didn’t have to wait long for meaningful action when a corner for Beavers dropped into the Angels goal area with no one in the defence taking responsibility, the ball fell to Ade Shokunde who poked the ball across the line via the post.
The expected reaction from the home side never really happened. There were a few runs down either flank but the crosses were easily cut out and there was no fluidity about the Angels attack.
By contrast, Hampton confidence was growing with their press forcing the opponents into either losing possession or misplacing passes.
Hampton always looked likely to increase their scoreline and so it proved on 35 minutes when the goalscorer Shokunbi picked up from a mistake by Maja and then just three minutes later that man Wood benefited from a misplaced header from the Angels defence and it was a rather unexpected but deserved scoreline of 0-3 to the visitors.
Tonbridge made some adjustments at half time which was to be expected and it did make something of a difference with sharper movement and more pace about them. On 64 minutes came probably the best effort of the game from Tonbridge so far when Turner set up Fagg but the midfielder shot was just over the bar.
Hampton however came to grips with that early 2nd half Tonbridge pressure and once again their defence always looked comfortable while their attack was always capable of unlocking the Angels back line on the break.
There was eventually a breakthrough for the Angels on 72 minutes when a cross from Collins was converted neatly by new signing Gavin. It of course got the home crowd going but the Beavers were in no mood to let the three points slip away and while the Tonbridge crosses started to come the goals didn’t due to superb work by the visitors defence.
In fact it got worse for the Angels as with time running down and the players in blue shirts pushing up, the breakaway was always on for Hampton and so in the 90th minute substitute Barzey came up with the 4th goal for the visitors.
Afterwards a disappointed Angels Boss Jay Saunders bemoaned his team’s first half performance. “It was unacceptable in the first period and they know that, we improved second half but the damage had been done. During that chaotic period when Hampton scored two I thought one or two players were hiding, it we will work on things during the week and prepare for Braintree away. I can’t be too hard on the boys, they’re a young side and they’ve done brilliantly in the previous three away games”