19thjuly05

Tuesday 19th July 2005

Aldous scores five in Tonbridge Fiesta

The secretary of Tonbridge Angels' youth section and the Kent Youth League, Barry Jeffrey took charge of the Angels' over 35 side in last Sunday's Tonbridge Fiesta, writes Stephen McCartney.

"I had the pleasure of being the manager of this team on Sunday morning, sensibly deciding against playing in the scorching heat," he explained.

Tonbridge only had seven players available as others were not available due to other commitments.

"But what a squad we had," he boasted.

In goal was the new club chairman, Nick Sullivan and the team was skippered by former manager Colin Blewden.

Former players Tony Booth, Gary Aldous and Martin Lunn turned out as did Chris Hollyoak, whose son Matt is on the fringes of the current Angels' first team squad.

And Blewden's brother-in-law, Kevin Chivers also played.

The competition consisted of seven teams, which was played on a league basis, then a final would be played between the top two.

And this is the way the competition went for the "Angels" old guard:

W2-0 Portland (Gary Aldous 2)

W2-0 Tunbridge Wells Foresters Town (Martin Lunn, Colin Blewden)

W2-0 Tunbridge Wells Foresters City (Tony Booth, Colin Blewden)

W2-0 Hollingbourne (Gary Aldous, Chris Hollyoak)

W3-0 Sel Vets (Martin Lunn, Gary Aldous 2)

W1-0 Pensurst Park (Kevin Chivers)

The league format saw Tonbridge totally dominate each game with livewire Gary Aldous prominent on the goals front netting five.

Colin Blewden played as a defender but still managed to get forward with a couple of scorchers to his name.

Martin Lunn also notched two with Tony Booth, Chris Hollyoak (who coaches Blewden's under 15 side) and Kevin Chivers scoring one apiece.

Former Arsenal goalkeeper, Nick Sullivan rolled back the years when he was called upon with some superb saves.

This meant Tonbridge Angels topped the table with Pensurst coming second and the two sides would contest the final.

Unfortunately there was a long break before the final was played and this did not assist either side with the obvious "stiffness" affecting some.

Tonbridge dominated proceedings but Penshurst were resolute in their defending and had to be grateful to their goalkeeper on more than one occasion.

With just two minutes left Penshurst had a break away after intense Tonbridge pressure to score the only goal of the game.

"Despite the defeat against a quite considerably younger side, (Colin Blewden being the youngest "Angel", he is 40 next week), the "Angels boys" enjoyed the competition and look forward to competing again next year," said their manager Barry Jeffrey.