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Stansfield take Beckenham to the wire

BECKENHAM TOWN battled their way into the Semi-final of the Kent Senior Trophy against a very tough Stansfeld Oxford & Bermondsey side.

This was a fluent, lively game played out blustery in conditions. Stansfeld played their part and were strong on the counter attack and firm in the tackle.

Neither side dominated but it was traditionally slow starters Beckenham who began to carve out openings after 20 minutes, containing expertly and converting defence to attack with a conspiracy of crisp passing that should have led to a more testing day for the opponents keeper.

Stansfeld's defence, however, deprived the home side  of many clear chances.

Beckenham needed in-form keeper Gary Hopper and the crossbar to keep the visitors from finding the net.

It was Lewis Wood who found the net for Beckenham Town one minute before the break.

Town's midfield was not in a constructive mode and was at times crowded out by the visitors' pressure on the ball.

Wing-backs Nathan Paul and Asher Edwards constantly exploited rare space and made teasing forward runs only to be rewarded on many occasions with free kicks.

Beszant playing just behind the forwards had a busy game and provided some telling passes. In the second half he surged through the middle powerfully, stepping over the ball and firing low in a neat movement.

Although the visitors finished strongly and forced the pace for the last quarter of an hour, it was Beckenham's single goal that was enough in the end to fulfil the bottom line requirement of a victory to that provides a home semi-final tie with Kent League high flyers VCD Athletic.

Beckenham's assistant manager Jason Taylor added "Teams that win games like this tend to convert half-chances as we did today, but this was not an impressive display against a solid side who are probably the toughest side we have played this season and are a credit to The Kent County League.

"We constantly lost our shape and were off the stroke.

"We have another testing midweek league fixture against VCD Athletic."

Beckenham Town: Hopper, West, Paul, Celaire, Sinclair, Belton, Kvieu (Cooney), Beszant, Edwards, Vines, Wood (Hall). Subs: Green, Kirkby, Smith