hythe261105

Thursday 01st September 2005

Vickers impress in front of Oakwood crowd

Saturday 26th November 2005	Kent Senior Trophy Second Round	Thomas Hawes reports from Oakwood
VCD Athletic	5	Greatorex 18,90 Coburn 42,89 Abbott 83
Hythe Town	1	Able 85

VCD booked their place in the quarterfinals of the Kent Senior Trophy
after a 5-1 thrashing of Hythe Town at Oakwood, writes Thomas Hawes.

Vickers, who usually groundshare with Greenwich Borough, produced a fine performance to the delight of a strong 128 crowd at the Vickers spiritual home at Crayford to book a tie away at Deal Town.

On the evidence of the opening quarter of an hour, the game looked as if it was going to be a close encounter. Athletic had a strong penalty claim rejected after 13 minutes and seconds later Danny Smith pulled off an excellent save down the other end to keep the score at 0-0.

VCD were soon to get the all-important first goal. With 18 minutes on the clock, Mark Greatorex latched onto the ball from the edge of the area, wrong-footed a baffled Hythe defender and slid the ball past the oncoming keeper and into the back of the net.

The home side thought that they were two up six minutes later, but a fine save from the Hythe goaltender saw the ball dribble past the post and out for a corner.

Coburn, however, didn't have to wait much longer to score his second goal of the season against Hythe as he lobbed VCD to a 2-0 half-time
lead.

Little happened in a dull start to the second half, VCD controlling much
of the possession and it looked certain that Vickers would progress to the next round.

However, an explosion of goals in the last ten minutes put a gloss on the scoreline for Vickers, who despite undoubtedly being the better side didn't deserve to win by a four-goal margin.

Stuart Abbott made it 3-0 when he rounded the keeper and fired the ball into the net.

Hythe grabbed an exquisite consolation a minute later as Richard Able
drilled in an outstanding shot into the top corner from 18 yards out.

Seconds after the restart, Hythe almost made it a tense last five minutes for Vickers when Able's header thumped onto the bottom of the post.

VCD made sure or victory with two goals in the final two minutes. Lee
Coburn headed home his second of the afternoon and their was just enough time for Greatorex to add his second of the afternoon.