beckenham041204

It's a family affair!

With leading scorer Ryan Hayes (holiday) and Shaun Malyon (groin strain) ruled out, Dean Bowey took full advantage of his recall to the side by setting up the first and scoring the second of Green’s goals only to see his side sunk by two goals inside the final 6 minutes.

The game saw cousins and namesakes Paul Vines ( Beckenham) and Green keeper Paul Vines  come face to face and within 30 seconds of the start they soon made their acquaintance as the Beckenham striker fired the home side ahead after Lewis Wood had capitalised on Green’s failure to clear their lines. 

Green’s first opening arose on 18 minutes when a peach of a pass from Wayne Barrett picked out Dave Martin who skillfully bought the ball down only to see it whipped away from his toes by a defender. 

Six minutes later Barrett again played another sublime throughball this time into the path of  Bowey who in turn swept forward before squaring the ball towards the far post where Dave Martin was on hand to slot the ball home. 

Within 8 minutes the visitors struck again, Danny Little made great strides forwards from midfield and played the ball out to the right to find Bowey who carried it round the keeper before firing the ball home. 

Green’s lead lasted just 5 minutes though as Lewis Wood was left with simplest of tap-ins after Vines had initially scooped a backward header from defender Mark Penny off the line. 

The home side could then so easily have struck again before the break firstly Danny Beszant’s effort was tipped over the bar by Vines at full stretch while from the resulting corner from Darren Hall, Martin West saw his powerful header crash against the cross-bar. 

The second half continued in the same vein as the first with end to end football, Vines had to be at his best to turn Beszant’s rasping drive over the bar and then superb defending denied both sides certain goals, Dean Kearley’s interception keeping out Wood and at the other end Mario Celaire’s clever footwork thwarting Dave Martin. 

Further goals always looked likely and this proved to be the case 6 minutes from time as former Cray Wanderers, Bromley and Erith & Belvedere striker Vines notched his second of the afternoon as the home side took full advantage of their brief numerical advantage after Green had been temporary reduced to 10 men after skipper Tony Gallagher had left the field to receive treatment. 

With Green still reeling from this goal they were then left shell-shocked two minutes later as Nathan Paul left fly with a truly scintillating goal from the tightest of angles to win the game for Beckenham.

Even then Green could have set up a grandstand finish only for Dave Martin to fire over with keeper Gary Hopper off his line. 

Slade Green:  Vines, Lewis, Barber, Gallagher, Kearley, Penny, Martin, Barrett, Bowey, Little  Bond (Abbott).  Subs not used:  Sabatino, Sallis, Malyon.