Ashford Town 4-0 Whitstable Town - We've set our standards now, says Lovell

Lovell, speaking to BBC Radio Kent, said: “Although we took a while to score the opening goal, with Kevin Fewell making a number of saves, everyone in the ground could see we were convincing winners on the day.

“Bradley (Spice) and Jonah (Paul Jones) combined well together. I thought Jonah would never score with the chances he had today, but he got one in the end.”

Oystermen manager Marc Seager, looking for a positive response to their 4-0 defeat at home to Burgess Hill Town two days ago, would have been disappointed that his side didn’t really compete in any part of the field, especially getting little penetration from his forward line, as his three-man back-line was constantly exposed by through balls to the pacy Jones.

Whitstable were exposed with just 50 seconds on the clock, as Mitchell Sherwood sent a hanging cross into the middle of the penalty area. Under pressure from Bradley Spice, Kevin Fewell could only parry the cross, which fell at Spice’s feet, but his left-footed shot was deflected around the post by his former Sittingbourne team-mate Paul Ainsworth.

Fewell redeemed himself just two minutes later, punching clear a powerful drive from Spice, following good build-up play by Ryan Briggs. From the clearance, Ashford fed the ball wide to Anthony Browne, whose deep cross was glanced wide by Sherwood at the back post.

Whitstable gave Ashford a scare from a flighted Tom Parker free-kick, that was flicked on towards Campbell, closing in at the back post, but skipper Sean Ray intercepted with a volleyed clearance.

Browne again supplied a pinpoint cross from the right wing, for Jones to knock down to Briggs, but Fewell saved the midfielder’s drive, comfortably to his left.

With Briggs virtually untouchable in midfield, he found time to pick passes through the Whitstable defence at will.

The next chance on 20 minutes fell to Spice, who turned his defender, only to see Fewell gather a low shot.

Five minutes later, a long clearance by Lee Hockey was flicked on by Spice to his partner Jones. As the run took Jones into the box for a shot, Rob Thomas slid in with a magnificent recovery tackle to clear.

It was only a matter of time before Ashford’s pressure would bring the desired result.

On 31 minutes, Briggs sent a ball over the top of the defence into the right edge of the box, where Jones did well to keep the ball in play. Jones laid the ball back for Spice to sweep home his first goal of the season, across the despairing Fewell dive.

After the introduction of veteran Mark Munday for the injured Clint Gooding, Whitstable broke down the right side through David Cory, but his low cross in search of strike partner Ian Pulman, was met by a timely interception from Ray.

With three first-half minutes remaining, Jones was fed in by a long ball from Daniel Brathwaite, but his low shot was once again gathered by Fewell. From the clearance, Ashford broke quickly and following a one-two between Jones and Anthony Hogg, the ball was fed into the path of Spice, who rammed home his second goal.

Tom Parker had a chance to get Whitstable back into the match when he cut inside Jimmy Elford, but he shot tamely into the arms of Jamie Riley.

As they had in the first half, Ashford came out of the blocks quickly and a controlled header and turn by Jones rounded Cambell, but Thomas cleared the intended low cross to Spice.

Jones had the next chance to increase the lead when a through ball from Briggs released him in the area but the striker’s drive across Fewell grazed the far post.

Ashford Town went 3-0 up on 54 minutes when the Whitstable defence stopped appealing for an offside decision against Jones.

Unfortunately for the visitors, Thomas was playing the forward onside and as he tried to recover into the middle, Jones cut the ball across the box for Sherwood, whose first shot looked to have been gathered by Fewell, as he plunged to his right, but it squirmed loose for Sherwood to slot home from an acute angle.

Spice had a chance for his hat-trick after 65 minutes when a soft foul by Marcos Perona on Jones gave Ashford a free-kick twenty-yards out. The curling shot was comfortably saved by Fewell, moving to his right.

Once again, Fewell’s clearance couldn’t be held by Whitstable’s forwards and Hogg fed the ball into Jones on the edge of the area.

A quick one-two with Spice saw Jones break into the box, but he could only toe-poke the ball wide of the right post as he held off Campbell’s challenge.

After this, the game became very scrappy, with Whitstable desperate to hang on, but apart from a curled 20-yard shot from Cory, the Ashford defence was relatively untroubled.

The last action of the match belonged to Jones on 89 minutes, as he collected a floated ball from Briggs on his chest and in one movement turned Thomas and rifled the ball past the advancing Fewell from 12-yards.

It was no less than his performance had deserved.

Looking forward to Saturday’s home FA Cup Preliminary Round tie against their Ryman League Division One South rivals Leatherhead, Lovell said: “We’ve got a tough game against a side from our league, but we’ve set our standard now (with this performance) and if we produce this every week, I’ll have no problems from now on.”

Ashford Town: Jamie Riley, Jimmy Elford, Daniel Brathwaite (Robbie Ryan 81), Lee Hockey, Sean Ray, Ryan Briggs, Anthony Browne, Anthony Hogg (James Humphries 78), Bradley Spice, Paul Jones, Mitchell Sherwood.
Subs: Jimmy Bottle, Charlie Glyde, Josh Willis.

Goals: Bradley Spice 21, 43, Mitchell Sherwood 54, Paul Jones 89

Booked: Anthony Hogg 65

Whitstable Town: Kevin Fewell, Paul Ainsworth, Danny Tipple, Robert Thomas, Clint Gooding (Mark Munday 34), James Campbell, Nick Bagley (Tommy Martin 57), Marcos Perona, Ian Pulman (Scott Punton 75), David Cory, Tom Parker.
Subs: Gary Sayer, Dylan Macvicar.

Booked: Scott Punton 85

Attendance: 279
Referee: Mr Paul Kelly (Walderslade)
Assistants: Mr Paul Beadle (Sevenoaks) & Mr Simon Finnigan (Maidstone)