Beckenham Town 1-1 Heybridge Swifts - We've got to take a bit of blame for that because we put them out there in that formation and it clearly didn't work, admits Beckenham Town assistant manager Billy Walton

Beckenham Town 1 – 1 Heybridge Swifts
Location	Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3JL
Kickoff	13/09/2022 19:45

BECKENHAM TOWN 1-1  HEYBRIDGE SWIFTS
(Heybridge Swifts win 4-1 on penalties)
The Isuzu FA Trophy First Qualifying Round
Tuesday 13 September 2022
Stephen McCartney reports from Eden Park Avenue

BECKENHAM TOWN assistant manager Billy Walton says he will take a bit of blame after losing their FA Trophy debut tie on penalties.

Isthmian League South East Division leaders Beckenham Town crashed out in the First Qualifying Round to fellow unbeaten side Heybridge Swifts, who arrived at a rain lashed Eden Park Avenue in third place in the Isthmian League North Division with 10 points from their opening four league outings, a couple of points fewer than their hosts.

Steve Tilson’s side dominated the whole of the first half and took a deserved lead through left-back Harrison Sodje, 18, who is on loan from Leyton Orient.

However, Jason Huntley, Walton and the coaching staff must take credit for realising their huge error in judgement and put players in their correct positions for the second half, which Beckenham Town dominated and forced a penalty shoot-out courtesy of striker Louie Theophanous’ ninth goal of the season.

The Essex side progressed and will host Chipstead in the next round on Saturday 24 September as they were clinical from the penalty spot and progressed by winning the shoot-out 4-1, with Danny Waldren and Robert Carter having their efforts saved by visiting goalkeeper Callum Chafer.

“I thought it was a game of two halves really, the old cliché,” admitted Walton.

“We weren’t nowhere near good enough in the first half, nowhere near good enough!  Perhaps it was a little bit of both, with the line-up we had to put out tonight, not making excuses but we had a few injured players at the start of the game and it threw our shape totally out of the window and messed up how we kind of play.

“Fair play to Heybridge, they came here, they were a very good side. They rotated the midfield very well, which I always though they wouldn’t be able to keep up that sort of work rate for the rest of the game so the longer we stayed in it, I thought we would have a chance.

“I was really disappointed with the first half but then we came in and we put the right people in the right places at half-time and I thought we dominated the whole second half and we should’ve gone on and won it.”

Beckenham Town went into this game on an eight-match unbeaten in League and Cup this season, while Heybridge Swifts have not lost in their opening seven.

Beckenham Town created their first opening after only 42 seconds when Alfie Bloomfield and Freddie Nyhus both linked up and fed Theophanous down the left and his left-footed angled drive was comfortably saved by Chafer at his near post.

“We got off to a bit of a good start, that was a good start that we wanted but the more the first half went on, the more they just dominated most of the play really,” admitted Walton.

“It was most probably the worst we’ve played (in the first half) all season.  Listen, at this level you can’t go out and perform like that.  I suppose just being 1-0 down we were still in the game and the only positive we took out of the first half was just being 1-0 down!”

However, Heybridge Swifts swiftly created their first opening when after 69 seconds of play, a long ball was played in behind emergency centre-half Danny Waldren to put in pacey six goal leading scorer Andrew Fennell, who placed his first time shot just past the foot of the left-hand post with goalkeeper Nick Blue to beat.

“We done our homework on him and we knew he likes to cut inside on his right-foot all of the time and most of the time that’s what he did,” said Walton.

“He very rarely goes on the outside and slings in crosses, he likes to cut inside and get his shots off.

“It’s disappointing, we didn’t learn from what we were telling them and that’s the first time I’ve seen him live and he was very quick as well.  We dealt with him more in the second half.”

The opening minutes was end-to-end and Beckenham Town centre-half Mudiaga Wanogho drove over the halfway line and through the heart of the pitch before feeding Nyhus, who cut onto his left-foot and curled just 22-yarder just past the foot of the left-hand post.

Left-winger Fennell comfortably cut inside Waldren and stroked a right-footed angled drive towards the bottom far corner from 22-yards, which was comfortably held by Blue down on his knees.

With Heybridge Swifts’ well-built centre-half Darren Phillips producing quality passing with his right-foot and former Dartford midfielder Lee Noble pulling the strings in the engine room, Heybridge Swifts were miles better than their hosts during a one-sided first half.

Harvey Brand, who slotted in at left-back as Archie Johnson was rested for the first half with a groin strain, played a 40-yard pass along the carpet into Theophanous but his speculative first time drive from 30-yards flashed past the near post in a rare attempt on the visitors’ goal.

Blue was called into action in the 29^th minute when wideman Robert Harvey pinged a diagonal pass to split open the Beckenham back four to put Fennell through on goal but Blue was quickly off his line to make a vital block with his legs on the edge of his penalty area.

“He should’ve scored really. When you’re in that position, if that was us, I’d be fuming. Bluey’s Bluey, he’ll make saves like that, that’s why he’s as good as he is,” added Walton.

Theophanous smashed a right-footed free-kick into the Heybridge Swifts’ five-man wall on the half-hour mark and his second bite of the cherry was hit harmlessly wide.

Waldren failed to cut out a long ball some 35-yards from his goal and this let in the impressive Fennell, who cut onto his right-foot and hit a rasping drive towards the roof of the net from 25-yards, which was comfortably plucked out of the air by the Beckenham stopper.

Heybridge Swifts deserved their lead when it finally arrived with 37 minutes and 14 seconds on the clock.

Sodje was allowed to travel over the halfway line and into the final third without being pressed and cut inside before placing a right-footed shot across Blue (who was rooted to the spot) and nestling inside the bottom far corner.

“You can’t let a left-back pick up the ball on the halfway line and run and run and run and run and run. He must have got to the edge of the box and he’s on his weaker foot and he must’ve thought the only thing I can do is have a shot and he’s had a shot and it’s gone in,” said Walton.

“It was a good finish from him.  Bluey might’ve done (better to save it) but I will say on that surface with the rain, if you hit the target the ball is travelling a bit faster than what we think.  It was right in the corner. I thought it was a good finish from him.”

Beckenham’s right-winger Tyler Anderson was kept in Sodje’s pocket for the 45 minutes that he was out of his depth but he did manage to play the ball into the box for Theophanous to weave his magic and his right-footed shot on the turn was beaten behind his near post by Chafer.

Walton added: “It’s one of those where I thought he was going to tuck that away. It was a good save from the keeper. He was in the right position and the ball more or less hit him rather than him make the save.”

Beckenham Town did well to keep the deficit at just the one goal and full credit to their management team for putting players in their correct positions after the break because it was more of a case of too many square pegs in round holes during the first half.

Archie Johnson came off the bench and slotted in his more natural position at left-back.  Robert Carter left his emergency right-back role to partner Wanogho in the heart of defence and Harvey Brand moved from left-back to his more natural position of right-back.

Waldren slotted into his usual holding midfielder role alongside Nick Curren.  However, the performance of Alfie Bloomfield was concerning as he offered very little wide on the left and lost many headers despite his lanky frame and it was no surprise when he was hooked with 10 minutes remaining for Steven Townsend, who was making his first appearance since his collarbone injury sustained in the 2-2 draw in Jersey on 5 April.

“A few harsh words were said about the way we were playing, not too harsh because listen they’ve been fantastic up until now,” revealed Walton.

“Fair play to Heybridge, they were a good side and they dominated the first half and we were poor which contributed to it and having certain people all over the place contributed to it as well.

“Was it to be expected? Maybe, with the changes we had to make. There again, myself we’ve got to take a bit of blame for that because we put them out there in that formation and it clearly didn’t work, so we came in at half-time and we couldn’t get to half-time quickly enough to change it.”

Beckenham Town put in a much better performance in the second half, creating their first opening after 126 seconds.

Johnson’s throw was flicked on by Bloomfield and released Theophanous down the line and his cross-shot from within the left channel was superbly pushed over the bar by Chafer’s outstretched right-hand, preventing the ball sailing into the roof of the net.

“It was all about us in the second half. We got the players’ in the right positions, put players who can get forward and create a few things for us,” added Walton, who was disappointed with Bloomfield tonight.

“What we’ve got to understand is he’s still a young lad. He’s come through and he's still only a young lad and he’s learning his trade.  He’s not going to be great week-in-week-out so we’ve got to manage him and get the best out of him and today most probably it wasn’t his best performance.  There again, on the other hand, he’s only a young lad and he has played well for us and I thought Alfie could’ve caused them a bit more problems. It just wasn’t his night tonight.”

Heybridge Swifts went close following Noble’s free-kick which was met by a towering header from centre-half Quba Gordon, which screamed across Blue and past the far post.

Blue kicked the ball to a deep George Goodwin, who played the ball along the carpet to Theophanous, who controlled the ball with a couple of touches before flashing a right-footed drive with his third touch which flashed past the left-hand post from 25-yards.

Beckenham Town’s deserved equaliser arrived with 18 minutes and 11 seconds on the clock, as substitute Jamarie Brissett (nicknamed Magic) made an immediate impact.

The former Redhill winger replaced Curran with 17:43 on the clock and just 28 seconds later the home side had equalised.

Brissett found space inside his own half on the edge of the centre circle and controlled the ball and with his second touch of the game produced a sublime through ball which split open the Heybridge defence to put Theophanous through on goal.

The 30-year-old striker produced a clinical placed finish, left-footed across the keeper to find the bottom far corner.  It was a magical pass and a magical finish.

Walton said: “It was most probably his second touch.  His first touch was to control it and his second touch to put Louie through but he lived up to his name, didn’t he?  It was a fantastic little run into the hole in midfield and slotted Louie through in between the two centre-halves and bang!

“When Louie gets in that position you know full well he’s going to hit the target and score.”

Heybridge Swifts, however, were a threat on the counter-attack for the rest of the game as attacking midfielder Jack Adlington-Pile cut onto his right-foot and went close with a 25-yarder which only just flashed past the far post.

Target-man Ross Wall’s reverse pass from the half-way line released Fennell down the left and his initial shot was charged down outside the box.  Adlington-Pile’s right-footed drive from 25-yards brought a comfortable save out of Blue, low to his right, as the game entered the final 20 minutes.

“That (counter-attack) is what you’ve got to be aware of,” added Walton.

“They’re away from home and they’ve been pegged back.  Like all teams, for some reason they drop further and further back and let us come onto them and they haven’t done it the whole game and all off a sudden they drop back and invite you on and we took full advantage of that and completely and utterly dominated.

“I think they had two or three breaks that we snuffed out.  I can’t really recall them having a real clear-cut chance in the second half.  Maybe break aways. They did look to get Fennell in with his pace but we dealt with him well in the second half and we were always covering that counter-attack.”

Beckenham Town bossed possession going into the final exchanges and Goodwin unleashed a low left-footed drive towards goal from 30-yards, forcing Chafer to drop down to his knees to male a comfortable save as the heavy rain eased.

Fennell’s threat was cut out during the second half with Brand putting in a more resilient performance than an out-of-position Carter did before the interval but Fennell did spring into life inside the final five minutes, cutting onto his right-foot and curling his long-range effort around the far post.

Both sides had late chances to snatch the victory.

Theophanous twisted and turned his man inside the Heybridge penalty area and teed up Townsend, who put Swifts’ right-back Tyler Brampton on his back-side before lacking composure and lashing his right-footed drive high over the crossbar.

Walton said: “It’s Steve’s first game since April, when we were away to Jersey Bulls and he broke his collarbone.  Would Steve, three weeks into coming back, with three games under his belt, would he bent that into the top corner, which we’ve seen him do on many occasions. It’s like a new signing for us and Steve is going to be a handful.”

Adlington-Pile released Fennell on the counter-attack and the ball was worked over to the other side of the pitch to Wall, who played an in-behind-pass for substitute winger Rhys Henry but Adlington-Pile’s first time flick at the near post trickled across Blue and past the foot of the far post from inside the six-yard box.

“I don’t know how he flicked it wide. It just trickled past the far post, where I thought he should’ve just turned and pinged it. I’m glad to see it roll just past the far post,” added Walton.

Walton revealed that his side have not practiced penalties and that he has never won a penalty shoot-out in his managerial or coaching career, the last one was their FA Vase exit at Glebe last season after a goal-less draw at Foxbury Avenue.

It was no surprise when Phillips drilled his right-footed penalty into the roof of the net to put Heybridge Swifts in the lead.

Waldren’s right-footed penalty was low and Chafer went to his right to save with his legs.

Last-gasp substitute Kieran Jones sent Blue the wrong way with a clinical right-footed penalty into the right corner to give Heybridge Swifts a two-goal lead.

Beckenham’s only penalty success came from Theophanous, who held his nerve by lashing his right-footed penalty high into the top right-hand corner, sending the keeper the wrong way.

Blue dived to his right and got his fingertips to Sodje’s left-footed penalty, but couldn’t prevent the ball finding the left-corner.

There was controversy with the sixth penalty of the shoot-out as Heybridge Swifts goalkeeper Chafer moved off his line and dived to his left to use both his hands to keep out Carter’s right-footed penalty, yet assistant referee Anastasiya Voloshchuk did nothing about it.

Fennell capped off a fine night’s work by sending Heybridge Swifts through to the next round, slotting his right-footed penalty low into the right corner, sending Blue the wrong way.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, what on earth the lineswoman was doing watching the keeper? I mean every single person in the ground was calling it that he moved miles off his line to save it.  It’s bad, it’s bad, completely bad,” said Walton.

“As I’ve said to you before, it’s a horrible way to go out because it’s an individual game.  Why can’t you play extra-time, sudden-death. It’s beyond me because then it’s a team.  It’s down to you taking penalties.

“Listen, at this level you don’t practice.  We didn’t practice penalties. You just go and ask lads ‘who wants to take it?’ and they put their hand up and you go up and strike a ball but in terms of penalties, they hit some really good ones.”

All attention now turns to the David and Goliath FA Cup Second Qualifying Round tie at National League South side Dartford on Saturday.

Alan Dowson’s men came away from Dover Athletic with a 3-1 win tonight and are in tenth-place in the Vanarama National League South table with four wins and four defeats from their opening eight league outings.

“Certainly tonight might be a good thing because we’ve just talked about it in there.  You can’t start off the game against Dartford like we did tonight, play like we did in the first half because we would get annihilated,” warned Walton.

“The lads have learnt from that. It might be a bit of motivation. You’ve been knocked out on penalties and you go there and your tails are you now and you think ‘come on, let’s go and put this right.’

“They’ll be good. I’ll imagine they’ll have players who are technically good on the ball, they’ve got a lot of experience and we’ve just got to go and find a way of combating that.

“I think our experienced players will relish it, the younger ones will relish it. I think it will be a good game, it’s our Cup Final and we’re all looking forward to it.  It's a massive David v Goliath. I don’t know which ones which.”

Meanwhile, Beckenham Town are now 16 home games unbeaten in League and Cup, having last suffered a defeat here on 23 November 2021 when Rusthall won 1-0 in a Kent Senior Trophy tie.

Beckenham’s last home league defeat was when Chatham Town won 5-1 in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division on 10 November 2020, meaning Huntley’s men are 26 league games unbeaten at Eden Park Avenue.

Beckenham Town’s current unbeaten run is 10 games, including last season.

Beckenham Town: Nick Blue, Robert Carter, Harvey Brand, Nick Curran (Jamarie Brissett 63), Mudiaga Wanogho, Danny Waldren, Alfie Bloomfield (Steven Townsend 80), George Goodwin, Louie Theophanous, Freddie Nyhus, Tyler Anderson (Archie Johnson 46).
Subs: Ishmeal Erskine, Luke Hedges

Goal: Louie Theophanous 64

Booked: Freddie Nyhus 63, Nick Blue 90

Heybridge Swifts: Callum Chafer, Tyler Brampton, Harrison Sodje, Lee Noble (Samuel Carter 79), Darren Phillips, Quba Gordon, Andrew Fennell, Ben Sartain, Ross Wall, Jack Adlington-Pile (Kieran Jones 90), Robert Harvey (Rhys Henry 68).
Subs: Alexander Stephenson, Samuel Cross, Joseph Whitney, Abdel N’Daw

Goal: Harrison Sodje 38

Booked: Tyler Brampton 50

Attendance: 138
Referee: Mr Graham Swanton
Assistants: Mr Andrew Simmonds & Ms Anastasiya Voloshchuk