Beckenham Town 3-2 Tunbridge Wells - I thought we deserved it overall, says Chris Hiscock

BECKENHAM TOWN  3-2  TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Macron Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Semi-Final First Leg
Tuesday 10^th March 2015
Stephen McCartney reports from Eden Park Avenue

BECKENHAM TOWN coach Chris Hiscock hailed the quality from striker Jamie Humphries after sealing a deserved win over Tunbridge Wells.



CUP TREBLE: Beckenham Town secretary Peter Palmer saw his club claim their first three trophies in four months in 2014
Photo: www.beckenhamtownfc.co.uk

The Macron Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup holders travel down to Culverden Stadium next Tuesday with a slender 3-2 lead after this high-quality Semi-Final First Leg at Eden Park Avenue.

Brendon Cass’s 24^th goal of the season gave fourth-placed Tunbridge Wells the lead after only 130 seconds, before fifth-placed Beckenham Town swiftly equalised through Damian Ramsamy and the hosts created many chances to extend their lead before the break.

Jamie Humphries, 25, gave Jason Huntley’s side the lead with his 40^th goal of the season early in the second half, before Dane Luchford equalised for Tunbridge Wells with a curling effort, before Humphries’ last-gasp screamer gave Beckenham Town the edge as the tie enters half-time.

“I enjoy watching because we played well. We worked hard, played some good football, high tempo football,” said Hiscock afterwards.

“We probably could have closed it at 2-1 but they scored and got back into it and made it a difficult game. We made silly mistakes again but I felt we deserved it overall.”

Tunbridge Wells created the first opening after only 17 seconds, but an unmarked Luchford blasted his left-footed volley high over the bar.

But they opened the scoring with their next attack.

Joe Fuller released Paul Booth down the left and the former Folkestone Invicta striker cut into the penalty area before squaring the ball to Cass, who maintained his composure to round keeper Rilwan Anibaba before slotting his shot into the bottom near corner from six-yards.

Hiscock said: “You can’t give Brendon Cass, people of that quality a chance on goal, they’re going to take it!

“He’s a good footballer, been about for a long, long time.

“First three minutes, I thought we got rid of that when we was always sloppy when I first came here.  I thought we plugged that but we just didn’t switch on, gave the ball straight away from kick-off and they capitalised on it and put him away in behind the defence. There’s only going to be one answer and that’s a goal from Brendon Cass.”

Tunbridge Wells almost doubled their lead when Rory Head’s diagonal pass found Luchford down the left, and he found Booth, who set-up Tom Davey, whose low drive was blocked and Fuller flashed his shot past the far post.

But Beckenham Town equalised with five minutes and 28 seconds on the clock.

Humphries produced a sublime defensive slipping pass to release winger Travis Gregory down the right.  He played the ball inside to Hassan Jalloh, who teed up Ramsamy to poke his left-footed shot into the bottom far corner of the net from 10-yards.

“We came back straight back into it,” said Hiscock.

“You can’t give any team a goal start so we’ve had to come from behind. At home we’re confident we can beat teams. We know that we’re going to score.    We just don’t want to give them a one goal start but we got back into it well and evened the game up and we started from there really.”

Ramsamy then started to pepper shots at Steve Lawrence in the Tunbridge Wells goal during a spell of dominance.

He burst forward with pace before drilling his right-footed shot across the diving keeper and past the far post from 25-yards.

Ramsamy then cracked an angled drive from 22-yards, which Lawrence tipped over the bar at his near post, before the winger latched onto Davey’s poor pass before dragging his shot across the face of goal without troubling the keeper.

Hiscock said: “I’m a great believer you’ve got to create chances before you score so I’m not going to moan about that! I’ll be more worried if we weren’t creating any chances!

“But in fact we’re getting chances and maybe not putting them away just means we’ve got to be a little bit more clinical but it happens with us week in week out.

“As long as we’re scoring three or four goals, whatever it is, I don’t mind that. I’d be more worried if we weren’t creating.”

The game started to settle down after a frenetic opening 20 minutes.

Luchford’s pass released Booth down the left, before the striker cut inside and screwed his powerful drive wide of the far post – but the away side failed to trouble Alfie Nunn and Nathan Paul in the heart of the Beckenham defence.

Hiscock explained: “It was how well we kept the ball.  We kept the ball well and because we played it on the floor, when we did give the ball away it’s in their half of the pitch and high up the pitch so that’s where they have to play from.

“We worked on it as a strategy that if we do give the ball away then we can squeeze it in their half of the pitch.

“They’re a dangerous side, they had their chances. They go forward, they’ve got the big boy (Booth) up front and Cass alongside. You can never switch off. They’re a good, hardworking side. The only reason why they didn’t cause us a lot of problems was because we retained the ball so well in the first half.”

A reverse pass from Humphries played Gregory in behind the Wells’ defence before he rolled his shot across the face of goal and white shirted left-back Lee Radford was on hand to touch the ball behind for a corner before it crossed the line.

Beckenham attacker Jalloh stung Lawrence’s fingers with a right-footed half-volley on the edge of the box, six minutes to go before the break.

James Marshall produced a sublime 60-yard pass to release Humphries charging down the right and he played the ball inside to Ramsamy, who was brought down just outside the box, but the ball rolled into Jalloh’s path and his shot was saved by Lawrence.

Gregory then cut in before unleashing a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which was comfortably saved by Lawrence.

Tunbridge Wells skipper Fuller tried his luck with a speculative right-footed drive from 40-yards, which he pulled harmlessly wide.

Hiscock said he was pleased with his players at the break.

“I just told them to play at that tempo,” he said.

“Every now and then you’re going to need a blow and we just had to re-organise when that was and counteract that, which is what we done.

“I said more off it really. I knew we could score another goal with the way we were playing.”

Humphries scored his 40^th goal of the season inside the opening seven minutes of the second half.

Marshall’s ball over the top was brought under the striker’s spell down the left – beating the offside trap in the process – before racing forward, cutting into the box to place his right-footed shot across Lawrence to find the back of the net from 15-yards.

“Forty goals, says it all really from Jamie Humphries,” said Hiscock.

“We could have scored a few more before that but with someone like him, as long as we’ve got him scoring the goals, you’ve always got a chance.

“Great goal. Great goalscorer. Forty goals in any level of football is saying something and I’m glad we’ve got him and he’s not playing against us because he’ll always score goals.

“You don’t mind him being quiet as long as he scores goals. He’s had a quiet night but as long as he’s effective on the ball – he’s been carrying a knock so we’ve done well to get him out for two games really if I’m being honest.  He’s a quality striker and he scores quality goals.”

The second half didn’t create as many chances as the first but Beckenham squandered an excellent chance to kill the game off in the 66^th minute.

Marshall released Ramsamy down the right and he cut inside before cutting the ball back to Humphries inside the box.  Humphries took a touch and laid the ball off to Jalloh, but a combination of Perry Spackman and Rory Head ensured the shot was blocked.

Humphries cut in from the left and his right-footed curler bounced into Lawrence’s hands for a comfortable save.

But Tunbridge Wells grabbed an equaliser with nineteen minutes remaining.

Beecroft’s fine pass forward was helped on by substitute Chris Seenan to release Booth through the middle. He bulldozed his way towards the edge of the box before his shot was blocked.  The ball came out to an unmarked Luchford, who curled his right-footed shot into the top far corner of the net from 20-yards, in-off Anibaba’s fingertips and the underside of the crossbar.

Hiscock said: “One of them really! We gave the ball away again. All we had to do we’re 2-1 up and we tend to be a little bit clever at times. Alfie Nunn tried to play a ball across the pitch, miss-kicked it and we’re on the back foot but that’s the way it goes.

“It’s a two-legged affair. We’ve got another go at it next week and we’ll like to stop all mistakes but if we did we probably wouldn’t be playing at this level.  Mistakes make games don’t they? If there weren’t no mistakes in a game it’ll be 0-0 - so that was our mistake.

“Unfortunately most teams have capitalised on our mistakes. It pulled us back a little bit but I’m confident we’re going to score at home.

“If we had gone there at 2-2, I still wouldn’t have minded but we pressed again.”

Tunbridge Wells finished the game on the front foot and they created two late chances to win the game.

Substitute Jack Goldsmith was the creator of both.  He whipped in a cross from the left which was cleared out to Fuller, who rushed his shot and steered the ball past the left-hand post from 20-yards.

And as the game went into time added on, Goldsmith swung in a corner from the left towards the near post and Fuller’s towering header sailed across goal and was destined for the far corner, only for Beckenham left-back Adam Wadmore to clear the ball off the line.

Beckenham Town broke swiftly and Marshall pinged another quality ball from midfield up to Humphries, who took a touch before cracking a right-footed screamer into the top left-hand corner of the net from 20-yards to win the first leg with 46 minutes and 42 seconds on the clock.

Hiscock said: “Once they got their second goal we panicked a little bit, more from disappointment from giving the goal away than anything else and we just needed to regain our composure, which I think we did and again we’ve got the quality in the side to go and score goals.”

And on Humphries’ magical strike, Hiscock added: “Marshall put the ball through. It’s a great goal to win any game really. He’s done it for us before and he’s done it for us again.”

Both sides meet again at Culverden Stadium next Tuesday, 17^th March.

Hiscock said: “I thought we deserved it overall. You’re disappointed at two-all but you still go there with a game.

“Three-two away from home doesn’t really matter. It’s another hard game next week. I’d imagine they’d be as confident of winning it as we would. I’m sure they were confident tonight of winning as we were.

“They’re a good side doing well in the league so it makes for a good encounter next week.

“If you look at the Semi-Finals, whoever wins this Cup is going to deserve it. Phoenix Sports and Greenwich Borough (who meet each other tomorrow night in the first leg), you’re talking about four teams in the top five in the table.

“To win any cup I think you’ve got to be on your game and whoever wins it will deserve it without a doubt.”

When asked what he expects at Culverden Stadium, Hiscock replied: “Much the same really, big crowd, hard work from them and maybe us changing our tactics slightly but we only know one way to play and that’s to attack. I’m sure they’ll be coming at us.

“We’ve just got to pick our moments and see if we can nick one. If we nick one there it’s a different story.

“It’s another game. It’s two games. We’re not at that level to tactically get a draw and keep the ball and go there and draw 0-0. It’s not happening! To me it’s two separate games. We’ve won this one, there’s another one next week and we’ll go and win again. Simple as that.”

Tunbridge Wells’ manager Martin Larkin declined to comment on his 250^th game in charge of the club.

Beckenham Town: Rilwan Anibaba, Jamie Turner, Adam Wadmore, Alfie Nunn, Nathan Paul, Frankie Warren (Harry Draper 65), James Marshall, Hassan Jalloh (Danny Lawson 87), Damian Ramsamy, Jamie Humphries, Travis Gregory.
Subs: Tyrone Guthrie, Chris Hubbard, Christian Mole

Goals: Damian Ramsamy 6, Jamie Humphries 52, 90

Booked: Frankie Warren 59, Alfie Nunn 90

Tunbridge Wells: Steve Lawrence, Rory Head, Lee Radford, Tom Davey, Brad Potter, Perry Spackman, Dane Luchford (Jack Goldsmith 85), Joe Fuller, Brendon Cass (Chris Seenan 69), Paul Booth (Ian Parsons 80), Jake Beecroft.
Subs: Andy Boyle, Tolley Beatson

Goals: Brendon Cass 3, Dane Luchford 71

Booked: Dane Luchford 49, Perry Spackman 67

Attendance: 105
Referee: Mr Steve Perry (Barnehurst)
Assistants: Mr Ben Bowles (Rochester) & Mr Zoltan Konkoly (Maidstone)