Erith Town 1-2 Burgess Hill Town - I'll be honest, tonight is a little bit of a smash and grab and I think they've got away with it massively, claims gutted Erith Town boss Adam Woodward

Erith Town 1 – 2 Burgess Hill Town
Location	Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ
Kickoff	22/08/2023 19:45

ERITH TOWN  1-2  BURGESS HILL TOWN
(after extra time)
The Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round Replay
Tuesday 22 August 2023
Stephen McCartney reports from Bayliss Avenue

ERITH TOWN manager Adam Woodward claims Burgess Hill Town got away with it after losing this poor-quality FA Cup Preliminary Round Replay stalemate in extra time.

Dean Cox’s side can look forward to a local derby at home to Isthmian League Premier Division side Bognor Regis Town in the First Qualifying Round on Saturday 2 September, after grabbing a flattering 2-1 win at Bayliss Avenue.

Dockers’ striker Harry Taylor bundled in his second goal of the season to give the hosts the lead, but it lasted only 161 seconds before Dan Perry controversially headed in an equaliser from what appeared to be from an offside position.

Most of the game lacked quality with the ball spending most of the time in the air and Burgess Hill Town grabbed an 113rd minute winner with a clinical finish from substitute Lewis Finney, following a two-man counter-attack.

The two sides played out a goal-less draw at Leylands Park on Saturday and both required replays to reach the second hurdle of the competition.

Erith Town made the trip to near Brighton, coming away from Hassocks with a 1-1 draw, before beating the Southern Combination League Premier Division side 4-0 in Thamesmead.

Burgess Hill Town, meanwhile, opened their Isthmian League South East Division campaign with a 2-2 draw at Herne Bay on 12 August and arrived here in ninth-place after their first outing.

They drew Sutton Common Rovers 1-1 in The FA Cup, before beating their fellow eighth-tier rivals 2-1 in the replay.

Erith Town, meanwhile, sit in fifth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division (ninth-tier) table, with six points from their opening three games, coming into this replay on a five match unbeaten run after losing 2-0 at Whitstable Town on the opening day of the season.

“Gutted, absolutely gutted.  I think over the two games we’ve been the better side,” said Woodward.

“I’ll be honest, tonight is a little bit of a smash-and-grab.  I think they’ve got away with it massively but look, they’re a decent side and you might’ve heard me in the changing room (after the game). I said to the boys, ‘if you want to be a good side and you want to win things, you’ve got to find ways to win them’ and we didn’t tonight.”

When asked what was missing from his players, Woodward replied: “Cutting edge, weren’t it?  We had so many chances.  That’s the story of our season so far.

“We’ve had so many chances, we’re just not putting the ball in the back of the net.  Look, it is what it is, there’s nothing we can do.  We’ve just got to regroup for (our trip to Glebe on Saturday and go again.”

The Dockers’ created their first opening inside the opening seven minutes when some lacklustre defending from centre-half Jack Taylor opened the door for a pressing Harry Taylor, who stole the ball outside the box before cutting towards the edge of the box and curling his right-footed shot around the stationery goalkeeper and past the far post.

Harry Taylor dropped deep and spread the play out wide to the left with the outside of his right foot to left-winger James Dyer.  He cut inside and whipped in a left-footed cross towards the near post but fellow winger Alfie Eldridge sent his free-header sailing over the crossbar from six-yards, aiming for the roof of the net.

“Listen, Eldo done really well on Saturday.  He’s been in and out of the side. He’s come in for the last two games and done really, really well and I think tonight he's done good for 65 minutes,” said Woodward.

Erith Town took a deserved lead, however, with 17 minutes and 16 seconds on the clock.

After a spell of pinball inside the Hillians’ penalty area, the ball came out to Dyer, who hung over a cross towards the top far corner, which visiting goalkeeper James Shaw stuck out his hand, stretching high to his left, to push it against the crossbar.

The ball then dropped for Eldridge, who from inside the six-yard box, put it on a plate for Harry Taylor, who slid and bundled the ball over the line, into the bottom right-hand corner, with his marker attempting to slid and poke it past the post.

“Harry hasn’t played a lot this season. He’s come back from injury now and that’s a good goal and that what he does, those silly goals, not silly goals, those scrappy goals what Harry Taylor lives for and he took it well,” added Woodward.

However, Burgess Hill Town swiftly equalised following their first corner of the game, the goal coming with 19 minutes and 57 seconds on the clock.

Kieron Pamment delivered a deep corner in from the right, Kieran Rowe played the ball back towards fellow central midfielder Rob O’Toole, who from outside the box floated the ball back into the Erith Town box, where an unmarked Perry placed his header bouncing beyond McKenzie Foley from what appeared to be behind the Dockers’ defence.

“Offside, do you think?  Do you think offside?  I can’t comment, so it’s just one of those things,” added Woodward.

“I can’t comment, I’m not in line with it.  The lino’s decided it’s not. We’ll have a look at the video and try to assess it from there.

“We dealt with the first phase, we didn’t deal with the second or third really did we?  The ball came back in, we’ve all stepped out, and given him a free header.”

Harry Taylor dropped deep again and left-back James Trueman played a first-time ball before James Miles put the ball into the Burgess Hill Town penalty area.  Eldridge first bite of the cherry was blocked inside the box and his second bit was sliced past the near-post.

Burgess Hill Town’s centre-half Nic D’Arienzo – who launched nine long throws into the Dockers penalty area – launched a long free-kick which was flicked on by Kieron Pamment but Perry was crowded out inside the box and flicked his shot past the near post from a tight angle inside the six-yard box on the half-hour.

“I thought we defended really well.  We knew what they were going to do, they were going to go a bit direct, which they did and I felt that we dealt with it and picked up second balls really well,” said Woodward, when asked about his side’s defensive work.

Jack Taylor was caught by Harry Taylor and referee Jordan Dixon-Walker awarded the away side a free-kick some 35-yards from goal.

Holding midfielder Darren Budd floated the ball towards the edge of the Dockers’ penalty area, which was hooked across the face of goal and past the far post by D'Arienzo.

No one pressed central midfielder Rowe, who fed the ball into Budd, who slid to poke the ball over to right-back Reggie Ward, who whipped in a cross into the middle for Perry to glance his deflected header across the keeper and past the far post.

The returning visiting goalkeeper James Shaw then made a comfortable save just 74 seconds later.

Erith Town’s right-back Joe Chalker played a ball along the pitch into impressive central midfielder James Miles, who drove forward before unleashing a right-footed drive towards the bottom right-hand corner from 30-yards, which Shaw comfortably smothered low to his left.

“Milo has obviously got a decent strike on him.  He done well tonight. He blew up a little bit at the end but he’s had a good strike and we know he can usually get them on target and score but one another day it might roll in the top corner but tonight it didn’t,” added Woodward.

“I said (at half-time that I wanted) more of the same really. Just have to go out and do more of the same and keep working hard and nullify what they can (do) and we’ll get chances.

“It was pretty boring second half but we were happy with that. We felt we were in control, we felt comfortable.”

The second half, however, was awful, with little quality from both sides, both teams playing direct football, Burgess Hill often kicking the ball in the air and and both teams giving possession away.

It took until the 24^th minute for a goalscoring chance to be created and Burgess Hill Town almost grabbed the lead when Perry’s left-footed shot on the turn from eight-yards brought a smart save from MacKenzie Foley, tipping the ball around his post, after pacey substitute winger Marcel Powell got involved.

“It was a good save by Foley.  He done really well. I thought he was exceptional on Saturday and I thought he was exceptional again tonight.  The way he comes and takes crosses, relieves a lot of pressure off us,” added Woodward.

“I don’t think they’ve had (any clear-cut goalscoring chances). I think Foley’s made one save if I’m honest and thought we’ve gifted them two goals if I’m being brutally honest and that’s what I said in the changing room after the game.”

Woodward could almost claim an assist in the 86^th minute when a woeful clearance bounced out of play and the retired goalkeeper grabbed the ball with both hands before swiftly throwing the ball towards Chalker, who was running towards the touchline in front of the home clubs technical area to take the set-piece.

Chalker launched the ball forward to release substitute striker Henry Arnold, who easily ran past Pamment outside the box, only to have his shot smothered by Shaw in a one-v-one dual.

Arnold lost composure when it mattered, sweeping his shot against the base of the near post from eight-yards.

“Listen, it’s a good save by the keeper. I personally thought he was probably man-of-the-match. He made some really good saves,” added Woodward.

“He’s made a great save and then we’ve obviously got a tap in and we’ve hit the post.

“I thought we’d go on and win the game if I’m brutely honest, I really did.  I thought we’d step on and go on to another level. I thought we did. I thought we were really good in extra-time.”

Burgess Hill Town had the first chance of extra-time when substitute holding midfielder Finn Daniels-Yeomans played the ball into Finney, who drilled a low right-footed angled drive flashing harmlessly across Foley and past the far post from 25-yards.

Rowe drove forward before playing the ball out wide to Pamment on the left, who unleashed a right-footed angled stinging drive from 30-yards, which was comfortably held by Foley.

But Erith Town squandered two glorious chances to seal the deal towards the end of the first period of extra-time.

There were numerous players from both sides camped inside the Dockers’ half before Aaron Jeffery’s hooked smashed clearance split open D’Arienzo to put substitute striker Ollie Milton through on goal.

However, the outstanding Shaw smothered the shot, low to his left and just 73 seconds later, Miles’ driving run saw him play in Dyer, who lacked composure inside the box and Shaw made himself big and used his legs to frustrate the home side again.

On Milton’s chance, Woodward added: “A good save by the keeper. He’s one-on-one and again we’ve got to score. We have to score.  People may think I’m being harsh, he has to score!”

And on Dyer’s wasted opportunity, the Dockers’ boss replied: “Another chance. It’s the story of both legs really. If you look at the highlights from Saturday, it’s another chance and we haven’t put it away.”

With a penalty shoot-out the most likely outcome, Burgess Hill Town grabbed the victory, eight minutes and 15 seconds into the second period, hitting the home side on the counter-attack thanks to two of their substitutes.

Finney, inside the Dockers half and in a central position, played the ball out to the right to Powell, who burst forward before playing the ball back to Finney, who placed a clinical right-footed angled drive across the advancing Foley to roll it into the bottom far corner from 16-yards.

The entire Burgess Hill management team jumped off their bench and stepped onto the pitch and celebrated completing a smash-and-grab victory, putting in a lacklustre performance.

“We’ve lost the ball in the middle of the park, we’ve not played the ball we were meant to play and we’ve lost it and they’ve broken on us and they’ve scored,” said Woodward, who described Shaw’s double-save to deny Dyer and Arnold “unbelievable.”

“I think that’s the mentality really, that’s the difference of levels. Like I said to the boys, they will punish anything you give them and they did.”

At the final whistle (the halves lasted 47:51; 50:39; 15:05 and 17:55), Woodward shook hands with his opponents in the opposite technical area before walking towards the centre circle to shake the hands of the referee Jordan Dixon-Walker and his assistants.

Woodward insisted Milton and Jeffery were fouled inside the penalty area.  The 120^th minute foul on Jeffery was a clear-cut decision but missed chances cost Erith Town a place in the First Qualifying Round for the second season running.

“Why would he (Jeffery) look to fall over when he can just tap it in?” said Woodward.

“I thought Ollie’s was a penalty before that when he’s gone through.  Listen, I thought the referee’s had a really good game, all three of them were exceptional but I thought that was a stonewall penalty.

“I said (to the three officials after the final whistle), ‘you’ve had a really good game.’ He had a really good game but he missed the penalty. That was the exact words, he missed a penalty.”

This was a missed opportunity to extend their FA Cup run and face opposition from two levels above.

Woodward agreed, saying, “Yes, massively, over the two games, a massive chance missed.  Like I’ve just told the boys in there, unfortunately in football you need to take chances and you need to find ways to win and they have tonight and we haven’t.”

Woodward returns to his old club Glebe on Saturday.  The Foxbury Road outfit have opened their league campaign with two wins over Whitstable Town (2-0) and Tunbridge Wells (4-3) and sit in fourth-place in the table.

“We’ve got to make sure we get our recovery and prepare for Glebe on Saturday,” said Woodward.

“They’ve had a good start.  We went down there and lost 3-0 on the last game of the season, so we need to make sure we re-group and we need to make sure we don’t perform the way we did.  There was nothing on the game personally but there will be something on it on Saturday. There are three points to play for. 

“They’ll be expecting a win, they’ll think we’ll be tired from tonight, so we just have to make sure we recover right.

“We’ll be in on Thursday, we’ll do a recovery session and try to get massagers and ice baths and try to do the best we can to make sure we’re fit for Saturday.  I’m going back to my old club. I can’t wait!”

Erith Town: Mackenzie Foley, Joe Chalker, James Trueman, Aaron Jeffery, Jerome Jayaguru, Tom Ash, James Dyer, James Miles (Rowan Slater 110), Harry Taylor (Henry Arnold 71), Ladic Melconian (Jamie Miller 81), Alfie Eldridge (Ollie Milton 65).
Subs: Ryan Mahal, Ronnie McLean, Tom Walters

Goal: Harry Taylor 18

Booked: Harry Taylor 40, Jamie Miller 118

Burgess Hill Town: James Shaw, Reggie Ward, Zack Lawrence (Marcel Powell 50), Darren Budd (Finn Daniels-Yeomans 57), Jack Taylor, Nic D’Arienzo, Martyn Box, Kieran Rowe, Dan Perry, Rob O’Toole (Lewis Finney 90), Kieron Pamment.
Subs: Taylor Seymour, Callaghan Stobart, Reece Holland

Goals: Dan Perry 20, Lewis Finney 113

Booked: Zack Lawrence 49

Attendance: 214
Referee: Mr Jordan Dixon-Walker
Assistants: Mr Dario Zavagno & Mr Luke Thomas