Erith & Belvedere 3-5 Glebe - We weren't at our best and we were second best for the majority of the game, admits table-topping Glebe boss Harry Hudson

Erith & Belvedere 3 – 5 Glebe
Location	Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Kickoff	09/11/2021 19:45

ERITH & BELVEDERE  3-5  GLEBE
Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Tuesday 9 November 2021
Stephen McCartney reports from Park View Road

GLEBE manager Harry Hudson says he gives credit to Erith & Belvedere for making it very, very difficult for his side during this crazy game of football at Park View Road.

The Chislehurst based outfit returned to the summit of the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table after being given a run for their money by an impressive Erith & Belvedere side currently in sixth-place.

The Foxes grabbed the lead, against the run of play, courtesy of striker Jamie Philpot’s clinical finish, before Erith & Belvedere deservedly went into a 2-1 lead by scoring twice in 112 seconds through impressive striker Danny Lear and winger Tyler Anderson-Parr.

Philpot won himself and missed a penalty, before diminutive central midfielder Sam Johnson slotted home an equaliser as a breathless first-half finished 2-2.

Lear, who is on loan from Isthmian League South East Division side Ramsgate, gave the home side the lead inside the opening eight minutes of the second half as Erith & Belvedere were performing very well during this high-quality local derby.

However, their mood was deflated when calamity goalkeeping from Rilwan Anibaba gifted Glebe an equaliser when he allowed Lauris Chin’s pass go through his legs and rolling into an empty net to score his sixth goal of the season.

Glebe finished the game in dominant fashion against a now deflated Erith & Belvedere side and this brilliant game of football saw Philpot notch his 25^th goal of the season for his home-town club before attacking midfielder Ryan King-Elliott scored his eighth goal of the season to extend Glebe’s unbeaten run to nine games.

“Fantastic game, a game that we were way below average in terms of our performance levels,” admitted Hudson.

“Credit that to Erith & Belvedere. I thought they were really good and they posed us some problems that we necessarily didn’t have the answers to all of the time.

“I was really disappointed at half-time. I know we went in at two-all and we missed a penalty but the game was crazy. We gave the ball away constantly in our defensive third, we were outbalanced in transitions and it was everything I don’t want football to be and the reason why everyone’s trying to digest it now because the game was crazy and that’s not how we want football matches to be.”

Erith & Belvedere’s joint-manager Danny Murphy added: “It’s not frustrating, I’m not really annoyed, just feel that the best parts of the game we done really well. We just made too many mistakes.  You can’t score three goals at home and keep making mistakes and giving teams a chance.

“I think if we cut out the errors and silly mistakes we probably win the game comfortably.  I think we played some really good football. I think we were the better footballing team tonight.

“People will say we were a little bit more direct and we went out with a different game plan today, a different shape, changed things a little bit because we felt we could counteract them and play against them and beat them. 

“We put it all into place and then we made some individual errors that ended up costing us the game. You can’t be ahead a couple of times at home and save a penalty and then lose the game 5-3!”

Glebe created the first chance of the game inside the opening seven minutes when Philpot’s hooked pass put Johnson in on goal but he dragged his shot across the keeper and trickling past the far post.

“I thought Sammy got beyond Philpot really well today,” said Hudson.

“He made some great runs and scored the second goal for us. He’s got plenty of energy after standing around in the cold on Saturday (taking over in goal during their 3-0 home win over Fisher after Kamurasi was sent-off).”

However, Erith & Belvedere started to dominate proceedings with a lovely brand of passing football, with the outstanding Luke Rooney, 30, pulling the strings in the middle of the park and dictating play.

“He was the best player I’ve seen at this level, he dictated the game and I thought he was exceptional,” added Hudson.

Freddie Cray, who had a free role up and down the middle of the park, played the ball out to Harvey Brand, who cut in from the left and curled his right-footed shot around the far post from 15-yards, although goalkeeper George Kamurasi had the shot covered.

Erith & Belvedere’s centre-half Reece Barrett launched a long ball out of defence which released Lear down the right channel and he cut inside before setting up a chance for Anderson-Parr, who cut the ball onto his right foot and his curler towards the far corner was comfortably saved by the towering and vocal goalkeeper.

“We started well, tactically we had it spot on. I just think we dropped a little bit too deep towards the end of the first half and then we made too many mistakes in the second half,” added Murphy, who manages the side alongside Marlon Patterson.

However, Glebe weathered the early onslaught and grabbed the lead against the run of play in the 16^th minute.

Erith & Belvedere did their homework on Glebe, a side that often play out from the back and play an attacking brand of football.

However, centre-half Antone Douglas often launched long balls out of defence and on this occasion the ball was hit into the left-channel for King-Elliot to knock the ball down for Philpot, who stuck out his right leg and caressed a half-volley past the goalkeeper and into the centre of the goal from 10-yards.

“It was the third man run of our attacking midfielders, Sammy Johnson and King-Elliott both got in quite well. Kingy timed his run really well and when we did that we timed it right. We got behind their back line, a good cross and Jamie got across his man, which is what you want your number nine to do but it was against-the-run-of-play,” said Hudson.

Murphy added: “Look, it can be dealt with. It was good running from behind from the midfielder but it’s a lack of communication between one of our midfielders and our centre-half (McGeehan), who has got to pass him on. We spoke about it at half-time – you can’t leave him.”

Erith & Belvedere showed great character and deservedly equalised with a controversial goal coming in the 20^th minute.

Brand, a holding midfielder alongside Rooney, hooked a ball straight down the middle of the pitch and Lear appeared yards offside but assistant referee Joshua Reid kept his flag down and Lear ran through before producing a clinical drilled left-footed finish into the bottom left-hand corner from 15-yards.

“I think it was a really good goal, a well-worked goal and it was a good finish,” said Murphy.

“I didn’t think we deserved to be 1-0 down. I think we played the better football and we were the better team for most parts of the game.”

Hudson added: “It looked off. The linesman said the timing which our six (Douglas) stepped, their nine (Lear) went through. It looked two or three yards offside from where I was but I have no complaints about the goal because we didn’t deserve to be up at the time to be honest.”

Erith & Belvedere were full value for their lead when it swiftly arrived, however, just 112 seconds later.

Barrett launched another long ball out of defence for Lear to run the right channel and once inside the box he teed up Anderson-Parr, who was under severe pressure by the time he took a touch before smashing his shot across the keeper and into the bottom far corner to score his fourth goal of the campaign.

“It was clever from Danny, he’s got his head up and picked Tyler out. It was a good pass and a good finish. It was a well-worked goal, something that we spoke about a little bit before the game between the two of them and it came off today.

“Danny Lear gives us a lot, he works hard, he holds the ball up well. His tactical understanding is very good, he’s a good passer of the ball and he’s just a good footballer.”

Hudson added: “I thought the boy (Lear) looked quite lively. We didn’t deal with the first direct play well at all, when it dropped and then we were on our heels. We reacted like we were in the first half, they picked up the second ball, won it and it’s a good finish from the kid. At that stage I had no complaints about the scoreline that’s for sure.”

Referee Harry Phillips awarded Glebe a penalty when Philpot was clipped by Erith & Belvedere’s left-back Teddy Green and there was a 74 seconds wait before the whistle blew and Philpot’s poor right-footed penalty was smothered by Rilwan Anibaba, low to his right, in the 28^th minute of this outstanding game of football.

“It wasn’t a good penalty was it, bless him,” said Hudson.

“Philpot tucked in a really, really high pressure penalty against Chatham the Saturday before last, like a real pressure one and he tucked that one away with aplomb.

“Penalties are a lottery, sometimes you get them right and sometimes you get them wrong and I think Philpot will be the first to admit it wasn’t his best penalty today.”

Murphy admitted: “It was a pen, no two ways about it. It was a bad tackle. You just can’t go to ground in the box and give up things like that.  I think it was a poor penalty if I’m honest, straight down the middle and it was an easy save for Rilwan.”

Anibaba then held a drilled long-range cross-come-shot from Glebe’s left-back Matthew Parsons, after the ball was played out to him by left-winger Solomon Baugh.

Glebe equalised in the 36^th minute after Erith & Belvedere’s centre-half Calum McGeehan was caught out by a long ball over the top.

Bradley Wilson clipped a long ball from within the centre-circle which was magically brought down by Johnson and a sublime touch saw him round Anibaba before slotting the ball into the empty net.

“When we get the right movement beyond the backline in the first half we had a bit more control,” said Hudson.

“Once we get the pass right and movement right we were through on goal. It was as simple as that but when Sammy collected it and he’s done incredibly well to take it down to shift the keeper and to finish as well as he did.

“Sammy’s been phenomenal since he’s come in for us and he’s notched us some really important goals and that second one to equalise just before half-time was huge, especially after the potential deflation of missing the penalty. It was massive.”

Murphy added: “I think that’s another one for me. It’s a long ball over the top that we’ve got to do better with as a defence and we can’t leave people run behind us and not track our runners.  They’re schoolboy things and things that we’ve spoken about over numerous occasions and we can’t allow that to happen.”

Erith & Belvedere’s midfield pressing forced Glebe to continue with a long ball game as Johnson’s clipped ball was hit on the volley by Philpot from 25-yards, which was caught by the advancing Anibaba

Philpot released Johnson again but his weak shot was comfortably gathered by Anibaba as a breathless first-half came to an end, leaving Hudson with a jigsaw to solve during the interval.

Hudson added: “I wasn’t happy and the players knew that but the players weren’t happy and we spoke about the need to have structure and the need to try to control the game.

“We tried to tweak our formation slightly to pose a problem to them which we thought would help but what I said at half-time wasn’t right because we were still in the dressing room for the first 10 minutes of the second half so it defiantly didn’t work.”

Murphy added: “We’ve got to keep sticking to the game plan. It’s a draw at the moment and stick to the game plan and we’ll get a result.  We did that for best parts of the second half and then we made two mistakes that cost us two goals.”

Erith & Belvedere created a glorious chance inside the opening six minutes of the second half.

The outstanding Rooney clipped the ball over the top to put Lear in on goal down the left and once inside the box he played the ball out to Green on the left-touchline. 

He whipped in a great cross towards the near post where Brand’s looping header appeared at first to be heading over the crossbar but the ball dipped at the last minute and forced Kamurasi to use both of his outstretched hands to push the ball over his crossbar at the last second.

“I’ll be honest, I think we played some really good football at times,” said Murphy.

“Ted was excellent. He’s a young kid, he’s 19 and the two full-backs are 19. We’ve got a young side, we’ve got a very young side and the boys are stepping up.  We’re not a million miles away.”

Hudson added: “They had pressure, they had territory and we couldn’t get out and it felt like their goal was coming and it did.”

Erith & Belvedere produced a well-worked goal to take the lead in the 53^rd minute.

Lear drilled a dipping drive from 25-yards out, which was too hot for Kamurasi to hold and he was forced to beat the ball away.

As it bounced inside the box, Anderson-Parr used intelligence and instead of shooting put it on a plate for Lear, who swept his right-footed shot across the keeper and nestling inside the bottom far corner from 12-yards.

“Good by Tyler because sometimes that comes back out and you have a shot and he got his head up and made a good decision and passed to Danny for an easy shot,” said Murphy.

Hudson added: “The pressure was building. The way we reacted first to the save probably epitomised the first 50-60 minutes of the game where we were second best. 

“Fair play, it was very clever from their winger to not shoot first time and pull it back to Lear. I’ve got no complaints at that stage, we didn’t deserve to be winning the game.

“It’s not an easy place to come, it’s not an easy pitch and I’ve got a lot of respect for Erith & Belvedere, I think they’re a good side.  We weren’t playing well so for us being in that situation we were in, 3-2 down, I don’t think that was an unfair reflection of the game so what was going through my mind was we need to try to turn the tide.

“We tried two different tweaks of our formation to allow us to do that and neither of them worked and we always try a solution base rather than screaming, shouting and ranting but at that stage I was thinking about how we can be more effective when you’re having an off day because we were just getting pegged back.”

The Deres were on course of recording a victory that their play and desire levels deserved.

A poor clearance from Douglas was intercepted by Rooney, who struck a speculative 35-yarder which flashed past the left upright before Glebe were gifted a 62^nd minute equaliser.

The Foxes cleared a set-piece and counter-attacked with Chin through the middle of the pitch. He only had one team-mate up their with him and that was Parsons.

Chin PASSED the ball towards Parsons but the ball rolled towards goalkeeper Anibaba, who allowed the ball roll through his legs and trickle apologetically into the centre of an open goal.

“We won’t get more of a gimmie all season. That was probably against-the-run-of-play and it was the turning point in the game because that deflated them and inflated us,” said Hudson.

“We brought Charlie Penny on (for goalscorer Chin), who I thought absolutely changed the game but from that point on we were lifted and they were deflated and rightly so.

“It was a freak of a goal, it’s one that you’re lucky to get in a year. You’ll be happy especially one in such a crucial game.  We were fortunate to get back on level terms.”

Murphy added: “We made a mistake for the third goal and you allow them back into the game and momentum starts to shift.

“Listen, it goes straight under the keeper and they score from it and it’s like a goal out of nothing and it gives them a chance.  As a team you start thinking is our luck in now?

“That was the turning moment and when it’s got back to 3-3 we looked a little bit deflated and they were able to kick on.”

Erith & Belvedere could not recover from that calamity piece of embarrassing goalkeeping and Glebe recovered to go on to claim the three points.

Glebe produced a well-worked slick move down the left to take the lead and make the score 4-3 with 21 minutes after 67 minutes of high-tempo football.

Philpot played the ball into Baugh, whose quality reverse pass put Philpot through on goal and he produced a clinical right-footed drive across the keeper to find the bottom far corner from 10-yards to score his 25^th goal of the season.

Hudson said: “We had our tails up and that’s credit to the boys because we weren’t at our best and we were second best for the majority of the game so once we got the equaliser I thought we were on top.

“It was an incredible reverse pass from Sol. He’s played a big part for us this season already. I thought he was brilliant today, considering he’s an 18-year-old kid playing.

“That reverse pass, not many people see it, probably apart from Luke Rooney. When Philpot’s feeding off scraps and not having his best game, he did finish it well.”

Reflecting on Philpot’s goalscoring feat, Hudson replied: “Listen, Philpot will be the first to say that he wasn’t at his best today but he still got two goals but we’ll take that all day long.”

Glebe have recently announced that Philpot has been tied down until the end of the season, at least and have provided the 25-year-old a place to live in Chislehurst as part of the deal.

Murphy added: “We conceded the fourth goal from our set-piece. It wasn’t a good set-piece but we’re still set up to deal with it and we didn’t set up properly. After the discussions we’ve had and talked about and we do the complete opposite that we’ve spoken about and then they end up scoring it.

“For most parts of the game we limited Philpot to very little chances and then the couple we gave him were from our mistakes but you can’t give him a chance because you’ve got to limit him to nothing but we gave him a couple of chances and he scores from them.”

Erith & Belvedere’s right-back Lee Lewis was in space and drilled a right-footed angled drive towards goal from 35-yards, which bounced once into the gloves of Kamurasi for a comfortable save.

Glebe went close following their fourth corner of the night, swung in by Baugh from the left but substitute Charlie Penny, who came on and changed the game, steered his near-post header wide.

Glebe rattled in the eighth goal of the game with 11 minutes remaining.

Anibaba should have done better when getting down low to his right as Glebe counter-attacked in devastating style.

King-Elliot was in midfield and he looped a ball down the left to release Philpot down the channel. The talisman striker cut into the box before pulling the ball back to King-Elliott, who drilled his right-footed shot past the despairing goalkeeper to find the bottom left-hand corner from 20-yards.

Hudson added: “Ryan’s energy today, I thought was brilliant.  Good combination down the left and it was cut back into him and it looked like it got away from him but he’s dug out a snap shot and not given the keeper much chance to adjust and it’s gone in and that gave us the breathing space that we wanted.

“At that stage I felt that we were in the ascendancy and it wasn’t against-the-run-of-play.  I thought once we got back onto level terms, I felt that we could keep scoring.”

Murphy added: “I think Rilwan slips as he goes to dive. Look, if it’s 4-4 and you’ve got 10 minutes to go, you probably got a chance of getting something out of the game but when you go 5-3 down it’s just hard to get back into it, it’s difficult.

“Listen, they took on most parts of what we do but I think we’re a young side and we’re a little naïve at times.  We’re winning games and we don’t kill games off.”

Glebe return to the summit with 38 points from 15 games, while Sheppey United are second with 37 points from 13 games.

Chatham Town are in third-place with 36 points from 14 games, while Erith Town (34 points from 15 games), Deal Town (31 points from 14) and Erith & Belvedere (26 points from 13) also have a say in the promotion race.

Glebe welcome fourteenth-placed Canterbury City to Foxbury Avenue while Sheppey United boss Ernie Batten was in the stand tonight as his side welcome Erith & Belvedere to Holm Park.

Murphy will be without Rooney for the next three games but insists he has suitable replacements.

“There’s other boys there. They want to be a part of something and they have to step up if Luke’s not there, they’ve got to be able to step up and take his place,” said Murphy.

“That’s where we are as a team now, we’re not worried about Rooney missing, we’ve got other players that can step in and play just as well.

“We’ve got to pick up from tonight. It’s a game we’ve lost and move on. We’ve got to prepare right and set the plan ready for Saturday going into the Sheppey game.

“We need to keep improving, we can’t sit and rest on our laurels. We’ve got to keep moving on and keep trying to win.” 

The Glebe manager added: “It’s a very, very long season. It’s going to be a very, very tight league, an incredibly tight league and all we can do is keep playing.

“We’ve come through a challenging patch, Chatham (4-2), Crowborough (1-1), Fisher (3-0), Erith & Belvedere, four games we knew was going to be tough and we’ve come out with 10 points.  We’ve drawn the game I probably thought we would get maximum points in.  Over the course of the season we would take those points.

“Nothings going to be determined in this league until March time. It’s going to be very long and very tight and also a very exciting season. We’re looking forward to the challenge.

“The Crowborough game showed us you can’t take anyone lightly. We’re in good form at home in the league, we’ve won every single game at home in the league.

“The Canterbury game is a game we’re going to be confident. I’ll take a 1-0, I’ll happily take a 1-0.”

Erith & Belvedere: Rilwan Abibaba, Lee Lewis, Teddy Green, Luke Rooney, Calum McGeehan, Reece Barrett, Tyler Anderson-Parr (Henry Dasofunjo 65), Harvey Brand, Danny Lear, Freddie Cray (Tom McNamee 72), Drew Allassani (Lucas Atkins 85).
Subs: Tom Brown, Keanan Allassani

Goals: Danny Lear 20, 53, Tyler Anderson-Parr 22

Booked: Freddie Cray 12, Tom McNamee 90

Glebe: George Kamurasi, Dami Olorunnisomo, Matthew Parsons, Bradley Wilson (Ainsley Everett 74), Kalvin Morath-Gibbs, Antone Douglas, Solomon Baugh, Sam Johnson, Jamie Philpot (Emmanuel Shoderu 90), Ryan King-Elliott, Lauris Chin (Charlie Penny 63).
Subs: Peter Wedgeworth, Reginald Rose

Goals: Jamie Philpot 16, 67, Sam Johnson 36, Lauris Chin 62, Ryan King-Elliott 79

Booked: Bradley Wilson 61

Attendance: 145
Referee: Mr Harry Phillips
Assistants: Mr Joshua Reid & Mr Alexis Stacchini