Erith & Belvedere 3-2 Beckenham Town

Goals from Nick Smith, Matt Johnson and Tom Maycock helped Erith & Belvedere to a comfortable victory over a Beckenham Town side that had to play the whole of the second half with ten men, writes Thomas Hawes.

Almost a year ago, the two sides met at Park View Road for a match that was up there in being the biggest in the history of both clubs.

For Beckenham, a win would have seen them win the Kent League for the first time in their history, whilst the Deres needed a win to have any chance of leapfrogging Thamesmead Town into third place.

Very few games of such importance prove to be entertaining, but this match proved to be a classic - although the irony was that the 1-1 draw meant that both sides didn’t achieve their goals.

Yesterday’s match though was of far less importance, with both sides hovering in mid-table, which explains the rather modest crowd of 70.

Both sides have had troubled seasons. The Deres came into the season as title favourites, but could only win one out of their first eleven games whilst Becks saw their management team head off to Fisher Athletic with virtually all of the side that finished second in the Kent League last season.

Despite the poor start to the campaign, Erith & Belvedere have had an excellent 2007 so far and have been banging in the goal during the short reign of Chris Cosgrove and Paul Gorman.

In fact, in the 24 games under the duo prior to the encounter with Beckenham, the Deres have scored a whopping 54 goals and have only failed to hit the net in one game since February.

Beckenham came into the game on the back of a poor run of results, whilst the Deres were in a rich vein of form.

It was therefore no surprise that the Deres opened the scoring.  Very rarely do the Deres score such direct goals, but on this occasion route one counter-attack football worked for Erith & Belvedere.

Michael Gonzague hoofed the ball up field in hope more the expectation. Smith ran on to the ball and after an excellent first touch, unleashed a wicked left foot drive.

Becks keeper Chris Lewington was left wrong-footed as Smith’s shot beat him at his near post.

Lewington didn’t have long to rue his mistake as a minute later the scores were level again.

After some dodgy Deres defending, Jamie Turner pounced and following Neil Murray’s save, Turner had the simple task of nodding the ball into the empty net to make it 1-1.

Both sides defences held out for the remainder of the first half, but a peculiar incident after 37 minutes gave the Deres the advantage going into the second half.

Ex-Thamesmead winger John Paul Collier was booked for a nasty tackle and was promptly awarded a second yellow card for aggressive behaviour towards referee Mr N Baker.

With a one man advantage the Deres gained the upper hand, although Beckenham had their fair share of the play too and were it was only thanks to some excellent last ditch defending that Becks didn’t take the lead after 56 minutes.

Two minutes later though, the advantage swung even more in the Deres favour.

Following a scramble 6 yards out, the ball dropped kindly for Johnson, who was on hand for his fourth goal of the season.

On 68 minutes, the Deres made sure of victory after a cross from the right was headed home by Tom Maycock, who was making a rare venture into the opposition’s penalty area!

Erith & Belvedere could have and perhaps should have increased their stranglehold on the game, but Beckenham held firm and gained a consolation deep into stoppage time when a clearance ricocheted off the unfortunate Matt Bedford and into the back of the net.

The Deres last home game of the season is against Faversham Town on Tuesday night, but will be played at Bayliss Avenue, the home of Thamesmead Town, due to floodlight problems at Park View Road.

Despite having lost to Faversham at Salters Lane earlier on this month, the win is Faversham’s only triumph in their last six games and in the past two weeks the Lilywhites have been on the wrong end of hidings from Greenwich Borough (6-1) and Croydon (5-1).

A win is essential if the Deres are to snatch sixth placed from Hythe Town.

Erith & Belvedere: Murray, Crawley (Percy 60), Bedford, Maycock, Gonzague, Gross (Dunkley 75), Johnson, Berkley, Smith, White, Deane.
Subs: Hughes, Diggins, Scowen.

Beckenham Town: Lewington, Beszant (Harris 64), Turner, Maloney, McKenzie, Hawkes (Clews 74), Collier, Healy, Awusu, Falana, Curran (Glasgow 45).
Subs: Mehmet, Carew.