Greenwich Borough 3-1 Tunbridge Wells - I was quite confident we would win it, says John Cumberbatch

GREENWICH BOROUGH  3-1  TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Southern Counties East Football League
Tuesday 10^th September 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Princes Park Stadium

GREENWICH BOROUGH manager John Cumberbatch says he felt confident that his side would produce a shock result to beat unbeaten Tunbridge Wells.

Greenwich Borough went into this game sitting at the basement of the Southern Counties East Football League table with one point from their opening four games.

Tunbridge Wells arrived in Dartford in second-place in the table with sixteen points (five wins and a draw) and were unbeaten in nine competitive games and they needed to win to reclaim top spot away from newly-promoted Phoenix Sports.

But Greenwich Borough failed to read the script as Cumberbatch’s young side raced into a 3-0 lead at the break, courtesy of Badar Mohamed’s header and two goals from big and powerful striker Jeff Duah-Kessie, 22, as they stunned the title favourites in a pulsating game.

Tunbridge Wells threw everything at Greenwich Borough during a dominant second half and Perry Spackman marked his 30^th birthday with a headed goal, but they couldn’t find the goals to mount a comeback as the damage was already done in a clinical 20 minute spell in the first half.

Cumberbatch emerged from the home dressing room with his club’s first victory in their new surroundings.

“I think we’ve had one or two other games that we deserved to win, certainly when we played Lordswood here. I didn’t think they deserved to get back in the game but our squad and our team are young and they have been just a little bit mentally weak and a little bit naïve but I felt today once we went 3-0 up and didn’t give a goal away before half-time I was quite confident that we would win it.”

Martin Larkin was disappointed that his much-fancied went down to their first defeat of the season.

He said: “I thought they played well in the first half and I thought we played well in the second half and they scored from the chances they created and we didn’t.

“We’ve created 12-15 proper chances tonight and we’ve only scored one of them and that’s as simple as that.

“First half we weren’t quite good enough. Second half, I thought we were excellent.

“Look at the other results tonight (Whyteleafe and Ashford United both losing to Sevenoaks Town and Lordswood respectively), it just shows you what the Kent League is all about.”

When asked whether losing to struggling Greenwich Borough was a shock result, Larkin replied: “Not really! I don’t think so!  Anyone who thinks the Kent League is easy doesn’t know what they’re talking about!

“You have to look at the results tonight. Whyteleafe, who some people say are favourites for it; Ashford who shouldn’t be a Kent League team and us, FA Vase finalists from last year, that’s all the motivation these teams need.

“Greenwich are a young team, they’re gelling together. They’ve not had a lot of games, they’ve been playing well by all reports. 

“There are no shock results in the Kent League. Everyone who thinks they are doesn’t know what they’re talking about!”   

Tunbridge Wells created the first chance of an entertaining game after only 80 seconds.

A long ball forward by right-back Jason Bourne found striker Jack Harris lurking on the edge of the penalty area and his cut-back set up a chance for Tom Davey, who took a touch before drilling a right-footed shot past the post from eighteen-yards.

But Greenwich Borough opened the scoring inside eighteen minutes through Mohamed’s fifth-goal of the season.

Impressive right-winger Paul Lyons swung in a corner from the left towards the near post and Mohamed glanced his header across everybody and the ball sailed into the far corner from six-yards.

Lyons would have claimed the man-of-the-match award if it wasn’t for Duah-Kessie’s fine display.

Cumberbatch said: “Paul’s deliveries have been superb, yet today one or two of them in the first half weren’t that good, but certainly from that one it was a very good delivery.

“Badar just scores goals. He’s got a superb eye for goal. His approach play is quite good but when he gets a sniff at goal he scores and we’re really pleased with that.”

Larkin shrugged: “It was a good delivery. He rose and headed it and put it into the bottom corner.

“We had three or four identical free-kicks when we’ve missed the target and he hasn’t.

“Everyone knows what sort of ball we like to do from corners. We do it very, very well, week in week out. People let in goals form set-pieces. That’s what happens. He got up well and directed it well. When we had our chances to do that, we didn’t direct it well enough.”

Tunbridge Wells squandered an excellent chance to restore parity when Bourne was given time and space by Greenwich Borough left-back Cory Knight to whip in an excellent cross into the penalty area for Jack Harris to plant his header across goalkeeper Jon Beale and agonisingly past the far post from 12-yards.

Larkin knew it was a key moment in the game.

He said: “We normally score goals from that! It’s a free header in the box. It’s one of the ten proper chances that we created tonight and didn’t take them!”

Cumberbatch added: “It could have been (level), but we had a bit of luck that we felt we deserved that we haven’t had at other times in the season.”

That miss proved costly for Tunbridge Wells, as Greenwich Borough doubled their lead 147 seconds after their opening goal.

A clearance from Beale sailed over Scott Whibley and Perry Spackman just across the half-way line and Mohamed poked the ball past visiting goalkeeper Chris Oladogba and Duah-Kessie side-footed the ball into the empty net from 12-yards, giving Greenwich Borough a shock 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes.

Cumberbatch said: “We’re delighted for Jeff. He started the season and came on in three matches and did very, very well. I still didn’t start him in the next match but after that since he’s started he’s been absolutely superb and scored a couple of goals for us.

“He deserved a hat-trick really. We were disappointed that he didn’t get his hat-trick. He worked his socks off and we’re very pleased for him.”

Larkin gave his take on the goal and said: “We’re probably a touch too high from the goal-kick. The keeper hadn’t been kicking well all night so we’ve just squeezed a little bit. Perry and Scott lost their man and it’s gone straight over the top.  It’s not ideal in terms as a goal to concede but the nine looked pretty decent to be fair to him.  I’m not quite sure where they got him from but he took his goal well.”

Tunbridge Wells were denied by a great save from Beale when the keeper used his outstretched left hand to tip over Tom Davey’s curling left-footed free-kick from 25-yards, which was heading towards the top near corner.

Highly-rated Tunbridge Wells’ keeper Oladogba kept his side in the game when he dived low to his right to tip away Mohamed’s drilled right-footed free-kick from 35-yards, which was destined to find the bottom left-hand corner.

Tunbridge Wells then exploited the space inside Greenwich Borough’s half of the pitch with Sean Johnson, Davey, Joe Fuller all linking up well before winger Brad Large played the ball into Johnson’s feet.

The central midfielder played the ball into Harris’ feet and he cut the ball back to Davey to power his left-footed drive from 22-yards, which brought a low save from Beale, who dived to his right and gathered the ball at the second attempt.

Mohamed skipped past Spackman before bursting forward before releasing Duah-Kessie through on goal and the striker took a touch before cracking a low, powerful right-footed drive from 25-yards, which flashed agonisingly past the foot of the left-hand post.

Duah-Kessie then played the ball inside to his strike partner Mohamed, but Oladogba caught the curling right–footed effort from Greenwich Borough’s leading goalscorer.

Joe Fuller’s free-kick was cleared by the Greenwich Borough defence and Tunbridge Wells winger Brett Ince cut the ball back from the left touchline to left-back Lee Radford, who whipped in a first time cross and the ball was headed away and Large stroked a left-footed shot on the turn just past the post from 25-yards.

Greenwich Borough controversially increased their lead in the 38^th minute, much to Larkin’s despair.

Larkin spotted that Duah-Kessie had used his hand to control the ball before he produced a sublime finish, stroking a left-footed shot beyond Oladogba into the bottom left-hand corner to put the home side in command.

Larkin fumed: “It’s not a hint (of handball) at all!  It’s bobbled up off Perry’s thigh and he’s pushed it between two defenders with his hand. Everyone else saw it apart from the important person. It should have been a free-kick to us – it’s disappointing!”

Duah-Kessie was unplayable during the first half.

“Yes, he was and I think quite frankly in the second half as well,” said his manager.

“When we were under a lot of pressure they would have pushed more players up than they did but they had to keep an eye on him. He didn’t appear as effective in the second half. I felt he occupied them and was good again.”

Reflecting on the third goal, Cumberbatch said: “Superb finish and again he’s just had the determination about him today and that’s why the goals came for him.  I could see in the warm-up he just looked hungry.  He looked a lot more composed than he had been in our FA Cup game (at Littlehampton Town) a couple of weeks ago. He had a superb chance that he didn’t score and I think he’s had that on his mind and he wanted to put it right.”

Mohamed then played an excellent diagonal pass from the halfway line to release Duah-Kessie, who cracked an angled left-footed drive which forced Oladogba into diving full-length to his left to tip around the post.

Tunbridge Wells then called Beale into action when Bourne played the ball into Davey’s feet, who played the ball up to Harris, who played a reverse pass to put Davey through on goal but his left-footed shot was weak and Beale managed to make a save to his right.

An exciting first-half finished when Ince sent his right-footed free-kick into the side netting from 25-yards from goal.

Cumberbatch revealed what he was feeling at the interval with his struggling team beating one of the leading clubs in the division 3-0.

“What we was so pleased about was the fact that we didn’t give a goal away before half-time,” he said.

“We have let goals in a minute or two minutes to go before half-time and if that happened again I think we would have had major problems but going in 3-0 at half-time I was confident we would win the game.

“We said to the lads the next goal would be crucial. They scored but we managed to hold on so we’re pleased about that.”

Larkin and his assistant manager Brad Sandeman came out of the visitors’ dressing room before their players did and the pair wanted a reaction from their troops after the interval.

“We said what we wanted to say to them. We put the message across to them what they had to do,” said Larkin.

“We spend a lot of time together. We’re one of those clubs that train twice a week and do things properly so we spend a lot of time together so you don’t need to say too much.

“We had a brief chat – Brad said his bit. I said my bit. It’s all very controlled what we needed to do. They decided amongst them if they wanted to do it or not and they were exceptional in the second half.  I can’t fault the performance second half. I thought we dominated. We must have had 70-75% of the possession, created chance after chance. I can’t fault them at all second half.”

Larkin felt his side should have been awarded a penalty when Davey produced a quality pass to put Ince through on goal but Beale rushed off his line to make a block with only sixteen seconds on the clock.

“Within 30 seconds Brett’s clean through on goal and lifts the ball into the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper comes out with his feet and he’s hit him high and the referee tells us that there are different rules when it comes to goalkeepers – they’re allowed to do that kind of thing, which is just crazy!

“It should have been a penalty and it wasn’t.  It would have been a nice, quick start.”

Greenwich Borough were thwarted by a brave save from Oladogba when Duah-Kessie played Mohamed through on goal and he drilled a left-footed shot towards the near post from a tight angle, which the keeper blocked with his face.

Tunbridge Wells started to exert massive pressure and Greenwich Borough’s goal lead a charmed life.

Ince floated over a corner from the right towards the far post and Whibley came up from the back to clip the near post with a header.

But Tunbridge Wells did pull a goal back in the 53^rd minute, courtesy of Spackman’s third of the season.

Ince swung in a corner from the left which was helped on by Johnson at the near post and Spackman rose to crash a header crashing into the roof of the net, aided by the goalkeeper.

Larkin said: “We ended up getting a goal nice and early. We just couldn’t find a second one. If we scored a second one we would have got a third one without a doubt. We just couldn’t find one.

“He shouldn’t be playing today to be honest. He had an elbow from a Rochester player on Saturday that smashed his teeth in. He shouldn’t really be playing but Perry is Perry and he always wanted to play, which is fantastic.

“He got us the goal, which was nice and early for us and it gave us plenty of time but we didn’t quite get the second goal.”

Cumberbatch simply added: “We weren’t happy with the way the goal went in. We feel we really should have defended it better.”

This signalled the start of Tunbridge Wells’ come-back as Greenwich Borough struggled to keep their foot on the ball because they were lacking an experienced head in a young side.

Cumberbatch said: “We suffer from the fact that we haven’t really got experience in the side but having said that we’re looking to put that right and there is a chance that we’ll have one or two new signings who will be more senior players who will be able to calm them down in that sort of situation.”

When asked whether he will ask Tony Burman for some of his highly-rated players in Dartford’s Academy, Cumberbatch replied: “The Dartford lads are youngsters and they would be the same as ours from the point of view that even though they would give us quality, we won’t be taking any experienced players there.”

Tunbridge Wells continued to pile on the pressure and Ince bent his right-footed shot around the wall from 20-yards and Beale did excellently to dive to his left and keep hold of the ball to make a smart save on the deck.

Cumberbatch admitted his side received a huge slice of luck when Large whipped in a cross from the right and Harris hooked the ball out to the unmarked Johnson, who cracked a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which crashed against the crossbar.

He said: “I just felt today I had a feeling that we had that little bit of luck that would keep them out. A little bit of luck and good defending!”

Larkin added: “I thought we were exceptional. We’ve hit the crossbar and we’ve hit the post. We’ve had another one where I thought we had a penalty where Brad’s been pulled in the box but the ref didn’t give it.

“I thought if we had got a second one we would have got three, four or five, but it wasn’t to be.”

Whibley then played a fine diagonal pass and a lucky deflection fell at Ince’s feet but his right-footed curler sailed narrowly over the Greenwich Borough crossbar with 20 minutes remaining.

Larkin threw on Richard Sinden and the substitute almost scored with his first touch when he met Davey’s in-swinging free-kick from beside the right corner flag, but Sinden’s appeals that the ball crossed the line after his header was blocked by Beale at the near post fell on deaf ears.

Tunbridge Wells’ chances were wasted and with seven minutes remaining Ince swung in another corner and this time Fuller glanced his header agonisingly wide of the far post.

Greenwich Borough almost increased their lead further on the break when man-of-the-match Duah-Kessie played the ball inside to skipper Akeem Hanson, who brought the very best out of Oladogba, who dived full-length to his right to make the save.

Cumberbatch added: “It would have been nice to get an extra one, just to finish it off.”

There was to be 11 minutes and 34 seconds on time added on and Cumberbatch lost substitute Jordan Keenleyside to a suspected broken left ankle.

“We’re not sure. We’re taking him to hospital.  He said he felt a click when he went down.

“He is a bit prone to injury Jordan,” explained Cumberbatch. “In fact I left him out of the squad on Saturday, having said to him I need him to get his body right. We need to give him a little bit longer to strengthen certain parts of his body. He’s had problems with his shoulder but then I had to draft him in today because we’re short on the right hand side and even being on the bench I didn’t really intend to bring him on but it got to a stage where Paul Lyons worked his socks off and he couldn’t hardly run any longer, so I put Jordan on thinking everything would be fine and that happens to him so that has soured things a little bit.”

Both sides created late chances.  Ince’s corner from the left floated beyond Beale and Spackman (who was deployed as a target-man) headed down and wide of the right-hand post.

Then a flick on from Greenwich Borough substitute Gabriel Uyiekpen released Duah-Kessie through on goal who was denied a deserved hat-trick by Oladogba, who pushed the ball away to his left and Radford managed to get back to clear the ball off the line as it trickled towards the bottom far corner.

Cumberbatch was delighted that his side could create chances against Larkin’s side.

“That’s what we’re pleased about, we’re always creating chances,” he said.

“We were hoping Jeff would get his hat-trick because he deserved it. He gave them an absolute torrid time. I think their centre half is going to have nightmares about him for the next two days. He really did give them a difficult time and he’s starting to show his potential, he really is.

“We still haven’t been able to focus on that in training so once we start training on the astroturf again and having enough light to work on that I think we will get better and better.

Both managers were asked about playing at Dartford’s Princes Park Stadium tonight.

Cumberbatch said: “It will give them confidence and more than anything I think we’re getting used to the pitch. The players’ are getting used to the size of the pitch and they’re getting their distances a bit better at the moment so we’re very pleased.”

Larkin added: “With all due respect, we’ve played at Wembley in front of twenty-thousand people so coming to Dartford in front of 65 isn’t going to bother us!”

Phoenix Sports remain at the summit with 18 points, two points more than Tunbridge Wells, who have a game in hand.

“We’ve only played seven so we’ve got 25 games to go so it’s very early doors at the moment,” said Larkin.

“If you look at the results tonight, I don’t know whether it makes the result easier to take or harder to take because the way it went.

“It would have been nice to build a gap but we’ll train on Thursday properly like we always do and get ready for the FA Cup tie at Eastbourne Town on Saturday and go from there.”

Greenwich Borough: Jon Beale, Joseph Merry, Cory Knight, George Jones, Scott Hillyard, Greg Barton, Paul Lyons (Jordan Keenleyside 79, Gary Stock 90), Akeem Hanson, Jeff Duah-Kessie, Badar Mohamed (Gabriel Uyiekpen 79), Michael Talabi.
Subs: Fabrice Kragba, Christian Kapinga

Goals: Badar Mohamed 18, Jeff Duah-Kessie 20, 38

Booked: Greg Barton 60, George Jones 63, Cory Knight 90

Tunbridge Wells: Chris Oladogba, Jason Bourne, Lee Radford, Sean Johnson, Scott Whibley, Perry Spackman, Brad Large (Richard Sinden 74), Joe Fuller, Jack Harris, Tom Davey, Brett Ince.
Subs: Andy Boyle, Adam Humphries, Andy Irvine, Michal Czanner,

Goal: Perry Spackman 53

Booked: Brett Ince 21, Joe Fuller 38, Scott Whibley 56, Jack Harris 82, Perry Spackman 86

Attendance: 65
Referee: Mr Alexis Stacchini (Orpington)
Assistants: Mr Dan Gallagher (Sidcup) & Mr Daniel Proctor (Dartford)