Kentish Football 
Phoenix Sports 1-0 Tunbridge Wells - I wouldn't say it was our best performance of the season, but who cares, says Steve O'Boyle
PHOENIX SPORTS 1-0 TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Southern Counties East Football League
Wednesday 28th January 2015
Stephen McCartney reports from Mayplace Road East
PHOENIX SPORTS’ manager Steve O’Boyle says his players’ are starting to talk about winning the Southern Counties East Football League title.
UNBEATEN: Steve O'Boyle's Phoenix Sports' remain unbeaten after 20 league games
Photo: www.phoenixsportsfc.com
The Barnehurst-based outfit are unbeaten at the summit on 54 points from 20 games – four points clear of Erith & Belvedere – and they kept their 20th clean sheet in 32 competitive games following tonight’s victory over Tunbridge Wells.
Tunbridge Wells remain in fifth-place in the table on 41 points from 23 games but their sixth league defeat of the season puts them out of the title race as they are now 13 points adrift of Phoenix Sports, who have eighteen league games left.
Ricky Freeman’s nineteenth-goal of the season kept Phoenix Sports’ title charge on track after losing their first game of the season last Saturday, 2-0 at home to Greenwich Borough in the Kent Senior Trophy Quarter-Finals.
Tunbridge Wells suffered a heartbreaking FA Vase exit to Highworth Town, losing the Last 32 clash at Culverden Stadium 4-1 on penalties after the game finished level at 2-2 after extra time.
“It’s a fantastic three points for the club,” said O’Boyle afterwards.
“They’re a fancied side and they’re on a good run of form, just been knocked out of the Vase on Saturday and we thought we may get a reaction from them tonight, so it’s a big, big three points for the club.”
Tunbridge Wells boss Martin Larkin spent a large chunk of his three-minute interview criticising the performance of the referee.
He said: “I think Phoenix deserved to win the game because they scored more goals then we have.”
Larkin, who was speaking after knocking on the referee’s door, added: “The standard of the refereeing tonight and this season in this league has been an absolute disgrace!
“We’ve had the ball punched from behind the line by one of their defenders, missed by a linesman and we’ve had two clear cut penalties, one when their goalkeeper cleaned out Booth, who has knocked the ball past him and it’s not been given – and Chris Seenan’s leg is in absolute bits because of a tackle in the box – all of which he’s missed!
“As much as Phoenix did all the right things in the right areas and scored more goals than us and therefore deserved to win, the standard of refereeing in this league at the moment is an absolute disgrace!
“I asked him why he didn’t give the penalty and the answer he gave me wasn’t satisfactory.”
Tunbridge Wells started the game on the front foot as they appeared eager to forget about their FA Vase disappointment.
They created their first chance inside the opening five minutes.
Brad Potter clipped a fine diagonal pass out of defence to pick-out winger Tolley Beatson, who cut the ball back to Paul Booth, but his initial shot was blocked and the ball found Brendon Cass, whose left-footed shot on the turn was blocked by the legs of Phoenix keeper Steve Phillips.
O’Boyle said: “I said to the boys in the pre-match team-talk that we needed to start on the front foot.
“They’ve gone out (of The FA Vase) on Saturday and we’re at home and I expect to go out there on the front foot and make sure you win your personal battles, second balls and I thought we started pretty slow.
“It was a good save. We gave him too much time in the box. I said at half-time, you can’t give people like Paul Booth and Brendon Cass time in the box because you will get punished for it.”
Left-winger Beatson then played the ball into Booth, who curled his right-footed shot agonisingly around the foot of the far post from 25-yards.
Phoenix Sports took nearly seventeen minutes to create their first opening when striker Freeman cut the ball back to Louis Valencia, but the former Hollands & Blair winger drilled his right-footed shot past the left-hand post from 25-yards.
Tunbridge Wells’ midfielder Jamie Lawrence clipped a long ball forward from the half-way line to release Cass but his chip from 16-yards looped high into the bitterly cold sky and dropped down into Phillips’ hands.
Visiting goalkeeper Steve Lawrence made an unusual save to frustrate the home side.
Freeman swept a free-kick into the penalty area, the ball was flicked on by Russell Bedford and the ball bounced off Steve Lawrence’s face and sailed behind for a corner.
But Phoenix Sports weathered the early storm and scored the winning goal in the 31st minute.
Phillips plucked the ball out of the air and released Harrison Carneige down the right. The talented winger whipped in an excellent cross which cut open Potter and Rory Head and Freeman ghosted in and clipped his left footed drive across the keeper’s left shoulder to find the far corner of the net from a tight-angle, eight-yards out.
“I felt it was like one of those games, I think we didn’t play any football for the first 30 minutes,” admitted O’Boyle.
“I actually came out and actually said to the players that we don’t actually have to win this in the first 10-15 minutes. We need to relax! You’ve got 90 minutes to win a game of football and we were trying to win it in the first ten minutes.
“I wanted us to get the ball down and try and play a little bit. I think the goal proves that. We did get it down and we got the ball down to Harrison, who put a good ball in for Ricky. I thought it was a good goal. It was down to not trying to lump it and get the ball in behind them all the time, which just wasn’t working because it was rolling off the pitch.
“It’s a good finish by Ricky. He missed a couple on Saturday but like I said to him tonight that’s all forgotten. If you get the winner for us tonight, he’s a big game player and he’s a match winner tonight.”
Larkin declined to comment about the game, but when asked about the winning goal, admitted: “Fantastic pass by their player that cut in-between the centre half and the full-back. It was a fantastic pass and Ricky controlled it and it was a fantastic finish. It was a really, really good breakaway goal.
“Thirty seconds before that Boothy put the ball in to the box and their centre half handled the ball to stop the ball going and it should have been a penalty and once again the linesman and referee failed to see it and failed to act on it because the standard of refereeing this year is a disgrace!”
The Tunbridge Wells keeper stooped down to catch Alex Nelson’s left-footed volley on the turn from 25-yards, before Freeman skimmed the top of the crossbar with a curling right-footed free-kick from 28-yards, which left Steve Lawrence rooted to the spot.
O’Boyle said: “I’ll be honest with you, I was actually saying to our boys, make sure you beat the wall. If you beat the wall with the wind as it was tonight, you’ve got a good chance of scoring. He just didn’t get enough dip on it.”
When asked what he told his troops at the break, O’Boyle replied: “Basically at half-time, I said I wanted our two centre halves to make them tighter. I thought we was giving them a little bit too much time and I said exactly the same to our two centre midfielders. I thought at times they were sitting on our centre halves toes. I wanted them to be brace and go 10-15 yards further up the pitch and take a man apiece.
“We changed it around at half-time to make sure our two full backs were coming out and make sure our midfield got back behind the ball so we had two banks of four.”
Phoenix Sports were almost gifted a second goal inside the opening four minutes of the second half.
Head rolled the ball back to his goalkeeper, who sliced his clearance straight to Carneige on the edge of the box. Freeman then played the ball out to Bedford, whose low right-footed drive was blocked for a corner, only for referee Piotr Zachnieja and assistant referee Bo Wang to award a goal-kick instead!
The second half proved to be a tight affair with neither side creating any real clear cut chances until the end of the dual.
O’Boyle said he was satisfied with that, saying, “It’s a fantastic thing when you’re 1-0 up in a tight game little this. I said to them at half-time, we’ve got a fantastic defensive record. We’ve let three goals in this week, which I’m not happy about. It’s about time we kept a clean sheet again!
“We haven’t have to rush anything. We must make sure that we defend properly.
“They’ve got to deal with the wind in the second half. I didn’t think they had too much pace in behind us tonight. With a bit of pace they could’ve hurt us today really with the wind but with no pace in behind I think it might’ve worked against them.”
Freeman got up after being brought down by Potter and swung in the resulting free-kick into the box where Chris Hill went up to glance his header straight at the visiting keeper.
Carneige whipped in a cross from the right which Head attempted to clear at the far post, only for the ball to ricochet against his team-mate Potter and sail just wide of his own goal with Steve Lawrence rooted to the spot in the 59th minute.
The crowd of 85 then had to wait until the 70th minute for the next opening.
Bedford swept the ball out to Carneige on the right, who opted to lash his right-footed angled drive over the top of the near post from sixteen-yards from a tight angle, much to the disappointment of his manager.
O’Boyle said: “He should’ve played Ricky Freeman! We told him about that! He had a good run but when you’ve got a centre forward like Ricky Freeman, you want to put him in on goal!”
Bedford whipped in a free-kick from the inside right channel and the ball came out to Hill at the far post, who played the ball inside to Freeman, who took a touch before rolling his low shot straight into the keeper’s hands from the edge of the box.
Tunbridge Wells pressed for a late equaliser as they tried to breach a defence that has only conceded eight league goals this season.
Substitute Ian Parsons’ drilled a left-footed shot which deflected past the foot of the left-hand post.
Larkin was clearly upset when a decision didn’t go his way when Phoenix Sports somehow escaped a goalmouth scramble in the final nine minutes after Jake Beecroft swung in a corner from the right.
O’Boyle admitted: “Yes, you need a little bit of luck along the way. You do need that little bit of luck and we might have had a little bit of luck there.”
Phoenix Sports squandered an excellent chance to kill the game off as the game entered into injury time.
Freeman swung in a corner from the left towards the far post where substitute James Brown planted his free header wide from six-yards.
“He weren’t brought on to score goals, let me tell you,” admitted O’Boyle.
“He was brought on to defend set-pieces and to be in the midfield to make sure he picks one of the midfield men and just sit in front of the back four. Basically he was brought on to just see the 1-0 out!”
Beecroft then played a long ball forward and Booth glanced his header past the advancing Phillips but Scott Whibley got back to prevent his former club from grabbing the share of the spoils at the death.
O’Boyle admitted: “It wasn’t a comfortable 1-0 at the end. They had a few chances, a few corners and a few set-pieces and whatever so they made us work all the way through but we’ve seen the game out.”
Left-back Danny Moore is always delighted when his team-mates keep another clean sheet.
O’Boyle said: “We worked hard for that one tonight. I wouldn’t say it was our best performance of the season but who cares at this stage of the season!
“I’d imagine there was a few people that came down here tonight and fancied Tunbridge Wells to turn Phoenix over- but that’s not the case.
“We got beat on Saturday fair and square. Greenwich Borough are a good side but our priority was tonight.
“I said to the boys before the game we’re still on course. Let’s hope we’re still unbeaten after 38 games.
“It’s a good night’s work. I still class Greenwich Borough (in seventh-place with 37 points from 18 games) can still go on a run and win it but we’ve just got to worry about what we do and if we can do that no-one can catch us.”
When asked whether there is talk of winning the title within the dressing room, O’Boyle replied: “Listen its hard not to! We’re four points clear at the top of the table. We haven’t been beaten in the league all season. Of course the boys are talking about it.
“It’s three points closer but we’re also a long way off as well. We’ve got to keep their feet on the ground. We’ve got a good bunch of lads in there. I think they know what’s expected of them.”
Larkin was offered the opportunity to speak about the game – but he did add: “That’s not because I’m sulking or we’ve just got a defeat. We’re disappointed to lose games.
“Phoenix are on a fantastic run and they put the ball in the right areas but we’ve been denied three or four – if you include the one that was punched from behind the line – clear-cut penalties today!
“The standard of refereeing in this league this year is just an absolute disgrace.”
When asked how it can be improved, the manager replied: “It’s not my job to improve it. My job is to improve players and put winning teams together, which we try to do at the best of our ability. It’s not my job to improve referees
“We should’ve had two penalties. The referee has missed both of them. He decided not to give either of them because he’s not good enough for this level.”
And on that note, it was time to bring the interview to a premature end.
Phoenix Sports: Steve Phillips, Ryan Andrews, Danny Moore (Myles Keizer-Burrows 88), Russell Bedford, Scott Whibley, Chris Hill, Harrison Carneige, Alex Nelson (James Brown 82), Ricky Freeman, Yacine Gnahore, Louis Valencia.
Subs: Brima Daramy, Jason Goodchild, Danny Kemp
Goal: Ricky Freeman 31
Tunbridge Wells: Steve Lawrence, Rory Head, Lee Radford, Jamie Lawrence, Brad Potter, Tom Bryant, Jake Beecroft, Joe Fuller, Brendon Cass (Chris Seenan 67), Paul Booth, Tolley Beatson (Ian Parsons 73).
Subs: Andy Boyle, Jason Bourne, Richard Sinden
Booked: Brad Potter 55, Chris Seenan 90
Attendance: 85
Referee: Mr Piotr Zachnieja (Orpington)
Assistants: Mr Ben Bowles (Rochester) & Mr Bo Wang (Ashford)
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