Rusthall 2-0 Lordswood - The boys are doing a remarkable job to win nine on the bounce, says Rusthall manager Jimmy Anderson

Rusthall 2 – 0 Lordswood
Location	Jockey Farm Stadium, Nellington Road, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8SH
Kickoff	18/02/2025 19:45

RUSTHALL  2-0  LORDSWOOD
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Tuesday 18 February 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Jockey Farm Stadium

RUSTHALL manager Jimmy Anderson says his players’ are doing a remarkable job after claiming their ninth league win on the bounce to put his side in with a chance of grabbing a play-off place.
 

A couple of late goals sealed a flattering two-nil win, with left-wing-back Jack Lyons, 18, converting his eighth goal of the season direct from a free-kick in the 82nd minute, before Italian winger Yassin Fares slotted in his 12^th goal of the season just 109 seconds later.

“We had to dig in. We had to be patient tonight. I thought Lordswood had a good game plan. They came here, they respected us, we respected them and they set up obviously trying to win the game but I feel like they tried to make it hard for us to try to win the game, so fair play to them, it was a tough game,” said Anderson.

“I thought first half, I turned up late, I’ve just had another baby so I got here late. I was probably five or 10 minutes into the game and I felt when I turned up that we were rushing our play and forcing the play.  We were trying to chase a goal and naturally we haven’t been doing that of late and we’ve been patient and been building up play really well.

“I’ve got to be honest, there weren’t many chances for either side and it was a little bit of a game where we both shut each other out.

“It is tough. We’ve got a problem with the pitch but we’re making it work as a club, as a team, we’re not using it as an excuse, so we’re getting on with it.”

Lordswood have picked up two wins, four draws and nine defeats in the 15 games since Lee Garlinge and Ross Wiles have taken over the helm following Nicky Southall’s departure.

“Same old story with us I think, good first half, wilt a bit second half,” admitted Garlinge.

“Kind of inexperience, that cleverness, heart and passion that we need to instil in the boys, it’s a tough one to take really.

“To be honest with you, coming here and get a point would’ve been a good one. I think we created a few chances first half. If we take one of them, it’s a different game. A few set-pieces we probably could’ve done better with.  It’s a bitter pill to swallow, another two late goals. It’s becoming like groundhog day a little bit.

“I think we’ve defended well first half. I mean apart from a few set-pieces second half we kind of just backed off, maybe a little bit too much, gave them a little bit too much respect and invited a little bit more too much pressure on ourselves.

“It’s something that we have got to address very quickly.”

The Rustics have risen up to sixth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table, having picked up 43 points (13 wins, four draws and eight defeats) from their 25 league outings.

Lordswood have extended their winless run to 12 games and remain in the bottom two in the table with 20 points (five wins, five draws and 16 defeats).

Rusthall created their first opening inside the opening seven minutes when holding midfielder Jeffrey Njuguna curled a right-footed shot across the keeper and around the far post from 25-yards.

However, the first half was mostly a cagey affair with both sides cancelling each other out on a bitterly cold night at Jockey Farm Stadium.

Lordswood’s first opening arrived following their second of five corners, which was floated in by Callum Peck and Charlie Plummer came up from the back to glance his header across goal before the ball was cleared away in the 12^th minute.

Lordswood winger Joseph Kpaka stole the ball from Njuguna before slipping the ball through to Peck, whose right-footed drive from 22-yards brought a comfortable save from Rusthall goalkeeper Serine Sanneh.

Garlinge said: “Those kind of areas are going in against us and not going in for us. Not excuses, maybe we need to work on a little bit of finishing as well but that’s two games now where we’ve come away disappointed.”

Anderson added:  “I didn’t feel like Serine didn’t really have to make a save tonight, like a difficult save that I expect, I know that he’s capable of doing, so he probably had a bit of a quiet night tonight.”

Rusthall’s 22-goal striker Charlie Clover cut in from the right into the edge of the Lordswood penalty area and threaded his left-footed shot through legs and Conor Beattie made a comfortable low save to prevent the ball nestling inside the bottom far corner.

“That was kind of the same as them. It was a half-chance from distance,” said Anderson.

“I’m pleased that Charlie’s got his shot away. We encourage him to get shots away. He’s scored a lot of goals this season, so it’s been a real positive to have Charlie with us.  We look to him to get goals but that was a soft shot, so a half-chance.

“I am delighted for him.  I’ve known him a long time. I know this is the most goals that he’s scored at this level, so he’s appreciated. He’s gelling well with the team and he’s loved by the fans, so it’s all going well.”

Garlinge added: “We’ve got to be better defensively and much stronger all over the pitch!”

Lordswood’s 22-goal striker Elliott Duncan cracked a right-footed drive from 30-yards into Sanneh’s midriff for a comfortable save as the first half drew to a conclusion.

Rusthall missed a glorious chance to smash the deadlock in the 45^th minute.

Clover’s through ball put Kalani Barton through on goal and he dinked his shot over the advancing keeper, who clattered into Barton, before the ball was cleared towards safety.

Anderson said: “The keeper comes out, dubious. Could be a penalty, could not be a penalty. Should he score? Yes, probably he should score but I don’t know if there’s a VAR, they might take it back because it’s contact late.

“The lino said to me on my side, ‘yes, he would give it.’  The referee said ‘the gap between him playing the ball and the contact was too far back to give it.

“I don’t understand. If there’s contact, there’s contact in the box, so no penalty?”

When asked about the home side’s penalty claims, Garlinge replied: “I did kind of speak to him, the keeper said the striker initiated the contact.  He’s dinked it over him and then left his leg there and just gone over him – so I trust my keeper.”

Both managers’ were asked their thoughts at the break.

Anderson said: “I just said to them, they’re all friends in there. We’ve got a good squad. They’re all fighting for each other and I said this is another challenge where you need to find a way to win the game if you can and if you can’t, then don’t lose it and just be patient and play your game and enjoy.

“Don’t go out there and fear because that’s the thing, my boys are enjoying football at the minute.  We’ve been in a position where the teams at the bottom, as you know, every time I’m either down the bottom or at the top. I know what’s it like down the bottom and I know how it’s like at the top. It’s different.

“The changing room’s different, the environment’s different so you’ve got to treat them different. You’ve got to talk to them different.  The half-time team talk is just be patient and it will come.”

Garlinge added: “Pretty much do the same, be resilient, put balls in good areas, don’t overplay, especially the second half pitch, it was a bit sandy. Don’t overplay but make sure we’re putting it in good areas, so it gives our forward line something to work with. Just try to work higher up the pitch.

“Two teams kind of cancelled each other out, They’re good defensively, we were good defensively until the last 10 minutes, unfortunately.”

Both sides struggled to produce good football on a sticky playing surface – but the home side pinged the right-hand post following their third of six corners, on the hour-mark, when Lyons’ delivery clipped the upright, as both sides crowded the goal-mouth.

Rusthall bossed the possession during the second half and smashed the deadlock with 36 minutes and 11 seconds on the clock.

Lyons picked the ball up and drove at the Lordswood defence and was brought down by a bad challenge from centre-half Plummer, who became the fifth Lordswood player to be cautioned by referee Gavin Farrington.

Beattie lined up a five-man wall and dived to his left and got a hand to Lyons’ left-footed free-kick, which he stroked over the wall and found the roof of the net from 20-yards.

“I thought we were knocking on the door second half.  The boys grabbed it. We’ve got players in the team that can grab a game. I don’t know if that’s star quality, I suppose.  The boys stood up and won the game,” said Anderson.

“I thought that was quite a bad tackle to be fair. I thought he left the floor, potentially could’ve been a red, I don’t know.

“Jack’s capable of scoring goals – he got in the team of the week for a reason – he's a great player.  For an 18-year-old, he’s a very good player, we like him, he’s loved here, he loves it here, so long may it continue.”

Garlinge said: “I’d like to see that one back. I don’t know whether the wall should’ve done better or the keeper should’ve done better but I’d like to see that one back on the Veo and just make my decisions on that one there.

“Maybe he could’ve been stronger, maybe the wall could’ve be better, I don’t know.”

Rusthall grabbed their rather flattering second goal of the night, timed at 38:00, when Fares easily cut inside Lordswood’s right-back Elliott Moore and Ashley Sains before clinically sweeping his right-footed drive into the bottom left-hand corner.

Anderson said: “Yassin does what Yassin does.  He cut in and scores a goal. He has that star quality and he’s played a lot of football recently so we tried to get him off for a little break at the end and he’ll be ready for Saturday.”

Garlinge added: “Very tricky player, caused us quite a few problems all night, especially second half.  Maybe tried legs, not done enough, not quite got tight enough to him. He’s got a good strike into the bottom corner.”

Lordswood offered very little in attack and left-back Ernie Cheeseman and substitute Sam Wright brought comfortable saves out of Sanneh, as they tried to score from a couple of late chances from outside the Rusthall penalty area.

“Sam’s been suspended, got him on for half-hour tonight in place of Pecky, just to try to create something.  Unfortunately, straight at the keeper. It’s kind of been our story so far," admitted Garlinge.

“The same as what’s been missing since we’ve been here. We’re lacking a little bit of experience, a little bit of knowhow.”

Anderson added: “A massive positive is keeping a clean sheet.  Another one what we will say, we’ve ticked off what’s been difficult and it’s been a challenge and hopefully the boys have learnt a lot from it.

“They learn that we’ve kept a clean-sheets, so defensively we’ve kept solid. We’ve scored two goals, I feel like potentially we could’ve scored more.  We’ve nullified their chances and collectively they’ve been patient in a game.

“It’s a cold night, it’s a tricky night.  Their team is trying to get points, we’re trying to get points in a different manner. We’re up there, they’re down the bottom but I feel like it was a pretty even game because we allowed them like to effect our performance, so I feel like the boys have now leant that no matter who we play, we respect them but play your game.”

Bearsted went down to a 2-0 home defeat to Jamie Coyle’s Whitstable Town in tonight’s only other League game.

Faversham Town (60 points from 26 games) remain at the summit, and VCD Athletic (54 points from 24 games), Fisher (50 points from 28 games), Punjab United (48 points from 28 games) and Larkfield & New Hythe (43 points from 28 games) have been the top five for several weeks now.

Seventh-placed Whitstable Town (40 points from 25 games) arrive at Jockey Farm Stadium on Saturday.

Anderson said: “It’s just another three points, it’s another three points that’s all. It’s another win, it’s another three points, we’ve got another game.  Every game is hard, so you’re going to stay to me we’ve got Whitstable on Saturday, so it’s going to be very hard, they’re right behind us, so every game is hard.  Lordswood were hard tonight. We’ve played Lydd away, that was a tough game. We went down there and won.

“Every game in this league is hard.  To win nine on the bounce, the boys are doing a remarkable job and credit to them. It’s fantastic and hopefully it continues but if it doesn’t then we’ll have to win the next nine, so it doesn’t matter.

“It’s not pressure, it’s enjoyment and even when you’re down the bottom you’ve got to enjoy it.  If you don’t enjoy it, then there’s no point doing it.

“Off that performance, 100% Lordswood will be fine, so I have no doubt about it, Lordswood will be fine.”

Anderson was asked how he has managed to turn around fortunes during their unbeaten run of 11 games.

“The group, it’s this group, it ain’t me. I can say that but it’s the group. They listen to me. They believe in what we’re doing.  They believe in each other. It’s this group.  This group is a great group. Anyone who comes and watches will say, it’s a great group.

“Whitstable will be another tough game. It will be good. I know Jamie Coyle, I know Matt Longhurst.  They’ll set up, they’ll do their research, they’ll probably have someone watch me tonight.

“Let’s go to work at the weekend. Will they know how to play on our pitch? I don’t know. They might do. I don’t know how they play. I do know how they play but I’m not going to give too much away.

“Thirteen to go, let’s do it and we’ll see.  At the moment all I can say it’s great that we’re mathematically safe in this league, so for a club like Rusthall that’s massive. We’re not getting carried away, we go again Saturday.”

Lydd Town (16 points from 25 games) and Lordswood are trapped within the relegation zone, with Bearsted (23 points from 23 games), Snodland Town (24 points from 26 games), Stansfeld (26 points from 26 games), Hollands & Blair (29 points from 28 games), Sutton Athletic (30 points from 21 games) and Tunbridge Wells (31 points from 22 games) are within the bottom eight tonight.

“We have to get the boys together, keep fighting until the last minute,” said Garlinge, who takes his side to Sutton Athletic at the weekend.

“We are trying to bring people in. It’s difficult at the minute. It’s a bit of a difficult time to get people in but we are trying in the background to get that right and we’ll keep working from there.

“We’ve changed the style of play. We’ve started getting there and even again tonight we’re just not a hard team at the minute. Might be fitness, I don’t think it is, I don’t know what it is. It’s just the sharpness is missing. Maybe the substitutions we’re making aren’t right. We will sit down the pair of us, analysis it and see where we can get better.

“I think there’s 12 games left now, so 36 points to play for, all cup finals from now all in.  We’ve got 12 cup finals from now until the end of the season, so we’ve just got to be bang on it every single game.

“It will be nice to just see a game out for once, a full 90 minutes from the boys. Just that little bit more grit, that little but more knowhow. We’ve got a lot of 18-19 year-olds in there but they’ve got to learn fast at this level and if they want to play at a better level, they’ve got to be better at this level.

“I’m not a big table watcher but I think I’d say we need 16 more points will probably get us safe, hopefully, but we can’t rely on other teams. It’s just take each game as it comes and try to get as many points on the board quickly as we can.”

Rusthall: Serine Sanneh, Louis Anderson (Abdullah Khalil 90), Frank Griffin, Jeffrey Njuguna (Thompson Adeyemi 79), Robbie Bissett, Daniel Blunn, Yassin Fares (Theo Hayford 90), Kalani Barton (Steadman Callender 79), Charlie Clover (Mustafa Hashemi 88), Jack Kirby, Jack Lyons.

Goals: Jack Lyons 82, Yassin Fares 84

Lordswood: Conor Beattie, Elliott Moore (Jake Embery 87), Ernie Chesseman, Gabe Campbell, Ashley Sains, Charlie Plummer, Joseph Kpaka (George Miles 83), Logan Thomson, Elliot Duncan, Callum Peck (Sam Wright 66), Matthew Holness.
Subs: Joshua Leach, Ryan Gill

Booked: Ashley Sains 7, Ernie Cheeseman 23, Matthew Holness 39, Logan Thomson 75, Charlie Plummer 81

Attendance: 144
Referee: Mr Gavin Farrington
Assistants: Mr Thomas Marshall & Mr Christian Chivers