Sporting Club Thamesmead 0-0 Soul Tower Hamlets - One win in eight is not good enough, not with the group we've got, admits Sporting Club Thamesmead joint-manager Alex White

Sporting Club Thamesmead 0 – 0 Soul Tower Hamlets
Location	Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead, London SE28 8NJ
Kickoff	09/09/2024 19:30

SPORTING CLUB THAMESMEAD  0-0  SOUL TOWER HAMLETS
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League First Division
Monday 9 September 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from Bayliss Avenue

SPORTING CLUB Thamesmead joint-manager Alex White admits his side are underperforming after being held to an uninspiring goal-less draw by unbeaten side Soul Tower Hamlets.

The Acre are languishing in thirteenth-place in the tenth-tier Southern Counties East Football League First Division, having picked up five points (one win and two draws) from their opening seven outings.

Terry Thomas’ side extended their unbeaten run to six league games and are in eighth-place having picked up 10 points (two wins and four draws), as a crowd of 88 were subjected to an awful game of football.

Sporting Club Thamesmead striker Steve Kakari saw his 51^st minute penalty saved by visiting goalkeeper Ali Ozcelik and there was also a 13 minute break for a floodlight failure halfway through the second half.

“It’s an interesting game,” admitted White, who made the game sound a lot better than it actually was.

“For 85 minutes we dominated, obviously missed a penalty. I don’t quite know how we were hanging on by the end of it but for an 85 minute period, we’ve done more than enough but I think it really sums our season up to be honest with you.

“We’ve come so close on so many occasions but yes, frustrating day at the office.  Tonight feels like two points dropped but we can take a lot of encouragement from the way that we played and the way that we battled.”

Both sides made four changes to their sides after Sporting Club Thamesmead lost 2-1 away to Lee Roots’ Bridon Ropes at the weekend, while Soul Tower Hamlets came away from Rochester United with a 2-2 draw on 31 August.

This was an error strewn London derby, with very little quality, both sides treating the ball like a hot potato and giving the ball away constantly and the home side hitting too many over-hit long balls that were collected by Ozcelik.

When asked what was missing, White replied: “Putting the ball in the net! I think is the easy answer to that.

“We were missing Kanan Fitton (who scored 19 goals for FC Elmstead last season), who knows where the goal is but I thought Steve (Kakari) and Cam(eron MacMillan) were brilliant up front but we just missed that final piece and when we get the penalty, unfortunately we haven’t had loads of luck this season and we couldn’t put it away.

“We were a little bit nervous by the end. I felt we should’ve been clear.”

When asked about the lack of quality and error strewn performance from his players, White replied: “I think definitely in the first half. We try to play as much as we can but again I thought we looked a little bit of a team that haven’t necessarily had the rub of the green. 

“We probably made some wrong decisions but we’ve got some really good quality in there, some experienced players and I think in moments, like you said, probably made some wrong decisions but I thought we started to play some really good football in the second half and moved the ball a bit quicker.”

The home side created an opening inside the opening nine minutes when right-back Charlie Dale threw the ball into the box from inside the channel for second striker Cameron MacMillan to steer his near-post header just over the top of the post.

“Cameron is a player who’s scored a lot of goals in the league below (for Kent United) and his movement is fantastic,” said White.

“We’ve got a lot of belief in Cameron. We’ve got Steve (Kakari) and Kanan (Fitton) with a lot of experience in this league but we’ve got good experience of taking players out from the league below and Cameron scored a great goal last week and we were keen for him to get back in front of goal.”

The Mile End based visitors’ offered very little in attack with holding midfielder Romuald Boco hooking the ball down the channel for right-winger Casey Nolan-Samuels, who drove his right-footed half-volley harmlessly wide of the goal from the corner of the penalty area.

Sporting Club Thamesmead should have smashed the stalemate in the 28^th minute when centre-half Bachi Bari played the ball up for MacMillan to put his strike partner Kakari through on goal but he lacked the composure and quality to dink his shot over the advancing goalkeeper, who rushed out towards the corner of the penalty area and blocked the poor low shot.

“Sums up our season so far, to be honest with you,” admitted White, who runs the team alongside Ryan Watts.

“We’ve been defensively very solid today and the rest of the season, not necessarily clicking as much as we can in the final third.

“But I’ve just said to the boys there, we’re very encouraged by what we’ve seen. We’ve created plenty of chances and probably not got the result that we’ve deserved today, even though the quality was not quite there but a little bit of lady luck required, I think.”

Nolan-Samuels drew a foul from Acre left-back Mason Simms on the very edge of the corner of the penalty area and the impressive Ashaan Siddiki (who plays behind seven-goal striker Timothy Monsheju) drilled the resulting left-footed free-kick towards goal, which was punched away by Ryan McCourt’s two fists.

“I think that was probably their only chance of the first half to be honest with you,” said White.

“I don’t think we started particularly well but once we got the ball moving there only looked to be one winner in that game.

“Ryan’s been great for us. I know Ryan from my time at Elmstead, he’s probably played over 60 games with me in the dug-out, so you need to do that when you’re on top. You need to be able to reply on your keeper.”

Sporting Club Thamesmead central midfielder Ryan Penton drilled a speculative right-footed half-volley past the right-hand post from outside the box as the home side’s performance improved the longer the first half went on.

A disappointing left-winger Merrick Simms was hooked in the 37^th minute and his replacement Rapheal President offered very little threat going forward for Soul Tower Hamlets’ right-back Nick Bell.

President did cut inside Bell in the 39^th minute before playing a square pass for holding midfielder Connor Dobson, whose right-footed drive from 25-yards  seemed to have glanced off MacMillan inside the box and was comfortably gathered by the untroubled visiting goalkeeper.

Dobson swung in the home side’s fourth of six corners and centre-half Alfie Clark made a nuisance inside the box and his partner Bari stabbed his shot at goal but Ozcelik smothered the ball low to his left.

Soul Tower Hamlets squandered a chance to grab the lead on the stroke of half-time.

Bell launched a long diagonal ball out of defence to release winger Alex Balisani down the left and he cut inside Bari before feeding Boco in the middle before Siddik stabbed his first-time left-footed trickling past the foot of the right-hand post from the edge of the D.

“I don’t think they massively threatened us in the first half. I think we defended well when we needed to. I don’t think at any point, I didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable by what they threatened us with,” added White, who demanded a vastly improved performance from his lacklustre side.

“I think we needed to just relax on the ball.  I think you pointed out that we didn’t make the right decisions. We’ve got the best pitch and the best facility in the league here, we just need to try to use that to our advantage, so I think it was just relaxing on the ball a little bit more and just try to mix things up a little bit.”

Sporting Club Thamesmead had a glorious chance to claim the victory when referee Jack Mottram pointed to the spot after MacMillan cut into the box and was fouled by Soul Tower Hamlets’ centre-half Louie Maxwell, who was booked for the last man challenge.

Kakari summed up the lack of quality on show, a long run up before stroking a weak right-footed penalty towards the bottom right-hand corner, which was held by Ozcelik, diving to his left, with five minutes and 24 seconds on the clock.

“Steve’s an experienced striker and he’s scored a lot of goals at this level and obviously that’s only his second or third game for us,” explained White.

“He took a penalty in the FA Vase the other week and stuck it top bins, so we were kind of expecting him to do the same thing.

“But Steve’s a great striker and an even better character so I’m sure the next one we get, he’ll be standing right up to take it again.”

Shortly afterwards, Penton swung in the home side’s fifth corner of the game and the ball was worked to MacMillan, who drilled his shot against the top of the near-post from a tight angle on the corner of the six-yard box.

Soul Tower Hamlets produced a well-worked move on the counter-attack in the 56^th minute.

Left-back Dillon Woods played a one-two with Balisani before the ball was worked to otherwise quiet striker Monsheju, who drilled his right-footed shot towards goal from 25-yards, the ball skimming the top of the crossbar.

“I thought on the counter-attack they looked quite a threat,” added White.

“We were camped in their half, certainly for the second half.  I think it becomes dangerous when that happens.

“Look, they’ve got a lot of quality.  Tower Hamlets are an unbeaten side and they’ve drawn with Canterbury and Rochester and they’re a hard team to play against. I thought we were the better side.”

Two of the four floodlight pylons, on the main stand side of the stadium went out and referee Jack Motram called a halt to proceedings (22:22-35:43) and both sides remained out on the pitch, although the lighting in the main stand stayed on.

White said: “It did go dark, we didn’t pay the bills clearly but no, it’s always hard. We had the early (19:30) kick-off.  I’m sure we all wanted to get home and maybe we saw some of the best football when the lights went off to be honest with you. It wasn’t the prettiest today but a bit of a surreal experience but I suppose it does happen at this level.”

When asked whether the referee asked him about the floodlighting issue or whether he was close to abandoning such a poor encounter, White replied: “He definitely asked me that one. I’m probably not the right person in the stadium to be able to tell you how to rewire a floodlight. The guys got it sorted pretty quickly and they came back on and the fans’ definitely got their money’s worth.”

Sporting Club Thamesmead charge adults £8, which is the same price as the ninth-tier Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division – but the football on show tonight was awful and White and Watts must improve performances and get their players to pass the ball to a team-mate, create chances and score goals if they are to put bums on seats at Bayliss Avenue.

White was asked whether he was happy with the quality on show from his players’ tonight – because this game was like watching two pub teams on a Sunday morning on Hackney Marshes.

“Yes, look, I think in the main we recovered in situations where we were a little bit nervous.  Naturally, the way that we’ve started the season with the players we’ve got, we think we’re under-performing.  I don’t think we have as many points on the board as probably our performances have reflected.

“The quality is definitely there. I think it just takes a little bit of time to click. It’s the hardest job in football when you’ve got to rebuild completely from the start, so a lot of players have not played with each other, so they’ve just got to get used to that. We’re very close to being where I want us to be.”

Soul Tower Hamlets’ goalkeeper Ozcelik dived to his left to push away a right-footed drive from Edward Dwyer when play restarted.

“I thought he scored. I thought that was in the back of the net.   Teddy’s a very good player and a player we worked very hard to get in the summer,” added White.

“He impressed me when he was at Forest Hill last year. We were at Elmstead and he single-handedly tore us apart.  I thought it was in. If it’s not going your way, sometimes it’s not going your way.”

All five of the away side’s corners came in stoppage time - and they had a glorious chance to snatch the victory with 54:46 on the clock.

Woods split the home side’s defence with a sublime long ball along the deck to put substitute Shareef Ali through on goal but goalkeeper McCourt came off his line and narrowed the angle and Ali stabbed his shot past the foot of the near-post.

“It could’ve won it then.  The way the season has gone so far, I was half-expecting that to end up in the end. I thought Ryan did enough to close the angle. It was certainly a golden opportunity for them,” added White.

Bell had another chance to win it for the away side, drilling a right-footed shot from 20-yards, which deflected past the foot of the left-hand post, after the home side had initially dealt with Bell’s corner.

Sporting Club Thamesmead have only scored three League goals and an example of their toothless attack came (58:08) when substitute central midfielder Aaron Walker released substitute striker Shiaroe MacDonald through on goal and after the keeper came rushing out, the striker’s shot ended up closer to the corner flag than the goal.

The referee called for time (1 hr, 6 minutes and 28 seconds) on the clock and The Acre must vastly improve ahead of their home tie against FC Elmstead in the Kent Senior Trophy Preliminary Round next Monday 16 September (19:30).

“I think now it’s two dropped points.  I think by the end of the week an encouraging performance. I think if we play like that and continue to play the way we have all season…

“We haven’t lost a game by more than one goal, we’ve been in every single game. I think it’s just eradicating sloppy mistakes.

“But the day we took over we had zero players. We got the job really late. We got the job a week before pre-season. We started pre-season a week later than everyone else.  We had no players so for us to put together a side of that quality, I’m really proud of the boys for working as hard as they have done to try to become a side that competes.

“The club needs stability over the next few years and we’ve got a good solid young group here that we’re looking to take on, not just for this season but seasons to come.”

White and Watts were Peter Nolan’s assistants ar FC Elmstead last season and why their opponents are now managed by Brehn Chidley, White was asked about facing his former club, who tonight are in sixth-place in the table with 11 points (three wins, two draws and one defeat).

“It’s a great club run by great people and I’m looking forward to hosting them. They’ve obviously started the season pretty positively.  They’re a great club and I had a really, really good time there and always grateful for the opportunity that they gave me.

“Obviously time’s moved on and times have changed and there will be no sentiment from my side and we’ll be gunning for victory.”

White and Watts have picked up one win from their first eight games in charge of Sporting Club Thamesmead in all competitions.

“Not good enough to be totally honest with you, not with the group that we’ve got,” admitted White.

“As I’ve always said, Thamesmead are a club that need a bit of stability. They’re constantly changing managers but this is the club with probably the best facilities in the league, a great backing, a great committee. 

“It’s a club that we want to take out of the division and I think actually with the players we’ve got and some of the names that we have signed, we should be probably further ahead than where we are.

“We’re disappointed because our performances have probably reflected the points tally. I think we’ve consistently dropped some points over the last couple of weeks, away at Bridon ropes, away at Welling (0-0).  We should be at least six or seven points higher up but it is what it is.  It’s a marathon not a sprint and we’ve got to keep working.”

Sporting Club Thamesmead: Ryan McCourt, Charlie Dale (Luke Alliband 90), Mason Simms, Connor Dobson, Alfie Clark, Bachi Bari, Merrick Simms (Rapheal President 37), Ryan Penton (Aaron Walker 62), Steve Kakari (Shiaroe MacDonald 90), Cameron MacMillan, Edward Dwyer (Jack White 87).

Booked: Rapheal President 90, Jack White 90

Soul Tower Hamlets: Ali Ozcelik, Nick Bell, Dillon Woods, Romuald Boco (Shareef Ali 66), Ben Byrne, Louie Maxwell, Alex Balisani (Joao Silva Cruzz 89), Rowan Larrington (Taylor Reid 85), Timothy Monsheju, Ashaan Siddik, Casey Nolan-Samuels.
Subs: Krishan Singh, Igor Furtado

Booked: Louie Maxwell 49, Ashaan Siddik 56

Attendance: 88
Referee: Mr Jack Mottram
Assistants: Mr Liam Broom & Mr Jason Robinson

Please Note:  The stopwatch continued during the 13 minute floodlight failure stoppage and the timings above reflect that.