Sutton Athletic Reserves 1-2 Chipstead - We hope we finish runners-up, so we're hoping Old Bromleians can possibly do us a favour, says Chipstead boss Fred Dillon

Sutton Athletic 1 – 2 Chipstead (Kent)
Location	Lower Road, Hextable, Kent BR8 7RZ
Kickoff	10/05/2018 19:30

SUTTON ATHLETIC RESERVES  1-2  CHIPSTEAD
Andreas Carter Joma Kent County League Division One West
Thursday 10 May 2018
Stephen McCartney reports from Lower Road

CHIPSTEAD manager Fred Dillon hopes champions Old Bromleians can do them a favour by beating Ide Hill so his side can finish runners-up on Saturday.

 

Chipstead grabbed a late winner against eighth-placed finishers Sutton Athletic Reserves underneath the floodlights at Lower Road in Hextable tonight.

Chipstead took an early lead through Joe Gavin’s left-footed volley but the home side came out a more dominant force in the second half and levelled through striker Damarli Morrison’s close range finish.

But Chipstead grabbed a late winner, against the run of play, through super-sub Calvin Doyley with three minutes left.

“We always knew coming here was going to be a tough game,” said Dillon. 

“We came here a few weeks back and played against a strong side so we knew tonight was going to be the same and they were going to give us a good game, so we knew it will be entertaining.”

Sutton Athletic Reserves manager Dean Ansell added: “In the end disappointed that we didn’t get a lot more out of the game to be perfectly honest given the chances at both ends.  I thought we deserved a draw to be honest.”

Andreas Carter Joma Kent County League Division One West champions Old Bromleians go into their final game with 59 points in the bag, while Halls Athletic have completed their 24-game campaign and have collected 47 points.  Ide Hill are in third with 45 points and Chipstead in fourth level on points, while Sutton Athletic Reserves are in eighth out of 13 teams on 36 points.

Sutton Athletic Reserves beat South East Athletic Reserves 2-0 to win the Hospital Charity Cup Junior Section at Park View Road on Tuesday night.

They started well and created an opening inside the opening five minutes.

Right-back Tom Kember looped a long throw into the box, Morrison flicked the ball on at the far post and winger Conor Evans’s left-footed shot on the turn from 20-yards sailed harmlessly wide.

Sutton Athletic central defender Jordan Noyes hit a long free-kick into the box from the halfway line but an unmarked Morrison sent his downward header a couple of yards inside the box into Liam Turner’s hands for a comfortable catch.

“Disappointed, in fact Damarli all season has been in those positions and for the size of the lad he should be doing a lot better and he knows it,” admitted Ansell.

“We talk to him about his presence in the area, just looks a bit awkward at times when the ball does drop to him to actually put the ball away in the end.”

Dillon added: “Liam Turner’s come into us throughout the season.  He wasn’t with us right from the start but he’s come in and nailed his spot and done well for us really. It’s those situations we hope he does well in and he done well for us early doors.”

Chipstead opened the scoring with 12 minutes and 28 seconds on the clock, scoring from their second of eight corners.

Pacy winger, Zak Loveridge, swung the ball towards the near post and keeper Matthew Bishop’s poor punch went as far as Galvin, who hooked his left-footed volley into the far corner from 14-yards.

The home side fielded six players with experience in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division with Bishop (40 appearances); Evans (41); Conor Ansell (22); Morrison (7); Ben Williams (5) and Liam Evans (3) turning out tonight.

Dillon said: “Great goal to be fair.  Young Zak has been great for us. He’s one of them that defenders don’t want to play against and he’s been bright throughout the season and situations like that was good. He’s done well for an assist and Joe Gavin took his goal really well. I think it’s his first left-footed goal I’ve seen him score so I’m well pleased for him. He was our player-of-the-year so he’s been a great lad!”

“Again, from where I was, I didn’t think the keeper could do much about it,” said Ansell.

“I thought it was a super strike from the Chipstead player, no real arguments about that. Perhaps we should’ve dealt with the corner a little bit better, the punch from the keeper could’ve gone further.”

The goal sparked a long period of dominance from Chipstead.

Ansell said: “We’re just coming off a game on Tuesday night. The staring 11 out there all put in a shift two days ago and they certainly weren’t as lively as they have been on Tuesday night and I expected that.  I tried to get it out of their system whilst they were in the changing room before we went out there.  It was a slow start, nothing where we was on Tuesday night.”

Mike Sandmann, 30, who forms part of Steven Watt’s management set-up at Bostik Premier Division side Margate, played up front for Chipstead for 65 minutes and was played in behind the two Sutton Athletic centre halves but lacked composure to drag his shot harmlessly wide from 25-yards.

“Listen, you know Mike, he ain’t going to move a lot but he’s a big physical presence, he puts himself about so I’m glad to have him out there doing a job for me,” added Dillon.

Chipstead missed a glorious chance to double their lead in the 19^th minute.

Jonathan Shea’s corner from the left was cleared back out to him and he played in a low cross into the danger area, the ball was flicked on by Jordan Eels’ foot and flashed across goal and Alfie Kitt skied his shot over the crossbar from a couple of yards out despite the keeper being on the deck.

Dillon said: “I said to Alf what happened and he said as it came in their defender kicked it again him and somehow it hit him but gone over the bar. It was one of those freak chances that don’t turn into a goal.”

“Again, not been great at defending balls into the box all season. It has been a bit of an Achilles heel for us. It’s something we have to work on during the summer ready for next season because it just hasn’t been good enough all season,” revealed Ansell.

Sanmann grew into the game the longer the half went on and he cut in from the right and slipped a short pass through to Loveridge, who poked shot was gathered low down by Bishop, who narrowed the angle.

Sutton Athletic wasted a chance in the 32^nd minute when Terry Knott played the ball into Evans’ feet and he played the ball inside for Conor Ansell, who dragged his first time right-footed drive wide from 25-yards.

Both sides then kept the ball in the air before Chipstead almost gifted Sutton Athletic an equaliser.

Noyes swept a free-kick into the Chipstead box from the left and Chipstead central defender James Porter was thankful to keeper Turner to react to palm the ball over the crossbar to prevent an own-goal sailing into the top left-hand corner.

Dillon said: “First half I was well pleased.  We said to go out and get us something early, which we scored on 13 minutes and I was pleased with that and we looked after the ball, we were bright with it and came in at half-time confident.

“When we came down here last week a similar sort of situation happened, they actually headed it and from outside the box and went in and it was looking at what happened this evening. It was quite a similar one. This time our player Liam dealt with it really well so I was pleased.”

“We were slow out of the blocks in the first half, a bit leg weary from the Tuesday night game,” admitted Ansell.

“Defensively we were too high up the pitch at times.  When you’ve got speedy players (Loveridge) like they’ve got on a pitch this size you’re letting them get in there but having said that they never really hurt us from those situations. It was more the dead-ball situations, I think.”

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the break.

Ansell said: “We’ve given them far too much space in behind.  The players just needed to up their game. We were playing at around 70-80% of what I know they can do and what they were doing two days earlier so really more about getting the ball down and start dictating play.”

Dillon said: “We’ve got to look after the 1-0. This year at times we’ve switched off, got ourselves in a position where we feel comfortable and we’ve allowed other teams back into the games and I just felt they came out a little bit brighter than us and set the tempo and put the game to us.”

Sutton Athletic came out with much more hunger after the interval and were the better side for large chunks of the half with Evans using his pace to terrorise Chipstead right-back Eels.

The home side pulled themselves back into the game by equalising 10 minutes and 57 seconds on the clock.

Skipper Evans played a diagonal pass out to left-back Alex Jarvis, who linked up well with Evans and Jarvis’ deep cross wasn’t cut out by Kitt (near-post) or Ryan Tierney (far post) and Morrison ghosted in at the back stick to rifle his shot into the top right-hand corner from a couple of yards out.

Ansell said: “Again, the amount of chances he’s had and that one fell to him lovely, he didn’t mess about with it where he just needed to put it in the net. He done what all good strikers should do in that situation, just make sure. He’s a big lad, just get on the ball and put it in the net however he had to.”

Dillon added: “He finished it well. We invited the pressure on ourselves, allowed the ball to come across the box and rather have someone put a name on it and go and win it, we let it bounce, it carried on coming and they finished the chance.”

Bishop launched a long free-kick into the Chipstead penalty area and the ball was cleared out to Evans, who swept his low shot straight at Turner from 15-yards.

Ansell added: “The chance he had, I’m disappointed he didn’t do more with them,”

Chipstead were given a chance to kill the game off just past the hour-mark but Shea’s right-footed free-kick from 35-yards was comfortably caught by Bishop as he stooped down beside his post.

Dillon said: “Hit the target, can’t complain about that but would’ve liked maybe a little bit more on it.  The aim is to hit the target but if you don’t hit the target you don’t score goals.”

Ansell added: “Matt has been strong all season, he’s done well for the club. I don’t really panic too much whether Matt’s concerned to be perfectly honest.  He's a good reader of the ball, good vocals at the back, he dominates as a keeper.”

Sutton Athletic were the better side in the final 20 minutes as Chipstead were camped in their own half.

Ansell said: “After half-time our midfield gained more control, a lot of the niggly fouls that were going on in the first half, which seemed to cut out in the second half. We were quicker to the ball and when we got on the ball we knew we could use Conor Evans out on the left there as an outlet and actually get him running like they tried using Loveridge.”

Dillon added: “I felt they had a better second half than us but for at least for a big spell of it they came out and really dominated and put the game to us. It was a bit of an overload in the middle which made it hard for us to play.”

Evans launched a long throw into the Chipstead box but Morrison was wasteful with a near post free-header.

Chipstead showed signs of grabbing the lead when in the 78^th minute combative midfielder Chris Steadman got away with a foul on Morrison, play continued and Shea drove into the Sutton box and his shot deflected off Noyes and Bishop grabbed hold of the ball at his near post.

Referee Matthew Grist blew his whistle and was in pain as he pulled up with a calf strain in his right leg with 37:04 on the clock. Luckily there were three match officials for this game so senior assistant Martin Bullock took the whistle for the remainder of the game while the match referee watched from the sidelines.

Sutton Athletic clearly switched off during the two minute stoppage as Chipstead grabbed the winner with 41 minutes and 32 seconds on the clock.

Doyley, who replaced Sandmann, had a quiet time up front but he latched onto Gavin’s pass, cut into the box, skipped past Noyes sliding tackle and dug the ball out from underneath his feet to roll the ball underneath the keeper.

Dillon said:  “Calvin is a lad that’s a bit unfit but he’s one of them whose got a goal in the locker and to be fair he’s got a chance which we thought we hoped we’d get and he finished it really well. 

“It was totally against the run of play. I think when we scored that it sort of upset them a little bit because they know they had such a big spell of play.  You know how football is, you get those chances and we took that chanced and then it was hang on a little bit towards the end with loads of pressure from them.”

Ansell added: “It came from breaking down high up on our left. The two Conor’s were trying to interlink where they were having a lot of success in the second half. The ball broke down, a good counter-attack by Chipstead.  Perhaps we could’ve defensively stayed up and they had to work a bit harder for it, perhaps we dived in which was the wrong option.”

Sutton Athletic could have restored parity inside stoppage time when Evans put over a lovely cross from the left but midfielder Ben Young planted his free header over the crossbar.

Ansell added: “We were getting a lot of joy down the left there. Had we not played on Tuesday would Ben get in a better position to bury it? Who knows!”

Reflecting on his side’s campaign, Ansell admitted: “The cup was pleasing but the league position is disappointing. If it’s a school report, yes, could do better.”

Dillon will check on the fitness of winger Loveridge, who hobbled off tonight and the rest of his squad ahead of Saturday’s home game against bottom four side Long Lane, who have banked 27 points.

“We hope we finish runners-up,” said Dillon.  “Ide Hill, who are on the same points have got a better goal-difference, they face Old Bromleians so we’re hoping Old Bromleians can possibly do us a favour and we can get a win against Long Lane, which will get us second spot.

“We don’t know (how many teams go up) every year it’s been slightly different. It depends what happens with the leagues above and I know last year two went up, this year we still currently don’t know.

“We’ve got a great group. We had quite a few different players at the start of the season but we found a good balance in the side, a good mixture but the group in general are a good bunch of lads.

“Some are struggling, try to get a bit of rest tomorrow and then back at it Saturday really. We need to win, we need the three points and we’ll go to the game and hope to achieve that.”

Sutton Athletic Reserves: Matthew Bishop, Tom Kember, Alex Jarvis, Ben Young, Jordan Noyes, Liam Evans, Terry Knott (Ben Martin 65), Ben Williams, Damarli Morrison, Conor Ansell, Conor Evans.
Subs: Joe Horlick, Levi Maxim, Solomon Jackson

Goal: Damarli Morrison 56

Booked: Tom Kember 21, Alex Jarvis 74

Chipstead: Liam Turner, Jordan Eels, Ryan Tierney, Joe Gavin, James Porter, Alfie Kitt, William Dembigh (Bradley Setters 65), Chris Steadman, Mike Sandmann (Calvin Doyley 65), Jonathan Shea (Jacob Skelly 80), Zak Loveridge (Jonathan Shea 83).
Sub: Chris Dodd

Goals: Joe Gavin 13, Calvin Doyley 87

Booked: Chris Steadman 54, Alfie Kitt 69

Attendance: 18
Referee: Mr Matthew Grist (Bearsted)
Assistants: Mr Martin Bullock (Dartford) & Mr Adam Clayton (Crayford)

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