VCD Athletic 6-0 Romford - No one in the league gave us a chance, says champion boss Tony Russell

VCD ATHLETIC  6-0  ROMFORD
Ryman League Division One North
Saturday 26^th April 2014
Stephen McCartney reports from Oakwood

VCD ATHLETIC manager Tony Russell says winning the Ryman League Division One North title is comparable to his three kids being born.

The Vickers claimed the title in emphatic fashion on a nerve jangling day at Oakwood, where the footballing gods were smiling down on a team that play the beautiful game.

VCD Athletic, who won the Kent County League Premier Division title seventeen years ago, can now look forward to playing at their highest level of football in their 98 year history in August, after Romford were put to the sword in a brilliant six-goal champagne performance.

Cheshunt done Vickers’ a massive favour by holding Witham Town to a 1-1 draw some 33 miles away in Hertfordshire.

Garry Kimble’s side would have been crowned champions had they won and the Essex side hit the post with three minutes of their game remaining, as the tension inside Oakwood hit fever-pitch.

Witham Town took a fourteenth minute lead through Tom Wraight, but Cheshunt equalised with Allan Bossman’s leveller eleven minutes before the break and held on, much to Vickers’ delight.

However, this result was never in doubt.  Skipper Ben Payne, 24, headed home to give Russell’s men a fourth minute lead.

Striker Michael Power, 30, scored a hat-trick to take his tally for the season to 19 goals in only 22 appearances.

With the game won, all eyes were focused on websites waiting for the final whistle at Cheshunt.

Dean Carpenter drilled home a fifth goal, but the roar around Oakwood seconds after substitute Bertie Brayley curled home goal number six inside injury time, confirmed that Witham Town had slipped up and VCD Athletic crossed over the line in first place with 99 points and 116 goals to their name, one point more than a Witham Town side that scored 109 goals.

However, the championship trophy was at Cheshunt so Ryman League vice-chairman Nick Robinson made a quick dash around the M25 to present the silverware to skipper Payne inside the clubhouse at ten minutes past six.

“I don’t really know where to start,” said Russell, 35, after it sank in that he has secured back-to-back promotions for the club, after finishing runners-up to Erith & Belvedere in the Kent League a year ago.

“It’s just an amazing feeling, bearing my (three) kids being born, best feeling.

“We’ve done it the hard way. We done our best to try to throw it away all season.

“Like I said to them before the game, I just wanted to address them and say how proud we was regardless of whatever happened today. 

“I sat most of them down in the summer and I was looking through my fingers because I knew I had no extra money and I looked at them all in the eye and they’ve been superb.  They understood my situation. If I had it I would have given it to them.

“No-one really gave us a chance.  We played Soham away (on 7 September) and beat them 3-1 and their manager said ‘well done, you lot will definitely not go down.’

“He wasn’t saying it in a rude way but that was the mind-set of the whole league. He thought we’d be happy finishing fourth or fifth from bottom.  That shows the mind-set of everyone around us but I believe that I’ve got good players and I also believe that me and Razor (Ray Powell) do with them.  The coaching, the set-up, it causes people problems.  We make them so organised and we give them the freedom to express themselves within that structure.

“It’s crazy! If I don’t do anything again in football, I’ll be a happy man!”

Russell thanked the higher-ranked managers that passed on their good luck messages prior to the game.

“I had so many good luck messages today, it was superb and it just shows you just how good non-league football is,” he said.

“From Jamie Day (Welling United), to Jay Saunders (Maidstone United), Gavin Rose (Dulwich Hamlet), Hugo Langton (coach at Bromley), Keith McMahon (Thamesmead Town), I’ve had loads, just texting me.

“Twitter was going crazy.  I saw your thing last night (Covering VCD Athletic v Romford on Saturday - would love to see Vickers grab league title on last day because they play the beautiful game) and that started to rile me up a little bit and this morning I thought we could actually do this!

“Razor said ‘I’m nervous, this is on,’ – he’s never nervous! We are never nervous. We’re confident people with what we do.

“I said to the boys the biggest disaster that could happen today what we couldn’t deal with is if we didn’t win and they (Witham) messed up and we handed it to them.  I don’t think you could deal with that.  If you walk off the pitch and find out we handed it to them, we’re not dealing with that and I said that to the boys.

“I thought they were superb today under pressure.  The football that we played was different gear and Romford ain’t a bad side but we passed them open 6-0 and they were lucky to get six.”

Kick-off was delayed by six minutes after a goal-net had to be repaired (as it was delayed at the start of the second half) and this just added to the tension of the day.

However, VCD Athletic opened the scoring after only three minutes and 43 seconds through Payne’s fourth goal of the season.

Carpenter, who had originally taken a throw in, whipped in a cross from the left where Payne rose magestically above his man to power his header over Aaron Omand’s right shoulder into the roof of the net from four-yards.

“I’ve said this to you before, you just know with Payno, the bigger the game, he will never, ever let you down!

“I’ve had him since I’ve been at Erith Town and I said wherever I go he will always be my skipper.

“He’s not shouting or screaming but he’s a leader of men in what he does. It’s just fitting that he gets the ball rolling for us.”

Omand made a number of fine saves to deny Vickers clocking up a cricket score and was Romford’s man-of-the-match.

It should have been 2-0 inside 12 minutes.  James Duckworth swung in a corner from the right towards the far post and Nick Reeves came up from the back to see his header tipped around the post by the diving keeper.

A poor clearance from Omand was picked up by Duckworth on the edge of the penalty area and he played the ball into Power, who teed up Lea Dawson whose shot deflected past the far post.

However, by this stage Witham Town were in the driving seat in the title race as they were also leading 1-0.

VCD Athletic refused to let that worry them, after all, all the pressure was on Kimble and his players, who lost a vital game at Oakwood 3-1 when the two sides met on 5 April.

Duckworth was brought down just inches away from the penalty area and Dent’s right-footed free-kick was saved comfortably by Omand.

A penetrating run from Vickers’ left-back Teddy Nesbitt saw him whip in a cross, which fell at Dent’s feet at the far post and his low shot flashed wide of the far post.

VCD Athletic were to be denied by the woodwork in the 26^th minute – the only moment when it didn’t go for them.

Dent played a sublime diagonal pass which Power cut across the Romford defence to latch on to and as Omand came rushing off his line the former Thamesmead Town striker clipped his right-footed chip over the keeper only for the ball to bounce on to the top of the crossbar and behind for a goal-kick from 20-yards.

Romford’s only chance, however, came in the 29^th minute.

Right-back David Ottley progressed towards the by-line to whip in a cross towards the far post. 

Left-back George Woodward wasn’t tracked and he lashed his left-footed drive over the crossbar.

Reflecting on Romford’s limited chances, Russell said: “We’ve done that all season. We just grab control of a game. When you’ve got the ball you just control the game.  We’ve done that for 80% of the time. We’ve dominated games of football. People don’t quite realise that. The scoreline doesn’t always show it.”

With Cheshunt now level, Payne planted his header over the crossbar following Duckworth’s corner from the right.

Sublime trademark attacking football from VCD Athletic forced Jamie Dicks into giving away a penalty six minutes before the break.

Nesbitt played a one-two with Duckworth and danced into the penalty area before he was brought down by Romford’s right-sided midfielder.

Russell said: “The move before that though! What a great move! It started at the back, pass, pass, pass, pass and pass and Teddy’s got it into feet and it’s gone out there and they think it’s gone. The reverse pass.

“Some of our football today was breathtaking. I love watching it. I believe it works. I think it’s pleasing on the eye and it’s entertaining when you play football and you score 116 goals in a season.”

Power stepped up and his right-footed penalty nestled into the left-hand corner, despite goalkeeper Omand diving the same way.

Russell said: I went to watch Shaggy play for Thamesmead against Dulwich earlier on in the season. I didn’t recognise him, he was so fat! 

“He’s a good friend of mine. I hadn’t seen him for a little while, we sort of lost in touch. I hadn’t spoke to him for six months and it wound me up so much.

“When he told me he left Thamesmead I said we’re not going to sign him but I wanted him to come and train and we did bits on our own.  I said I’d sign him when I thought he was ready.

“He said: “I’ll will score you the goals to win you the league.”  I’ve got the text.

“Shaggy’s never renowned for scoring goals.  He’s got 19 goals in 22 games and a couple of them were as sub.  That’s a good a record as anyone for someone who’s not allegedly a natural goalscorer.  You take that when you bring someone in late doors and then get you a goal a game.

“I just said to him out there, he’s a good friend of mine. We’ve grown up together. To do it is amazing. To do it with people like Ray Powell and Shaggy, who are my closest friends means the world to me.”

Carpenter stole the ball from James Ishmail before running forward before hitting a left-footed drive, which was comfortably saved by the busy Omand.

Romford were denied a goal when striker Nick Reynolds was penalised for a foul on home keeper Nick Blue before slotting the ball into an empty net.

Duckworth played a one-two along the deck with Dawson and his right-footed drive from fourteen-yards was drilled into the foot of the side netting.

When asked whether he knew the half-time score at Cheshunt, Russell said his brother Phillip was in the crowd and gesticulated that the dream was still on.

“I didn’t want to know it during the game,” revealed Russell. 

“My brother was here so I told everyone I didn’t want to know.  I told Groomy (kit man/pa announcer Adam Groom) don’t shout on the announcements and as I walked off I didn’t here it because I walked straight away and my brother just put two fingers up (telling me it was 1-1).

“When I finished my team talk we spoke about a couple of tactical things that they’ve done and just spoke about the tempo. When we move the ball quickly they couldn’t live with us and I just feel 2-0 is a funny score but I wanted to stay positive regardless of what’s going on (at Cheshunt).

“Even if Witham nicked a late winner, you win 6-0 going into the play-offs you have the mind-set so that’s what I wanted.

“All we kept saying was a lot of football’s played in your head so I wanted to get them relax a little bit.  I thought we were nice and light, like we were earlier on in the season and I thought even if we went into the play-offs now I’d be relatively confident with the side that we’ve got.”

Matters were now out of their hands and fans were tuned into their mobile phones frantically looking for updates from Theobalds Lane.

VCD Athletic didn’t let the pressure get on top of them and were to be denied a third inside six second half minutes.

Barney Williams burst down the right before whipping in an excellent cross towards the near post where Dawson (who helped Thamesmead Town win the Ryman League Division One North play-offs last season) hooked his right-footed volley straight at Omand from six-yards.

A smart save from Omand denied Vickers again when he dived to his left and stuck out his left palm to turn over Carpenter’s left-footed drive from 22-yards after Duckworth’s lay-off.

Goal number three finally arrived in the 57^th minute.

Williams was the architect again, putting in a low cross towards the near post where Power slid in and poked his shot into the bottom corner from six-yards.

“Good movement from a big man, he’s got across the front of his centre half,” said Russell.

“Barney Williams, what can you say about Barney Williams?  He’s won a (Conference South title winning) medal with Welling last year, I think he played eighteen games for them and now he’s won a medal today. Unbelievable!

“Daisy (Jamie Day) keeps asking how he’s doing. I keep saying alright!

“I said to Jamie, the kid is something special. The way he trains, I’ve never seen anything like it. He could go pro. He puts everything into training and I’m so pleased for him as well.”

Dominant VCD Athletic squandered an excellent chance in the 62^nd minute when Dent’s through ball released Duckworth through on goal.  He dribbled the ball around the goalkeeper but Omand pulled off an excellent save, recovering to dive to his left to tip the shot around the post.

Russell added: “We’ve scored 116 goals, but we’ve probably missed 216!  We’ve scored so many but yet we’ve missed probably more!”

Duckworth swung in the resulting corner from the right and Payne powered a header towards goal from 12-yards, which was headed off the line by Ottley.

It continued to be one-way traffic and Stuart Thurgood clipped a ball over the top of the ravaged Romford defence to put Power through on goal, but after bringing the ball under his spell the striker blasted his right-footed shot over from 25-yards.

Dent then danced his way into the Romford penalty area, but his right-footed shot trickled narrowly wide of the foot of the right-hand post.

VCD Athletic made it 4-0 in the 68^th minute, following their ninth corner of the game.

Duckworth swung in a corner from the right and Power rose to beat his marker at the near post and hooked a right-footed half-volley into the roof of the net from six-yards.

Russell said: “Good finish. It bounced up, put his foot over it and drilled it into the top bins.

“It’s at that point where I stopped worrying about our game and then someone said the Witham game had gone 80 minutes and then I thought this could be on!

“They’ve (Witham) scored so many late goals, so many. I’ve never known anything like it!

“At Aveley they were 1-0 down at home with five minutes to go and won 2-1 and against Chatham they scored in the 90^th minute.

“There’s only so many times you can go to the well before it’s dry.  We haven’t really done that.”

But VCD Athletic knew that one mistake from Cheshunt would ensure the Kent side would be hosting a play-off semi-final on Tuesday night.

With this in mind, Russell hauled off hat-trick hero Power, Duckworth and Dent within the last twenty minutes.

Russell explained: “To me the game’s done. We’ve done our bit, get them off, rest them up.  You’ve got to think ahead as a manager. I’ve learnt you’ve got to be thinking all the time.  I said to Razor, let’s get them off.  They’re not going to come back to draw four all.

“Denty and Duckers are superb. There’s only three of them that stayed when I took over, some were released, some jumped ship and those two were here when I got here and I’m delighted for them.”

Sherwin Stanley, however, made an instant impact on the game as he set up goal number five in the 71^st minute.

The substitute striker laid the ball off to Carpenter, who drilled his left-footed shot into the right-hand corner from 25-yards.

Russell explained: “We sort of changed it a little bit. Denty normally plays in the hole but we put him out wide today just because Romford play with a diamond.

“Carps would normally be the more advanced midfielder but I slept on it and I went with Dawson because he scored a lot of goals for Thamesmead and I thought he gets in there.

“I named the side on Thursday on the board and I slept on it and said I’ll put Daws there and Carps’ arm went up and I said to him in the warm-up this is my gut feeling. I’m going to go for it so when he scored he came for a drink and said ‘I told you I’ll score’, so it’s good that he showed me he’s an attacking midfielder!”

Another substitute, Alfie May, was to be denied by another brilliant save from Omand.

Dawson whipped in a cross form the right and May took a touch and Omand dived to his right to make another fine block.

Outclassed Romford finished the game with ten-men after losing Woodward to injury with eight minutes remaining.

However, as this game neared the final whistle, it appeared that time stood still in Hertfordshire and frantically looking for updates at Cheshunt was the main focus.

Brayley, 32, produced a moment of class, in a few seconds that will live with VCD Athletic’s small band of supporters forever.

The clock clicked into injury time when Brayley curled a beautiful left-footed shot from the right hand side, which curled around Omand to caress in to the top far corner.

“Best goal of the game, great goal,” hailed Russell.

“I don’t usually go for older players, who have been around. It’s not really my cup of tea just because I like hungry, fresh players who you can coach them, mould them.

“But we started to stumble a little bit and I spoke to the chairman and I thought it was the right that we brought in a couple of experienced heads so when the game was getting a bit (tense) they calmed us down a little bit and I thought that was important.”

Within seconds of the quality strike, a roar that started from a group of people between the dug-outs which then engulfed around other parts of the ground was confirmation that VCD Athletic were crowned Ryman League Division One North champions – it’s just a shame that the Ryman League don’t have a replica trophy to present teams that were in second place at 3 o’clock that grab the title – deservedly – on the final day.

When asked his feelings when he heard the roar, Russell admitted: “I didn’t want to believe it! I saw someone jumping around and I heard them shout ‘it’s over, it’s over’, but I just didn’t believe it!

“But I looked up and the committee started jumping around and then I just felt Razor around my neck and I was sort of passing out.  I sat on the floor and zipped my top over my head and I just wanted ten seconds on my own. It was just carnage!

“I wasn’t going to cry but it was just what has just happened? I’ve never let myself believe it if I’m honest because to me the players look to you so you always have to be strong.  You always have to have that front. I just dropped the front. It’s over. I just sat down, zipped my top over my head and I could just feel my brother coming over and pulling me.

“It’s a great moment. My kids are here as well. It’s brilliant!”

Russell spoke about his immense pride guiding the club to the Ryman Premier League for the very first time in their history.

“This club’s been going (nearly) 99 years and they’ve had some really good managers and really good players. The highest they’ve ever finished in their history is eighth in the Ryman (League Division One North in 2009-2010, but were demoted over controversial ground grading issues).”

Russell paid tribute to Martin Ford, who took charge of the club during their Kent County League days in 1993, before resigning as manager at the end of the 2007 season.

“What I love about this club is that Martin Ford, who was down here before Gary (chairman Gary Rump) and everyone. He was the one that pushed this club on. They were a nothing club if I’m honest and he put a lot of time, effort and money into this football club. It wouldn’t be on the foundations it was on now if it wasn’t without him.  He’s not at the club now but they always remind me and I love that.

“Brian (Norris) always says to me Fordy was the one who pushed it and Gary took it on. Gary puts his hand in his own hard earned money and everything but you have to look at the people that started it off.”

Runners-up Witham Town will have home advantage against fifth-placed Needham Market in Tuesday night’s play-off semi-final.

The other play-off tie will be an all-Essex affair between Heybridge Swifts and Harlow Town.

Russell has offered a hand of friendship to Kimble, who was Liam Daish’s assistant manager at Ebbsfleet United.

“As much as we’ve got this rivalry with Witham now – I don’t know where it’s come from – we have!  They came down here and it got a bit fruity but generally I hope they do go up if I’m honest because I feel for them getting so close.

“You can say what you want about them, but give credit where credit’s due. They’ve shown a lot of heart and determination. 

“I would text their manager but I don’t know whether he’ll take it the wrong way so I’ll leave it.  I might send a tweet to their twitter account but he’s a good man. We spoke before we played them and we said if either one of us go into the play-offs it’s going to be tricky, we know that. It was a mind-set  - but I generally do hope they go up.”

VCD Athletic: Nick Blue, Barney Williams, Teddy Nesbitt, Nick Reeves, Ben Payne, Stuart Thurgood, Dean Carpenter, Karl Dent (Bertie Brayley 73), Michael Power (Sherwin Stanley 70), James Duckworth (Alfie May 70), Lea Dawson.
Subs: Ray Powell, Billy Manners

Goals: Ben Payne 4, Michael Power 39 (penalty), 57, 68, Dean Carpenter 71, Bertie Brayley 90

Booked: Alfie May 85

Romford: Aaron Omand, David Ottley, George Woodward, Jack Barry, Scott Truman, Paul Clayton, Jamie Dicks (Joe Oates 66), James Ishmail, Nick Reynolds (Jordan Thomas 73), Ryan Imbert, Tom Richardson (Reece Tranter 73).
Sub: Gary Redwin

Booked: Jamie Dicks 46

Attendance: 205
Referee: Mr Graeme Ions (Tonbridge)
Assistants: Mr Ivan Gelov (Oxford) & Mr Michael Marsh (Herne Bay)