Erith & Belvedere 1 Beckenham Town 1

Sunday 23rd April 2006

The atmosphere at Park View Road on the last day of the season after the final whistle couldn’t be more depressing, writes Thomas Hawes.

With Maidstone United winning comfortably 4-0 at Sevenoaks Town, Beckenham Town knew a draw would mean the league championship would go to the Stones and Erith & Belvedere knew that a draw wouldn’t be good enough for them to take the third and final promotion spot.

The Deres started positively in front of a lively crowd at Park View Road and were literally inches away from taking an early lead when Tobi Ositola’s lob bounced off the base of the post for a goal-kick.

The home side continued to pressure and were rewarded with a penalty after 23 minutes when Ositola was hacked down just inside the 18-yard box. With a player in the Erith half of the pitch down injured, Leon Braithwaite was delayed by three minutes in taking the penalty.

Whether this delay unsettled him, we shall never know, but his penalty was a tame effort and in the end Rob Tolfrey made a comfortable save and the ball was scrambled away to safety.

The missed opportunity gave Beckenham the belief that today was going to be the day that they clinched their first ever Kent Premier League title and they began to take charge of the game towards the end of the opening period.

However, Becks couldn’t break down the resilient Erith & Belvedere defence and the sides went in level at half-time.

Seven minutes into the half, came the goal that ultimately ended Beckenham’s championship dream and gave the Deres fans hope of a return to Step four of the English Non-League pyramid.

Braithwaite laid the ball back to Mark Nougher, who fired the ball past Tolfrey and into the top corner of the net to provoke ecstatic scenes. Little did the Erith & Belvedere fans know that already by this time it was all in vain.

Thamesmead lead Hythe 3-0, meaning that third place couldn’t be achieved, even if the Deres won.

On the hour mark, Beckenham got their equaliser, when Gavin Rose’s shot took a deflection of Mark Nougher, which left Deres shot-stopper Ricky Hall with absolutely no chance of making a save.

Beckenham continued to rally valiantly for the illusive goal that would guarantee them the Championship, but they couldn’t find a way past the solid Erith backline and the match ended in the inevitable stalemate.

Both Beckenham and Erith & Belvedere will be favourites to lift the Kent Premier League title next year and if today’s game is anything to go by, it’ll be mighty close to separate these two teams.

Erith & Belvedere: Hall, Tague, Spinks, Dakin, Brown, Crawley, Berkley, Martin (Innocent 70), Braithwaite, Ositola (White 80), Nougher

Beckenham Town. Rob Tolfrey, Asher Hudson, Jake Daniels, Tony Sinclair, Errison Ahwan, Junior Kadi, Gavin Rose, Ellis Green, Peter Adeniyi, Paul Vines, Ryan Martin.

Subs: Daniel Morris, Carlton Price, Jamie Cheeseman, Ohran Stewart, Cedrick Meeko

Att:167