Littlehampton Town 2-3 Faversham Town - We want to stay in The FA Cup for as long as we can, says Faversham Town manager Tommy Warrilow

Littlehampton Town 2 – 3 Faversham Town
Location	The Sportsfield, St Flora's Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 6BD
Kickoff	18/08/2024 15:00

LITTLEHAMPTON TOWN  2-3  FAVERSHAM TOWN
The Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round
Sunday 18 August 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from The Sportsfield

FAVERSHAM TOWN manager Tommy Warrilow says it means everything to reach The FA Cup First Qualifying Round for the second successive season after beating a Littlehampton Town side that were reduced to 10 men for 66 minutes.
 

Littlehampton Town made a couple of changes to their side that opened their Isthmian League South East Division campaign with a 3-2 home defeat to Steve Lovell’s Herne Bay here last Sunday and were in fourteenth-place in the eighth-tier table.

The hosts defeated Tooting & Mitcham United here 1-0 in The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round, while Faversham Town came away from Hailsham with a 1-0 win over Bexhill United.

The Lilywhites opened their Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division campaign with a 4-0 home win over Glebe, before a couple of 2-2 draws followed against Holmesdale and Kennington.  The big-hitters arrived on the West Sussex coast in eighth-place in the table with five points, four points behind early leaders VCD Athletic.

Littlehampton Town grabbed a nineteenth minute lead courtesy of a header from Alex Laing, before left-wing-back Matthew Astle was sent-off for a bad challenge on Nathan Wood in the 24^th minute.

Striker Frannie Collin restored parity with a free header, before the Kent side dominated the remainder of the first half.

Laing drilled the home side into the lead to notch his third goal of the season, as Littlehampton Town were a threat on the counter-attack.

However, Faversham Town equalised with an emphatic Sam Hasler free-kick with four minutes remaining before Collin – who was recalled for the suspended Johan Caney-Bryan -  sealed the deal with a stoppage time header.

“I thought we deserved it but second half we made hard work of it,” admitted Warrilow.

“The first half we started slowly and grew into it and to be honest we didn’t want half-time to come because we had a couple of chances that we should’ve taken and that’s been the story of our last couple of games.”

Faversham Town created the first chance after only 155 seconds when right-back Tariq Ossai floated in a cross from the right and striker Tashi-Jay Kwayie  towered over Tom Butler (who played on the right of a three-man central defence) but the ball bounced into the gloves of goalkeeper James Binfield for a comfortable collection.

The home side swiftly went up the other end and just 24 seconds later Josh Short – one of four players who form a boxed midfield – cracked a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which stung the fingers of visiting goalkeeper Jacob Russell.

Left-sided centre-half Nick D’Arienzo was penalised for pulling Kieron Campbell’s shirt down the right and Hasler delivered a left-footed free-kick which was met by Billy Bennett’s flicked free-header on the edge of the box, which was easily caught by an untroubled Binfield.

Faversham Town’s best chance arrived in the 16^th minute, following the first of four long throws into the box by left-back Bradley Simms.

The ball was cleared out to the impressive Wood, who took a touch before drilling a low right-footed drive from 18-yards, which fizzed through a crowd of players and Binfield dived low to his right to hold well.

However, Littlehampton Town grabbed the lead with 18 minutes and 38 seconds on the clock, following a well-worked move.

Recalled right-wing-back Ryan Yoro-Thomas played the ball inside to holding midfielder Jordan Layton, who played a first time pass to Short, before slipping the ball to Yoro-Thomas down the channel.

He linked up well with player-manager-striker George Gaskin, before Yoro-Thomas cut the ball back to Layton, who delivered a quality deep cross into the six-yard box where Laing got in behind Ben Gorham to bury his downward header into the left-hand corner.

“From our point of view, I don’t know why we came off the lad, he set it back and we’ve got to stop the cross in and had to defend it better. It’s quite simple,” said Warrilow.

“But fair play, it was a good goal for them but for us it’s perhaps what we needed. It gave us a kick up the backside.

Referee Nathaniel Roff pulled out a red card to send off Astle for a bad tackle on Wood (23:02) and Littlehampton Town goalkeeper Binfield immediately went down for treatment with a condition allegedly called ‘timewastingitus’ so manager Mitchell Hand could give out some tactical advice from his technical area.

“It’s a red card.  You want to see his legs, we took a photo of it. He’s caught him. They can’t have any complaints surely,” insisted Warrilow.

“I’m not here to ask for cards and all that. I don’t like that.  The game’s gone a bit soft anyway, so I’m not going to jump up and down.  Even in my day, even that would’ve been a red card!”

The home side switched formation to 4-1-3-1 and Faversham Town had the front foot momentum.

Ossai cut in from the right and curled his shot towards goal from 20-yards, which Binfield gathered at the second attempt after dropping the ball.

The Lilywhites deservedly equalised with 30:07 on the clock, when the home side’s defence failed to press in midfield allowing Wood to run forward before playing the ball out to Ossai, who floated in a cross towards the back post for an unmarked Collin to bury his diving header inside the left-hand post from eight-yards.

“I’m pleased for Fran. He’s got a couple of goals today and when you get people like Frannie, we should be scoring from a lot more free-kicks and corners,” said Warrilow.

“There was some good link-up play but we should’ve had a couple more in the first half, with some good play as well.”

Warrilow went with three at the back in the 32^nd minute with Hasler dropping in to partner centre-halves Gorham and Davies, with both full-backs high, as the Kent side remained patient.

Collin rolled the ball out to the advanced Ossai, who put in a low cross.  The ball was poorly cleared by central centre-half Bradley Peters at the near-post and Wood swept his first-time shot into the side netting from a tight angle.

Faversham Town were a threat down the right during the first half.  Kieron Campbell, who is usually a left-winger, was deployed in the middle of the park alongside Wood.

“Basically, we had three at the back. We put Hasler in the middle to get on the ball and spray it about, with wing-backs,” explained Warrilow.

“KC (Campbell) came in with Woody and Billy Bennett, just to get in and around so it was like we sacrificed a holder where we put Has in between Ben Gorham and Callum Davies and to be fair I thought it worked.

“Hasler’s passes today, I thought were excellent. I thought a few we’re going to go a miss but we’ve just got to work on a few other things and a few parts of his game to sort of make it complete.”

Simms and Campell linked up before the ball was worked out to Wood, whose right-footed shot was parried by Binfield, low to his right and the home side got bodies in the way of Collin, who tried to scramble the ball over the line.

Billy Bennett was guilty of a glaring miss in the 43^rd minute as Faversham Town kept knocking on the door.

Davies launched a long ball out of defence, Kwayie hooked the ball inside from the half-way line on the left inside to Campbell, who fed Collin, who rolled the ball out to Ossai on the right and he flashed a cross across the face of goal towards the back stick which was stabbed past the foot of the left-hand post by Bennett from close in.

Littlehampton Town weathered the storm and created a chance for Laing on the edge of the box but he lacked power and his effort was comfortably gathered by Russell, who 25 seconds later was off his line so ineffective striker Gaskin tried to score from the half-way line with a speculative swept right-footed drive, which rolled harmlessly wide of the goal.

“Just to keep going, don’t get impatient, keep disciplined, the ref might look to level it up and don’t go gung-ho,” replied Warrilow, when asked about his half-time thoughts.

“I think we went gung-ho second half and got caught a few times and we’ve got to learn not to do that. 

“Like I said last week, even though we’ve got a very experienced side, we should be managing the game a lot better and organising a lot better without the ball.

“You’ve got to remember this is really early in the season. We’ve not been back not that long and this is our fifth game, so it’s nice to actually get a winner late on, rather than conceding like we have done in the last two games.”

The home side brought on Luke Donaldson at the start of the second half and the striker impressed on the counter-attack.

Collin released Wood, who cut inside D’Arienzo and his 12-yard shot was held by Binfield, low to his right, as the Faversham midfielder tried to slot his shot into the bottom far corner inside the opening six minutes of the second half.

Laing delivered a right-footed free-kick from the left some 35-yards from goal, the ball was hooked on by Layton and fell to Gaskin, who cracked his left-footed volley across Russell and past the far post from 12-yards on the angle.

Simms stabbed the ball behind Yoro-Thomas to release Bennett, before Simms took a touch and stroked his left-footed shot towards the bottom near-corner, forcing the busy Binfield to dive to his right to tip the ball around his near-post as the game approach the hour-mark.

“Bradley should be doing better there, he’s obviously not a goalscorer but he’s disappointed that he’s not put that away himself but it was another good chance,” added Warrilow.

Winning the corner-count three-to-one, Bennett swung the ball in from the left and Kwayie’s towering header flashed across the goalkeeper and just past the far post.

The home side started edging themselves back into the game with counter-attacking raids down the right being their biggest threat.

Short hit a long diagonal ball over the top to release unmarked substitute striker Donaldson through on goal and his right-footed angle drive was tipped around the post by Russell, diving to his left.

“Listen, when you’ve got 10 men, that’s what you do, they’re still in the game, it’s one-all.  They go 2-1 up, it happens,” added Warrilow, when asked about the home side’s counter-attacking style.

Littlehampton Town grabbed the lead with 21:04 on the clock, courtesy of one of their breakaways.

Donaldson threaded the ball into the feet of Laing, who superbly trapped the ball, turned and ran through on goal (in behind Davies and Gorham) before clinically drilling his right-footed drive into the bottom far corner, despite Russell getting a hand to the ball as he dived to his right.

Warrilow said: “We can’t do that – we switched off and they’ve cashed in on it. Our passing hasn’t been the best sometimes.

“We’ve had the last couple of games when we’ve let late goals in and it’s put a downer around the place but everyone wants to turn us over.”

Hand pulled off a tactical blunder when he hooked Laing in the 71^st minute and brought on centre-half Marshall Ball, making it a 5-3-1 formation and parking the bus.

“They just wanted to see it out and it backfired. We pushed bodies on, attack minded wise and we’ve cashed in on it,” added Warrilow.

Scott Kirkwood fed fellow sub Kieron Pamment, who got in behind Gorham to reach the by-line, before cutting inside and stroking a left-footed shot, which forced the visiting keeper to dive to his right to parry.

Warrilow pushed Campbell further forward for the latter stages of the game and the former Herne Bay man drew a free-kick from Short, a couple yards from the edge of the penalty area.

Collin used his vast experience to move the ball back a couple of yards, the home side lined up a six-man wall and everyone was expecting set-piece specialist Collin to strike the free-kick, although he had Hasler standing beside him.

Hasler drilled an emphatic left-footed penalty into the roof of the net from 22-yards to put Faversham Town on level terms with 40 minutes and 20 seconds on the clock.

“If I’m a goalie, that’s the beauty, that’s the beauty.  It might be Frans turn but Hasler has been lucky sometimes. That’s why he stayed on because he can do that,” said Warrilow.

“Listen, I thought he was alright today. His distribution and he sat in between the two centre-halves and I thought he was good today but he’s just got to learn just to step in when we haven’t got the ball a little bit.

“I’m not going to fault anyone today, I thought everyone put a shift in.”

With the home fans plotting their midweek trip to Faversham for the replay, the Lilywhites saved them the hassle by deservedly claiming the victory just 34 seconds into stoppage time.  There were seven minutes and 10 seconds of stoppage time.

Simms and Campbell linked up well down the left before an unpressed Simms took a touch before floating in a sublime cross into the six-yard box where Collin buried his free-header into the left-hand corner.  The Littlehampton parked bus suffered a flat tyre.

“He just arrived at the right time. As soon as he floated it over, I said to the lads, it was just about Frannie keeping the header down and his put it away brilliantly,” added Warrilow.

“Frannie won’t play every game, like a few of them. He’s in his 30s. He’s had a great career and hopefully he sees it out with us.

“It’s frustrating, in the last 10-15 minutes, (but I liked) the fact that the boys didn’t give up and they quite easily after we let a couple of goals in, we could quite easily had their heads dropped but the way that we kept going.  We were frustrated as well but you always know with the players I’ve got, they’re always going to create chances.”

Faversham Town reached The FA Cup First Qualifying Round under previous manager Sammy Moore last season, losing 4-0 at home to Isthmian League Premier Division side Lewes.

“It means everything,” said Warrilow.  “We want to stay in it for as long as we can. 

“The priority is to get out of the league. It’s going to be a tough league this year, but we’ll take every game as it comes.

“Like I said to you in the past, with the stigma around the club. It’s a bit boring now but it’s going to be a tough league. People are investing heavily in this league.

“We’ve kept the nucleus of last year and touched it (the squad) up with a few players I’ve known in the past, who I know will do a job for us.

“It’s a good start and we’re unbeaten in five. We’re our worst critics but we’re all allowed to make mistakes in life, otherwise we don’t learn nothing.”

Warrilow takes his side to league rivals Fisher next Saturday, 24 August in The FA Vase First Qualifying Round.

Ajay Ashanike’s men have lost all three of their league games and are the only side in the tenth-tier division yet to collect a point this season.

“Tough game. I know they’ve not made the best start, but I expect a real tough game down there,” said Warrilow.

“I’ve got a lot of time for the boys down at Fisher so I’m expecting a very tough game.

“We are where we are. There’s no point looking at the league table now. You only have to win a game and you can shoot up from wherever.

“We’re disappointed that we’ve dropped points from the last few games but we’ve created more than enough chances in the last few games to win two or three games of football, so there’s loads of positives there.

“But we’ve got no divine right to turn up and win a game of football. One thing we won’t lose, we won’t get carried away. We’ll be confident but we don’t have no arrogance around us or anything like that. We’ll just work hard and get results.

“We’ve got a few little knocks but not really no (real injuries). The nice thing is we’ve got a clear week so we’ll train on Tuesday and look at everyone, so hopefully we’ll get everyone fit and we’ll just get on with it.”

Littlehampton Town: James Binfield, Ryan Yoro-Thomas, Matthew Astle, Bradley Peters, Nick D’Arienzo, Tom Butler, Alex Laing (Marshall Ball 71), Jordan Layton (Scott Kirkwood 80), George Gaskin (Kieron Pamment 64), Conrad Honore (Luke Donaldson 46), Josh Short (Matthew Storm 88).
Sub: Charlie Pitcher

Goals: Alex Laing 19, 67

Booked: Nick D’Arienzo 11, Mitchell Hand 56 (joint-manager),  George Gaskin 57, Marshall Ball 90, Bradley Peters 90

Sent Off: Matthew Astle 24

Faversham Town: Jacob Russell, Tariq Ossai, Bradley Simms, Sam Hasler, Callum Davies, Ben Gorham, Kieron Campbell (Matthew Newman 90), Billy Bennett (Stefan Payne 69), Tashi-Jay Kwayie, Frannie Collin, Nathan Wood.
Subs: Daniel Thompson, Henry Muggeridge, Luke Rooney

Goals: Frannie Collin 31, 90, Sam Hasler 86

Booked: Sam Hasler 70, Bradley Simms 77, Ben Gorham 90

Attendance: 310
Referee: Mr Nathaniel Roff
Assistants: Mr James Willis & Mr Alexander Hollis