Stansfeld 1-3 Bearsted - I’ve got full confidence in the squad that we’ll do what’s necessary to stay up, says Stansfeld manager Billy Shinners

Stansfeld 1 – 3 Bearsted
Location	Badgers Sports Ground, Middle Park Avenue, Eltham, London SE9 5HT
Kickoff	02/04/2025 19:45

STANSFELD  1-3  BEARSTED
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Tuesday 2 April 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Middle Park Avenue

STANSFELD manager Billy Shinners says he has got full confidence in his squad that they will do what’s necessary to stay up and retain their Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division status in their last four games of his second season in charge.

 

Stansfeld remain in the bottom four in the table with 35 points (10 wins, five draws and 19 defeats) and are six points clear of the relegation zone and Shinners believes five more points will keep the amateur outfit in the ninth-tier of English football.

Bearsted dominated large chunks of the first half and raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 23 minutes, courtesy of targetman Connor French’s 16^th goal of the season, from the penalty spot, before the impressive attacking midfielder Robbie Roberts notched his seventh goal of the campaign.

Stansfeld grabbed a goal through a clinical strike from wide left striker Harvey Mead, who finished the game at left-back - but the hosts lost centre-half Ibrahim Barrie to a violent conduct 44^th minute red card.

Stansfeld knocked on the door during a vastly-improved second half performance but Bearsted rose a couple of spots into eleventh-place in the table (43 points from 33 games – 13 wins, four draws and 16 defeats) when impressive left-winger Eniola Hassan cut in and curled in his eighth-goal of the season to seal the deal with 15 minutes left.

“We’ve come off the back of some quite good results, a draw against Faversham, a win against Lydd and a couple of other good results, so we went into the game with confidence that we was going to get something out of the game but unfortunately we haven’t,” said a frustrated Shinners.

“There were positives but I think they won the game in the first half-hour really. They were very good as well in the first half-hour, going 2-0 up and then we obviously get a player sent off, which makes it a very uphill challenge but to be honest the attitude since the sending off, you can’t fault them.”

Bearsted manager Kevin Stevens added: “First of all, we’re pleased that we’ve broken the hoodoo with you coming to watch and we’ve won!

“But I thought it was a very solid performance from the boys, always a tough place to come. Stansfeld work their socks off so they’re never easy to play against but I thought we controlled the game for large parts.

“If we had probably taken our chances, it would’ve been a little bit more comfortable.
“It’s always a tough place to come. The pitch, when there’s a bit of a slope, it can become, we had the pressure in the first half, they had the pressure in the second half but they went down to 10, which helped a little bit, I suppose.

“I thought we controlled the game for the most part well. We did get away with one or two but that’s football for you.  For the most part, I thought we controlled the game.

“We should’ve been out of sight at half-time really, created a lot of good chances and again in the second half we created a lot of good chances, so it could’ve been a few more. I don’t think I’m being unfair to Stansfeld saying that.

“But fair play to them with 10 men I think they made the second half very hard for us, so it was a good performance in all from the boys.”

Bearsted took advantage of the slope at Middle Park Avenue and created their first of many openings after only 43 seconds, hitting Stansfeld on the counter-attack.

Right-winger Dieko Falade released French, who cracked a right-footed drive which forced Stansfeld’s goalkeeper Albert Penney to dive to his left to push the ball behind for the first of five Bearsted corners, four coming in the first 25 minutes.

Stevens said: “We worked a lot on in the last couple of weeks, getting deliveries in the box quicker, playing combinations quicker. We like to keep the ball and sometimes it’s a little bit too slow but Saturday (a 1-1 home draw against Larkfield & New Hythe) and tonight we moved the ball a bit quicker and created quite a lot of chances both days.”

Shinners added: “They started really fast, really fast. I was really impressed with their first 20 minutes and we didn’t turn up! We started really slow and going 2-0 down quite early on, it was concerning.”

Stansfeld right-back Archie Panyi was struggling to cope with some impressive wing play from Hassan down the left and Stansfeld’s combative holding midfielder Ollie Andrews committed three fouls inside the 16 minutes before he was hooked through injury.

“Our captain Ollie came off, I don’t know exactly why yet but he’s come off so we’ll have to have a look at that,” added Shinners.

Hassan twice cut in from the left into the Stansfeld penalty area and Andrews had a couple of goes to bring down the winger, before being penalised by referee Gavin Farrington for bringing down the tricky winger and hurting himself in the process.

Bearsted took a deserved lead when French placed his right-footed penalty in off the base of the left-hand post, the ball rolling along the line and nestling inside the opposite corner, the goal coming with eight minutes and eight seconds on the clock.

“Good from Eniola, he’s had a good little run of late. His dangerous when he gets the ball, he’s always going to do that with defenders, the way he dribbles with it, tied to him,” said Stevens.

“Do you know what? We haven’t used Frenchie really how we should do and it’s something we’ve spoken about in the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve spoken about using him a bit more in the manner, not just because he’s a big targetman and whack balls up to him. We wanted to be a bit more clever than that with patterns of play and give it to him in dangerous areas.

“Listen, if you get the ball into Frenchie, he’s going to hold it up and if you give it to him enough, he’s going to score goals for you.”

Shinners added: “A penalty that early on is not acceptable to a point because especially that type of pen. I think we had a few chances to get rid of it, didn’t get rid of it and eventually gave a penalty away. He took it well to be fair.”

Bearsted worked some good patterns of play, often involving Roberts, with holding midfielder Jack Palmby playing the ball inside to a deep Roberts, who split open Panyi to release Hassan, where a sublime first touch saw him cut inside and tee up Roberts, who swept a first time left-footed shot from inside the D, that bounced once and was comfortably saved by Penney.

“We’ve missed Robbie. He got injured and we’ve missed him for the last couple of games but he’s come in tonight and doesn’t look like he had an injury,” said Stevens.

“Robbie started like a house on fire. I think he carried that on throughout the game. Robbie’s been good all season. He’s been one of our star performers this season for me.”

Bearsted should have scored following their second corner, which was delivered deep by Roberts with his left-foot from the right and an unmarked Billy Lewins steered his header just past the near post from inside the six-yard box.

Stevens said: “Billy’s been out for an awful long time. He had a long injury and then he got a six-game ban getting sent off, so it’s taken Billy a while to get going. I’ve wanted him for a long time and he’s a good aggressive player, makes runs in behind. I’m glad he’s back Billy, he’s a good player.”

Bearsted deservedly doubled their lead with 22 minutes and 9 seconds on the clock, with some poor defending from Stansfeld’s central midfielder Harrison English.

Right-winger Falade played the ball in from the right flank and Roberts easily cut inside English (who failed to attempt to make a tackle) and Roberts ran with the ball at his feet towards the middle of the pitch before reversing his left-footed drive across the diving goalkeeper to find the bottom right-hand corner from 22-yards.

“It’s not the first time Robbie’s done that.  He’s been great this season. He can just glide past players like that and he gets that end product better and better, he's going to be hard to deal with for anyone,” said Stevens.

Shinners admitted: “It was the most obvious goal, you could see he was clearly left-footed. He just kept going, going across, no one was engaging and then when he went past, even our defender didn’t really step out to block.  That wasn’t particularly great defending from the midfielders and the defenders. 

“You can’t let someone put the ball from the edge of the corner of the box to essentially the middle of the goal that easily and allow him to get a shot off without no one really closing him down.”

Bearsted were showing plenty of desire and dominance during this impressive first half and Stansfeld’s nine-goal wide right striker Dario Sesay-De Luca was just a spectator during the first half, although Shinners revealed post-match that the attacker was ‘feeling under the weather.’

He cut in from the right and drilled a right-footed angled drive screaming past the near-post from 25-yards in the 27^th minute, before Stansfled got lucky on the half-hour mark.

Palmby played the ball inside to Roberts, who played a sublime first time pass, which split open the two centre-halves Barrie and Muhammad Buhari and put Falade through on goal, who placed his left-footed shot rolling against the base of the left-hand post in a one-v-one situation and Penney dived to grab hold off the ball came back towards the pair.

Stevens said: “When that one happened, I’m thinking ‘flipping hell’, they’re going to get something in a minute and we’re going to rue all our chances. You expect Deiko to put that in, it happens sometimes.”

Shinners added: “A bit of luck really. If I remember rightly, that was a good through ball they played and in the first 30-35 minutes attacking wise, they were a real threat so sometimes you have to give credit where credit’s due and they were a good attacking threat.  We managed to a point to keep it to two.”

Bearsted’s right-back Sam Flisher hooked the ball down the line and French chested the ball on the half-way line before flicking the ball over Barrie’s head close to the touchline before Roberts played the ball inside to Lewins, who was tackled on the edge of the box but he won the ball back and drilled his shot past the top of the near-post from 15-yards.

Shinners made a tactical masterstroke when he switched his two full-backs and put Panyi at left-back and switched left-back Frank McCormack over to right-back and this kept the threatening Hassan relatively quiet after the 35^th minute.

Falade played a one-two with Roberts in the final third in the middle but a poor touch inside the box enabled the ball to roll into Penney’s gloves for a comfortable collection.

Stansfeld grabbed a goal with 36 minutes and 58 seconds on the clock, hitting Bearsted on the counter-attack in a four-v-four raid.

Substitute 11-goal attacking midfielder Chris Alhassan broke down the middle, cut inside and played rolled the ball over to the unmarked Mead, who cut inside and clinically place his left-footed angled drive across the advancing goalkeeper to roll the ball into the middle of the open goal.

“Yes, so that was a good counter-attacking goal and Chris was actually on the bench, so coming off the bench, obviously being a bit p***ed off, not happy that he was on the bench and then coming on with that attitude and actually a good counter-attacking goal,” said Shinners.

“Harry, to be fair to him, he’ll probably admit this himself, he should be scoring more goas than what he has (four).  He took that goal really well and he’s been brilliant in the last couple of games.”

Stevens added: “I said to the boys at half-time, if there was a bit of a moan it was that goal!

“At 2-0 we shouldn’t have been broken like that. We were way out of shape, you take a foul on the half-way line as well.  I don’t like to say it; you can bring him down.  We should’ve stopped it earlier but we shouldn’t be off balance like that, so we were a little bit annoyed about our shape really.”

Not many pairs of eyes noticed what Barrie did to Lewins off the ball in the 44^th minute.  The ball was at least 30 yards away!

However, one man that noticed his stupid act was senior assistant referee Alexis Stacchini, who was standing about 10 yards away from the incident.  The official flagged to grab the attention of the referee, the pair consulted and out came a deserved red card for violent conduct and Barrie will now serve a three-match ban, missing the final three outings of the season.

Both manager’s responses were inevitable.

Shinners said: “I didn’t see it, so I can’t really make comment to be honest, I didn’t see it!

“Going down to 10 men ultimately killed the game, made it very difficult for us but I can’t comment on the actual sending off.

“Ibs is a young lad, so he just needs to kind of learn from that, yes, learn from it.  I didn’t see so I don’t know what he did and didn’t do but essentially as a young guy he’s now got to learn from that because essentially he’s got four remaining games of the season to show what he’s about but now that obviously goes down to one.”

Stevens revealed: “I missed it as well because I was following the ball but two of the coaches saw it, saw the whole thing happen and said it was quite a wild kick on Billy, off the ball, totally unnecessary, so yes, he’s got what he deserves.  My two coaches wouldn’t have made it up, they saw it clear as day.

“It’s a silly thing to do from the lad, a good player as well. I like that lad, a good player.”

Both were also asked their thoughts going into the interval.

Shinners said: “We’ve got a young squad, it’s not like our previous games where I’ve gone in screaming and shouting to get a reaction. It was more of a case of ‘come on boys, show me what you’ve got now!’

“We’re a young squad, we’re growing, we’ve been consistent in terms of the squad for the last seven games, so it’s all about them now showing us and the fans and as a club what they’re about and I’ve got to be fair from half-time, the attitude was good.”

Stevens added: “We said at half-time ‘ let’s don’t let the chances come back and bite us on the backside’ and thank god they didn’t.

“It was a really good first half performance. We created a lot more chances that we have for a long time. Well Saturday as well we did the same actually, we created a lot of chances.

“We worked on it in training last week and it’s coming to fruition.”

Bearsted were profligate in front of goal tonight and they should have increased their lead just 192 seconds into the second half.

Lewins’ fine reverse pass some 35-yards from goal played in Hassan but Stansfeld goalkeeper Penney rushed off his line to narrow the angle and made a big save in a one-v-one situation.

Stevens said: “I think Eniola had a great game tonight, both going forward and tracking back as well and I think if anything it was a good save by Albert but I think Eniola gave him, with his open body, told him where he was going to put it, I think, in my opinion.”

Shinners added: “Albert, since he came in against Sutton, he’s been brilliant, he really has.

“It’s been quite difficult this season with goalkeepers. From the second game we lost our goalkeeper (Leighton Fanshawe) to Lordswood and Albert’s our seventh goalkeeper this season but since he’s come in he’s by far the most consistent and most pleasing in his performances and he’s fitted in with the boys, so he’s been brilliant.”

Bearsted produced a well-worked move when Falade released Flisher on an over-lapping run down the right and the ball was cut back to French, who looped a first-time right-footed shot over the top of the right-hand post from 18-yards.

Stansfled were to be denied an equaliser on the hour-mark with one of the best headed goal line clearances that you will witness this season.

Quiet Stansfeld striker Adeyemi Olufeko released De Luca through on goal and he skipped past the advancing goalkeeper Frankie Leonard and was destined to float his right-footed shot into the empty goal but Flisher showed plenty of desire to cut across towards the near post (where the left back should have been) to acrobatically head the ball behind for a corner and his momentum resulted in the right-back jumping over the perimeter fencing.

His brother Alex was an fans favourite at neighbouring Maidstone United and Sam is proving similar status at Bearsted.

“Listen, that’s Flish for you. He’s just full on every game, both going forward and doing his defensive duties,” highlighted Stevens.

“It didn’t surprise us that he’s even popped up and done that. One of the coaches mentioned he gets little niggles here and there but he works so hard. It’s no wonder when he does things like that. Fair play to Flish, really good defending.”

Shinners said: “Mayo’s played a nice through ball and Chris maybe he could’ve taken it earlier rather than take it around the keeper but he done most of things right.

“To be fair to the guy (Flisher), he’s massively helps his team and the goalkeeper out by clearing it off the line.”

With a three-man attack – De Luca woke up from his first half snooze and Stansfeld continued to knock on the door and looked destined to score the next goal, which pleased Shinners.

“At 2-1 down, it was more about ‘let’s show me what you’ve got,’ and we definitely had good chances in the second half to get something out of the game.

“We kept going and Mayo, Chris and Dario and other players showed good attitude and just kept going and Bearsted’s chances, makes it slightly disappointing, we didn’t deserve anything. If you get a player sent off and give an early penalty away it’s quite disappointing and that we’ve only scored one goal when we’ve had six or seven chances.”

Stevens added: “We got a message on to try to control the tempo and the game a little bit more. I thought we were going back-to-front miles too quick for us and that was playing into their hands.

“They were piling forward with three up there. It was a bit naïve for us for 5 or 10 minutes but we did settle down and control the game again, I think.”

However, Bearsted killed off any hopes by scoring their third goal of the night, timed at 29 minutes and 16 seconds on the clock.

Left-back James Nurden was inside the Stansfeld half and he clipped the ball forward along the deck with a 30-yard pass and Hassan easily cut inside McCormack before curling a sublime right-footed shot around the goalkeeper into the far corner from inside the box.

“We were literally just about to take him off actually and then he goes and does that,” said Stevens.

“He had a really good game, looked dangerous all night and that was a really good finish. Really pleased with him and his performance.”

Shinners added: “From my point of view, we were on top. A game of football is all about 15 minutes.  They definitely won the first 15 minutes and throughout the game, definitely the last 15 and the first 15 of the second half we were on top but we didn’t punish.

“Once they got the third goal that kind of killed the game to be fair, especially with 10 men, it’s quite difficult.  For a fitness point of view, Saturday-Wednesday with 10 men trying to get something out of the game, they really killed it off them. We didn’t really show nothing once the third goal went in.”

Stansfeld were gifted a chance to score their second goal of the night but Alhassan failed to accept the opportunity inside the final nine minutes.

Goalkeeper Leonard rolled the ball towards his centre-half Daniel Keyte, the ball was intercepted by Alhassan, the ball trickled just past the foot of the right-hand post.

“We had quite a few chances in the second half. It just didn’t really fall for us really,” admitted Shinners.

“We had a few, a couple of one-on-ones and I don’t think we’ve taken our chances very well.”

Stevens added: “I think Frankie played it short, I think, played it too quick and they nicked it off DK but we got away with that, we got away with that.

“Do you know what, it’s probably the only bad moment in possession the back four had playing out tonight, so it happens once in a blue moon, I suppose.”

The bottom six sides in the ninth-tier division are Kennington (36 points from 33 of 38 games), Hollands & Blair (35 points from 34 games), Stansfeld (35 points from 34 games) and Snodland Town (32 points from 34 games).

Lydd Town (29 points from 34 games) and Lordswood (23 points from 32 games) remain in relegation trouble.

Stevens side, meanwhile, host Erith & Belvedere at Honey Lane on Saturday, before completing their campaign against Glebe (home, 8 April), Snodland Town (away, 12 April), Hollands & Blair (away, 21 April) and second-placed VCD Athletic (home, 26 April).

“Looking forward to it. Erith beat us comfortably at their place earlier on in the season and they knocked us out of the Vase, which was really disappointing, beat us on penalties, so we owe them one,” said Stevens.

“I think when teams come to our place, with a nice pitch and they like to play a bit and get it down. It’s our place, at home and hopefully we can do the business, create a lot of chances, like we have the last two games.”

There was talk about Bearsted being involved in a relegation battle in February but Stevens was adamant then that his side would pull clear and that has been the case and are in safe middle of the table waters – after the club finished a personal best of seventh-place last season.

“It was better than when we last spoke, so it’s a lot better but like I said back then the squad is good, was too good to go down, so I knew we’d pick up,” said Stevens, who has taken charge of Bearsted for 478 games.

“Having said that, as a whole the season hasn’t been as good as I’d like it to have been but that’s football, it happens sometimes.

“But we’ve got a better group of players than our position suggests, in my opinion, but the table doesn’t lie as well, so hopefully we can finish strong and finish a little bit higher than eleventh as well.

“We want them to go out and win the last give games, so with tonight the last six games.  The motivation is still there to finish as high as we can.  Finishing eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth or sixth, seventh, eighth, you pick the sixth, seventh, eighth and I think the players’ have gone for that as well.  Let’s do it and finish it in the top half.”

Stansfled, meanwhile, travel to Hollands & Blair on Saturday, a side with the same playing record, before completing their campaign against Tunbridge Wells (home, 12 April), play-off chasing Punjab United (home, 21 April) and Lordswood (away, 26 April).

“It’s another six-pointer game. You like to think if we win on Saturday and result go for us, we might be there,” said Shinners, a talisman striker for his beloved Stansfeld.

“But this season is such a tight game. I don’t think people have been relegated on 32 points, let alone 35 and we’re still talking about relegation on 35 points, so it just proves how tight this league is this season.

“It’s important that we treat every game as important as each other and I’m sure Hollands & Blair are in the same position. We’re both on the same points, so it’s a massive six-pointer, similar to this.

“I think you’re probably looking at 40 points (to be safe) this season so we’ve got four games to get five points essentially.  Thirty-nine, 40, is where I think you need to be and with results going your way.

“I’ve been here 14 years, I love the pressure and it’s my squad now, so I’ve got full confidence in the squad that we’ll do what’s necessary to stay up.”

Stansfeld: Albert Penney, Archie Panyi (Billy Marsh 79), Frank McCormack, Ollie Andrews (Chris Alhassan 19), Ibrahim Barrie, Muhammad Buhari, Harvey Mead, Harrison English, Adeyemi Olufeko (Jimmy Shepherd 79), Robert Hughes, Dario Sesay-De Luca (Jack Calvert 79).
Sub: Greg Williams

Goal: Harvey Mead 37

Booked:  Archie Panyi 8

Sent Off:  Ibrahim Barrie 44

Bearsted: Frankie Leonard, Sam Flisher, James Nurden, Jack Palmby (Daniel Melvin 88), Ryan Blake, Daniel Keyte, Eniola Hassan (Dennis Agbudume 80), Billy Lewins, Connor French (George Large 80), Robbie Roberts (Joe Wilson 84), Dieko Falade.
Sub: Jesse Darko

Goals: Connor French 9 (penalty), Robbie Roberts 23, Eniola Hassan 75

Attendance: 94
Referee: Mr Gavin Farrington
Assistants: Mr Alexis Stacchini & Mr Rudin Preca