Erith & Belvedere 4 Thamesmead Town 2

Saturday November 10, 2007

Kent Premier Division

Erith & Belvedere 4 Thamesmead Town 2

By Mead reporter Kevin White

Thamesmead were outplayed by the potent attack of Erith & Belvedere and punished for not converting attacking chances in to goals to fall to their first league defeat of the season.

The match started very lively with end to end football which showed promise of goals. The Dears caused a scare for Mead on six minutes,Lee Morgan rattling the post with a curling shot from the edge of the box.

With Thamesmead starting to get in to the game more by trying to work the wings, Rikki Cable stuck home on 18 minutes to provide the lead. Curtis Williams pace saw him able to chase down a through ball to cross from the byline on the right. Dimmock ended up in the net as he challanged goalkeeper Wallis for the cross, who could only punch the ball to Cable in the middle of the area to fire home low to Wallis's right. Some of the Erith & Belvederes players protested that Dimmock had not stepped back on to the pitch, but as Dimmock's momentum for the original challenge on Wallis caused him to go over the goal line, the goal could be allowed.

From here the game became a midfield battle with Thamesmead, who were looking static in the middle of midfield, failing to penetrate the opposition penalty area and The Dears attacks rarely leading to a shot on goal. After this period, it was Erith & Belvedere who started taking control of the game, with a couple of swift moves resulting in long range shots.

The equalising goal arrived on the half hour mark. Conneally dashing to the near post at the edge of the six yard box was beaten by an attacking header, which travelled accross the face of goal for Prtt to nod past James Brown, defending on the goal line.

The goal gave Erith & Belvedere renewed confidence and just a couple of minutes later, were unlucky not to take the lead as a firm header beat Conneally and crashed against the Mead bar.

The second half started unlike the first, with Erith & Belvedere comming out of the block quicker as Smith outpaced Dean Kearly to place his shot accross the goal and just fractionally wide of the post on 47 minutes.

Tight marking restricted Mead's build up play, especailly picked out was leading scorer Richard Dimmock. The game was also broken up by a series of free kicks, which prevented the game from flowing. On occasions where Thamesmead created chances, there was rearly time to get a decent shot away as most attacks were snuffed out. The closest Mead came to the lead was on 67 minutes when Dimmock was allowed space to run inside the Dears box, however, he pulled his shot whch enabled Wallis to dive and gater low to his left. From this save, there ensued three mad minutes which effectively sealed the game in the Dears favour.

Wallis's kick from his save from Dimmock, bounced to the feet of Nick Smith on the halfway line. His pace caught the Mead defence napping as he gosted to the right of midfield and outpaced the defence to leave him to steer the ball daisycutting past Conneally.

Just over a minute later, Lee Coburn commited a foul in the middle of the Thamesmead half. The resulting free kick floted to Meads left post where Matt Johnson got infront of Watts early to fire home.

Mead desparately needing to make the most of the last 20 minutes for any hope of a comeback were left frustrated as The Dears defended well and continued to prevent Mead from penetrating the box. There was a glimmer of hope of a comeback on 89 minutes. Thomas played a sqaure ball from the wing where Dears Defender Peresimou struck the ball with venom in to his own net from the edge of the six yard box.

However, any hope of an injury time equalliser was snuffed out when Mead were caught on the back foot as Johnson was past the defence to slot past Conneally and kill Mead's unbeaten league run.

Despite the disappointment of defeat, Mead still top the league table, now level on points with Beckenham but with three games in hand.

The Mead must now raise their game and keep heads held high as the go in to the FA Vase Second Round match next Saturday, at home to local rivals Greenwich Borough.

Thamsmead line up (with player ratings):

Connealy 6, Watts 6, Tarrant 5, Brown 6 (Collins5), Kearley 6 (corrected!), Coburn 6, Mulholland 5 , Knight 6, Dimmock 7, Cable 7, Williams 6 (Thomas 6)

Subs not used: Dawson, Chapman, Woodward  

Next match at Bayliss Avenue

Thurs 17th July 2008

Pre-season friendly

Thamesmead Town

Vs Welling United XI

K.O. 7.45PM