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2nd September 2006 By Tony Gray Pictures courtesy of Brian Dickie With many of the Premier League teams concentrating on the preliminary round of the FA Cup the permutations of this one remaining Kent Premier league fixture were easy to understand. Take a point from League Leaders Beckenham and Faversham Town would leapfrog Whitstable Town into second position, take all three and the Lilywhites would be sitting pretty as leaders of the Kent League. As expected Beckenham started the match confidently and dominated a Faversham side who appeared to be showing the current League leaders a little too much respect.
Ouch ! Former Town favourite Ross Cable is shown no mercy. As the home side applied the pressure few were surprised when, on 22 minutes, Ashley Carew found himself one on one with Town keeper Tim Holmes and calmly slotted the ball home. Having won their last three matches The Lilywhites were in no mood to throw in the towel and were back on level terms within three minutes following a fine cross from Junior Farrell which met with Jason Mills' head before flying past Beckenham keeper Chris Lewington. Despite constant pressure from the home side Referee Hemsley's half-time whistle blew with the scores level albeit through Beckenham failing to take advantage of their dominance. Town Manager Terry Cordice who, by his own admission gave the lads "a bit of a talking to" during the break saw his team start the second half with a complete change of attitude. From the start they appeared committed to every challenge and contested every ball. And although Beckenham found the back of the net within the first five minutes of the restart it was ruled offside, a decision that appeared to motivate the visitors. The Town midfield started to dominate and Junior Farrell showed the home crowd of 72 his pace as he breezed past the Beckenham defence on the right wing looking up to see that Lewington was off his line, a clever chip saw the keeper beaten but his effort narrowly missed the target. As the hour mark approached Town's Andy Martin made way for Dane Lutchford and Faversham began to step up a gear. Dave Hockley went close from a free-kick before some poor defensive play by the home side allowed Kris Parker to cleverly head past Lewington who found himself stranded on the edge of his six-yard area.
Kris Parker's glancing header gave keeper Lewington no chance. Dane Lutchford should have extended the lead minutes later after being put through by Kris Parker his effort just going wide. Beckenham began to press for an equaliser but with his side defending resolutely Cordice made further changes replacing Julian Beal with Dean Abrahams on 80 minutes and Junior Farrell making way for Bradley Maguire 4 minutes later. Beckenham made a late rally in the last ten minutes but it was a jubilant Town side that celebrated Referee Hemsley's final whistle knowing that they had just gone top of the league. Manager Cordice was understandably proud of his team as he spoke with pride following the match.
We are top of the league.... a euphoric TC congratulates his players. "I thought that we worked hard today, the boys dug in and got the result I thought we deserved." "They had us under pressure in the first half but I thought that we started to come together and play as half time approached, I did give the lads a rollicking during the break and that seemed to do the trick. Second half we were solid at the back." "It was a tough game and I'm really pleased for the lads." Town's top man: Gary Stock outstanding performance as sweeper. Tim Holmes(7); Wayne "Junior" Farrell(7); Jason Mills(7); Wes Hammond(7); James Holder(7); Gary Stock(8); Julian Beal(7); Dave Hockley(7); Andy Martin(7); Kris Parker(7); Steve Aslett(7) Subs: Dane Lutchford(7) (for Andy
Martin 60mins), Dean Abrahams (7) (for Julian Beal 80 mins), Brad
Maguire(7) (for Wayne Farrell 84 mins)
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