Sunday, April 5, 2009 21:41
Faversham Town Reserves 0-3 Welling United Reserves
By Joseph Downes
Town’s lingering promotion hopes were dealt a crushing blow, with a comprehensive defeat at home to a well organised Welling United side.
The contrast in overhead conditions from cold and overcast to occasional sunshine, matched the respective moods of both sides. Faversham never properly settled in the first half, as the visitors dominated possession early on. As early as the third minute home ‘keeper Rob Hudson was called into action; expertly tipping Ben Greenhulgh’s free kick onto the crossbar. Four minutes later, Welling midfielder Leon Wilson hit a fierce drive that shaved the crossbar from fully 30 yards out. As the alarm bells began to ring louder on the home bench, manager John Goodwin’s plans were thrown further into disarray, as both Nick Smith and Craig Preston left the field with injuries, inside the opening ten minutes.
The away side continued to dictate proceedings and took a deserved lead just before the half hour, through the impressive Richie Stevens. The winger played a neat one two with striker Stephane Gnahore, before cutting inside and blasting a left footed shot into the top right hand corner. With half-time looming Welling almost extended their lead. Lovely build up play down the left between Stevens, Greenhulgh and Lewis Reed, resulted in a chance for the latter that saw his shot come back off the post. A two goal lead would certainly not have flattered the visitors, who had eight corners in the first half to Faversham’s one.
Goodwin resisted the urge to make his last change at half time, and his decision seemed to be working as Town began to show signs of recovery. However the reprieve lasted only nine minutes. More good play down the left provided Stevens with the chance to score his second, and he duly obliged, rifling a shot past Hudson into the bottom left hand corner.
The introduction of Welling striker Ayden Richards only added to Town’s problems. His pace was too much for the tired home defence to handle, and he forced a smart stop from Hudson with 20 minutes to go. Hudson was called into action again with ten minutes left, excellently denying Greenhulgh from another free-kick, bringing appreciative cheers from fans of both teams inside Salters Lane. Following another fine save from a Richards effort, it seemed as though Hudson had kept the score to a respectable two. However, Town’s misery was compounded as Reed was hauled down in the area in the final minute. Referee Mick Pitcher had no choice but to point to the spot, and Stevens stepped up to complete a fine hat-trick with the last kick of the game.
Obviously deflated after the game, Goodwin acknowledged that his side had been outplayed. He said that everybody’s heads “including mine”, went down after the loss of two key players inside the opening ten minutes. He was pleased with the effort in the second half but said that, “having to field four 17 year olds was always going to make things difficult.”
Faversham Town Reserves: Hudson, Eather, Harris, Smith, Gardner, Brabon, Miles, Gould, Parter, Preston, Ellet. Subs: Gaskin (for Preston, 10 mins), Bishenden (for Gaskin 55 mins), Pace (for Smith, 4 mins)
Town Star Man: Rob Hudson; Blameless for all three goals, made some wonderful saves to keep the score line respectable and distribution was sound throughout.