walton&H060216

Saturday 23rd January 2016
Ryman League Div 1 South
Sittingbourne 0 Tooting & Mitcham 3
Att 137
Match Reports
By Tony Rickson
Some compensation for Sittingbourne, who ended
up well beaten by impressive opponents, was that
none of the five teams below them in Ryman
League South won either.
Momentum is a big deal in football, and Sittingbourne
had lost theirs going into this game after
having their last five matches postponed.
They’d previously only lost once in six games but
all that seemed a long time ago, especially against
an in-form Tooting and Mitcham side who had
played through the rain and frost of the last few
weeks.
Sittingbourne had to make three enforced changes
for this first home match of the New Year with Tom
Brunt and Billy French missing from the defence
and striker Miles Cornwell suspended.
Back came George Crimmen, taking the captain’s
armband as well, and Dan Hughes, while Callum
Naessens stepped up for his full debut after making
an appearance as a substitute earlier in the season
in the match at Whyteleafe. And, after a nervy start,
he did very well at right-back.
Sittingbourne looked understandably rusty to start
with as Tooting stamped their mark on the game,
though when they eventually began to get forward
a few right-wing crosses were whipped in that
came to nothing.
Tooting had the ball in the net midway through the
half but were penalised for a foul and ex-Spurs
youngster O’Neil, who was quite a presence in midfield,
shot wide and then headed wide from two
chances in quick succession.
In fact, Tooting were making full use of midfield
domination, where by playing only one up front
they had a spare man, and Sittingbourne weren’t
getting much of a look-in.
When they did get forward, the referee rejected appeals
that Tooting keeper Cessay had handled outside
his area, and with the keeper still stranded,
Ollie Bankole shot just past the post.
Tooting ended the half dominating possession but
Sittingbourne defended determinedly and when the
visitors did get the ball in the net it was disallowed
for offside.
Sittingbourne worked hard throughout the second
half but, despite the efforts of the again-impressive
youngster Josh Wisson in midfield, they weren’t
clinical enough with some of their passing. And
Tooting made them pay dearly for it.
The second half was only three minutes old when
they took the lead, a clearance from halfway
bouncing through the middle of the Sittingbourne
defence for Baxter to nip in and lob cleverly over
the advancing Adam Molloy.
Chances for Sittingbourne were few and far between
and Tooting made it 2-0 just after the hour
when Molloy did well to block Baxter’s shot but was
powerless to prevent Makofo scoring from the
loose ball.
Substitutions didn’t really give Sittingbourne much
more attacking impetus and they ended up second
best as Tooting got a third near the end when sub
Price took on the defence and squared for Wilson
to score with a low shot.
3-0 equalled Sittingbourne’s second heaviest defeat
of the season, and was the fourth game in a
row against Tooting & Mitcham, whose league position
always seems less than it should be, in which
they’ve failed to score.
It also ended a little run of home successes, and
now that the season’s back up and running again
Sittingbourne need to get this out of their system
and get back to where they were a few weeks ago.
Sittingbourne: Molloy, Naessens, Richardson,
Steventon, Crimmen, Wisson, Wright (Lee
69 mins), Bankole (Akhazzan 65 mins), Wells
(Kedze 63 mins), Hughes, Ita.
Sponsors of the Woodstock stadium—www.dma-group.co.uk