hastings 130118

Match Reports by Tony Rickson
Saturday 6th January 2018
Bostik League South
Carshalton 3 Sittingbourne 0, att 378
There were some positives for Sittingbourne at
Carshalton in the first game of 2018, despite it
ending in a disappointing seventh successive
defeat.
Firstly, Harry Brooks made some splendid athletic
saves in goal.
Secondly, the players worked very hard to stick
with great discipline and commitment to the
game plan. Thirdly, they prevented fifth-placed
Carshalton from scoring a goal in open play until
the last kick of the match.
And last but by no means least, their ever noisy
and optimistic supporters gave Carshalton’s
fans a lesson in how to get behind their team.
But all that apart, it was a game to forget, and
they didn’t force a single save out of the home
keeper all afternoon.
New signing from Dartford, Alfie Cue, was
named in the Sittingbourne side but was replaced
after the warm-up by Tyrone Guthrie.
John Coker, after suspension, and Kane Phillip
returned to the starting line-up.
The first half-hour was possibly the dullest first
30 minutes of the season. Sittingbourne
pressed high and energetically to stop Carshalton
playing out from the back – in a typical performance
by a team playing on a 3G pitch - and
the home side didn’t seem to have a plan B.
Sittingbourne forced a couple of corners and
Miles Cornwell tried his luck from distance but
almost breached the high fence behind the
goal.
Carshalton, with the silent majority in a decent
378 crowd presumably willing them on just in
their heads, had one chance quite out of the
blue, but Brooks made a lovely one-for-thecamera
save, arching backwards to tip it round.
It was a very committed job by Sittingbourne to
keep the home side successfully at bay, but it
went pear-shaped just before half-time when
Bola Dawodu was judged to have fouled right
on the edge of the area and Miller confidently
converted the resulting penalty. It looked harsh
to me, as the forward seemed to be going over
outside the box already, as he tried to dart between
two players, but the referee was admittedly
50 yards or so closer.
He was also closer seconds later when Kane
Rowland whisked the ball into the six-yard box
straight from the kick-off, but he picked out another
foul by a Sittingbourne player, Cornwell
penalised for a push.
Plenty to play for in the second half, with Carshalton
having created very little to earn their
lead, and Ben Davisson wasn’t far off the target
with a 20-yard shot.
Just after Dawodu seemed to be very harshly
booked, Carshalton won a second penalty
when an attacker went down under Chris Webber’s
challenge, Miller again converting, this
time low into the opposite corner.
Sittingbourne saw more of the ball in the last
half-hour but Carshalton showed how comfy
they were at defending and quickly counterattacking,
Brooks keeping the score down with
a string of excellent saves.
Disappointingly, Sittingbourne lacked either the
pace or ingenuity to get in at the other end and
threaten to pull the game back, as they had
done a year ago on this pitch, pulling back from
two-down in the last ten minutes to draw 2-2.
It all seemed to be petering out when Lawson
Okimeji misplaced a pass in his own penalty
area and Miller picked up his hat-trick goal with
a confident finish into the far corner.
Over half the defeats in this seven-match losing
run have been away to promotion-chasing top
five teams, and Sittingbourne now have a couple
of potentially winnable home games to put
an end to their sorry sequence.
Sittingbourne: Harry Brooks, Chris Webber
(Yellow card), Salvin Kisitu, Ben Davisson (Dan
Parkinson, 74 min), Ben Gorham, John Coker,
Kane Phillip (Chris Elliott, 74 min), Bola
Dawodu (Yellow card), Kane Rowland, Miles
Cornwell (Jidi Okimeji, 58 min), Tyrone Guthrie.
Sub not used: Jordan Carey.
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