Match Report—By Tony Rickson Tuesday, 17th September 2019 BetVictor Isthmian League South East Division Ashford United (1) 2 (Smith 7, 90+2) Sittingbourne (1) 1 (Caney-Bryan (pen) 33) Attendance: 225 With 90 minutes played, battling Sittingbourne were on the brink of becoming the first team to take a point off old rivals Ashford in the league this season. But they’ve developed a habit over the last couple of years of conceding late goals, and Ashford stunned them two minutes into added time with a dramatic winner. To rub salt into the wounds, the goalscorer, with his second of the night, was David Smith, who was given his first chance at this level of football by Sittingbourne. That’s three defeats on the trot for the Brickies, who at least fought well throughout and defended stubbornly, restricting the home side to very few clear-cut chances in the second half even though they didn’t enjoy a lot of possession themselves. For this second local derby in four days, Sittingbourne made just one change from the team that lost at Faversham on Saturday, Johan Caney-Bryan replacing top scorer Roman Campbell, whose one month loan from Gillingham has now expired. But they changed formations, with Ben Fitchett moving from midfield to a back three, and later to right-back in a more conventional fourman defence, while Kane Phillip moved upfront to provide a double spearhead with Caney-Bryan. Ashford started confidently and were a goal up in no time when a seemingly misplaced header went behind the Sittingbourne back three and Smith poached the goal. He looked as if he might have been offside but nothing was given. On a zippy artificial surface it was a much quicker game than Saturday’s and, and after not seeing much of the ball for the first 15 minutes, Sittingbourne began to play their way into the game. It was an impressive recovery from that early blow, and after Tommie Fagg had threatened the Ashford goal with a long-range shot, they equalised just after the half-hour. Fitchett found Caney-Bryan with a great pass down the right and as his cross came in, Phillip was shoved over as he charged in on goal. Caney-Bryan converted the penalty with no little skill. Lex Allan, a giant in defence and always a threat when going forward for set pieces, almost got on the end of a Chris Barnard freekick and Sittingbourne ended the half feeling they’d done a good job to get back in the game so well. They were dangerous in breakaways in the second half, too, often prompted by Fagg from a deeper role than usual, and Jason Fregene had a shot deflected just wide, Allan almost forced a corner in and Lewis Chambers had a shot blocked as he tore forward in a superb Sittingbourne counter-attack. To be fair, Ashford had plenty of the ball, but they didn’t get much joy with aerial challenges in the box, and Sittingbourne looked to be holding out for what would have been a very hard-earned but deserved point. When Smith blazed a free-kick out of the ground late on, it looked as though Ashford’s final chance was going with it, but they conjured up a winning goal in added time to break Sittingbourne hearts. Sittingbourne left a gap down the left of their defence for an overlapping full-back to race into and his low cross was converted at close range by the predatory Smith. Things aren’t going Sittingbourne’s way at the moment, but manager Chris Lynch promised his team would never be found lacking in effort and passion, and they gave it their all only to come up just short. After four successive away games, it will be nice to get back to Woodstock on Saturday when visitors Guernsey will fly in to present a different sort of challenge altogether. Ashford United: Sam Mott, Jerald Aboagye, Jake McIntyre, Danny Walder (Yellow card) (Levi Gold, 84 min), Josh Wisson, Mohammed Kamara, Hassan Ibrahiym, Lee Prescott (Zak Henry, 70 min), Jay May, David Smith (Theo Osinfolarin, 90+3 min), Tashi-Jay Kwayle. Subs not used: Ramell Lake, Lee Hook. Sittingbourne: Tom Benham, Ben Fitchett, Jason Fregene, Lewis Chambers (Yellow card) (Liam Middleton, 90+3 min), Lex Allan, Cory Walters-Wright, Abdel N’Daw (Enoch Ako-Adjei, 70 min), Tommie Fagg, Johan Caney-Bryan, Chris Barnard, Kane Phillip (Festus Lori, 81 min). Subs not used: Lewis West, Josh Oliver.
BetVictor Isthmian League South East Todays Matches 3pm Burgess Hill Town v Ramsgate 3pm Cray Valley PM v Faversham Town 3pm East Grinstead Town v Whitstable Town 3pm Haywards Heath Town v Hastings United 2pm Herne Bay v Guernsey 3pm Sevenoaks Town v Ashford United 3pm Three Bridges v Phoenix Sports
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