Latest Walking Football report
Another chilly Monday evening saw Tonbridge Angels Spiders travel to Aylesford Amblers Over-50s in the first round of Phase 2 play-off fixtures.
Aylesford had finished Phase 1 in second place, one point ahead of the Angels, so this was a crunch clash in deciding who goes forward to contest the finals on May 11th.
Tonbridge started strongly, enjoying multiple phases of possession and moving the ball around with purpose and skill. Aylesford enjoyed more shots on goal, but their adoption of a shoot on sight policy meant that most of their efforts were restricted to pot-shots from distance whilst the Angels worked a number of good opportunities from close range.
Unfortunately, Aylesford’s keeper was on top form and kept out everything Tonbridge were throwing at him. A predictably tight and cagey first half ended scoreless, and the second half commenced in much the same fashion as the first.
The key moment of the game came when a rare defensive error saw the ball fall to Aylesford’s best player in a dangerous position close to the D. Momentary panic was eased when the Aylesford man was expertly blocked by Bruce Izzard, forcing him to eschew the shooting opportunity in favour of a pass out wide to a teammate. Angels’ relief was very short-lived as the wide man lashed an unstoppable left foot piledriver into the roof of the net from an impossible angle. Mike Hurn in goal was disbelieving, as were the Aylesford team ‚Äì with nobody seeming more shocked than the goalscorer himself. It was the sort of strike that might hit the back of the net once in a hundred attempts ‚Äì but Aylesford had got their noses in front.
Tonbridge continued to knock at the door, creating numerous close range opportunities which either struck the woodwork or were repelled by Aylesford’s annoyingly unbeatable keeper. Angels’ Andy Goodall appeared to be pushed into his own penalty area, but the referee didn’t see it that way and awarded a rather harsh penalty against Tonbridge. The Aylesford player calmly stepped up and slotted the ball about five metres over the bar. Think Harry Kane in the World Cup quarter final versus France ‚Äì the ball is probably still in orbit somewhere over the equator.
Angels were still in it and continued to press for the equaliser. It seemed we were destined to achieve the draw when a well worked move in the final minute saw the ball fall to the feet of top scorer Will Burns. The ball looked for all the world bound for the back of the net before the Aylesford keeper somehow managed to get a fingertip to it, sending the ball spinning an agonising inch wide of the post.
So a 1-0 defeat sees Angels realistically needing to win their three remaining play off games to have a chance of making it to the finals. It’s still all to play for, the five teams finishing in the top half being of a similarly high standard and capable of beating any of the other teams on their day. Ebbsfleet United at Longmead are up next on Saturday, 15th March, 9.00am kick off.
Report from Nigel Bragg
