Sevenoaks Town 1 Ashford United 2 - Goals from Max Walsh & Harvey Brand help Ashford United come from behind to net a first away win in four months & take them into the top ten of the Isthmian South East

Isthmian League Division One South East, Friday 29th March

I decided to drag myself off to football on Good Friday as didn't really want to sit at home watching TV all day and mope around, so I checked my Futbology App for fixtures and wanted to go somewhere I had not been before, and up popped Sevenoaks Town Vs Ashford United in the Isthmian South East Division, which is Step Four in the non league football pyramid.

Now The Bourne Stadium, which is Sevenoaks Town's home, lies in Greatness Park and was born (or Bourne...sorry!!!) when the club installed a state of the art 3G pitch in Greatness Park which became The Bourne Stadium back in 2017, now this certainly helped me make my decision to visit here as being on a 3G surface the game was pretty much guaranteed to be on, as despite the amount of rain that has fallen in the last month or two, this should not have been a problem for this surface, hopefully!!!

So what of the two clubs competing in this contest today? Sevenoaks and Ashford are roughly forty miles apart geographically, whereas in the league they are five positions apart, Sevenoaks are in eighth on forty three points whereas Ashford are thirteenth and four points behind today's opponents, so not to much, and the visitors did have a game in hand too.

The hosts are only three spots off the play offs but don't let that fool you, as the points gap to fifth placed Lancing is a rather large TWELVE points, so with only six games to go it's rather unlikely they will make much of a dent into that, and with the visitors a further four back and way clear of the bottom two, these two only really had Kent pride to play for in this one.

Neither teams form has been brilliant of late either, Sevenoaks since the beginning of the month have played five league games, winning at Sheppey United & Herne Bay, but lost home and away to Broadbridge Heath and could only draw at home to bottom side Beckenham Town who have only picked up nineteen points all season.

Ashford's form since the start of March has been even worse, four defeats out of five in the league, with their only positive result this month coming right in the middle of that when they beat Littlehampton Town at home, but as said that was the only good thing to have happened in March, their defeats against Ramsgate, Sittingbourne and Burgess Hill Town were by at least three goals or more, and they had conceded fifteen goals in the four games they had lost.

Now the last time these two meet in the league was way back in the summer in the opening month of the season, August 22nd, where Ashford netted a 2-1 success at their Homelands Stadium, a venue Ashford over the campaign have won nine of their league games this season, which is only bettered by two other sides in the division, it's Ashford's away form that has let them down, only three wins all season away from Homelands, their last one being back on November 25th at Chichester City, four months ago.

In contrast Sevenoaks twelve wins this season has been evenly distributed both home and away, six each, in fact their overall record of twelve wins, seven draws and thirteen defeats suggests a level of inconsistency, which is why they are not able to challenge those play off places come the end of the season, but anyway, who could grab the victory in this contest and begin their Easter Weekend in a positive frame of mind?

A decent crowd of 215 were in attendance on a blustery but mostly sunny Good Friday, and after a rather sedate start to the contest, Sevenoaks began to get the better of the contest initially, Kieron Cadogan had the first real chance of the game when he found himself with a clear sight of goal but saw his effort beaten away by visiting keeper Chiedoze Nwosu, and Nwosu had to be alert to tip over another effort from the hosts soon after.

But, just before the midway point of the first period, the hosts grabbed the lead, when after ball floated beyond the far post from the right had found full back Karn Miller-Neave, his ball back across the goal was converted into the corner of the net by Jerald Aboagye, and you felt it could be another disappointing away day for the visitors and their band of supporters behind the opposite goal.

However, Ashford responded well to going behind and began to grab hold of the game themselves, and just thirteen minutes after going behind, they levelled, as the visitors failed to clear a bouncing ball inside their own box, and Max Walsh managed to fire a effort past Daniel Colmer in the hosts goal and bring his side level pegging, it had certainly been a positive response from the visiting side as said.

Could the hosts now respond to being pulled back, well, they had a golden chance to retake the lead in first half stoppage time when Miller-Neave was brought down inside the box for a penalty to the hosts, but their number nine Cadogan could only thump his spot kick against the bar, and then moments later they nearly fell behind as the visitors glanced an effort off the post at the other end, a mad end to the half but a half that ended all square. It had certainly been a decent contest so far.

Ashford certainly began the second half much better than their opponents and were the ones more likely to go in front, and just before the hour mark their pressure paid off when the superb Stanley Skipper, my MOTM for sure, swung in a lovely cross for Harvey Brand to apply a lovely header beyond Colmer, and now Ashford had the lead, and had just over half an hour to hold on for a rare away win.

Sevenoaks had just lost their way, after such a good start to the contest, but after going behind it was the now applying the pressure and getting back on top, second half substitute Joshua Ajayi almost grabbed a leveller but saw his attempted lob well saved by Nwosu, and then the hosts were adamant an effort from close range, which looked to have crossed the line before being cleared off it, wasn't given, much to their dismay.

Even though the visitors were soaking up a lot of pressure, they still looked dangerous on the break, they did have a golden chance to make it 3-1 but saw an effort somehow cleared off the line by the hosts in what was their best second half chance following their goal at that point, and they largely defended well and kept the hosts out, much to the frustration of the home side who just could not find a way through a well drilled visiting defence, which belied their previous defensive displays, especially away from home.

The game ended with a rather bizarre moment, the visitors should really have wrapped it up with the final kick of the game but somehow struck the post from a yard out after the ball had been just about kept out, but the assistant on the far side flagged for a corner, which no one could really understand why, it ended with the ball being dropped at the keepers feet, but pretty much immediately after the full time whistle went, ending what had been a pretty decent contest.

It meant that Sevenoaks frustrating inconsistency continued, they remain in eighth and could fall further off the play off spots by the end of the weekend, it's this type of performance that has cost them a decent run at the top five and they are pretty much now playing for pride for the remainder of the season for sure now, whereas for Ashford it's a first away win in four months, and they really worked hard for each other to achieve this, and it sent them into the top then and only a point behind today's opponents now.

Finally I would like to thank the hosts for such a warm welcome, handing me a free programme at the gate, yes a printed one too, they thanked me for making the trip to their ground as well, it's the small things that mean a lot, so I am very grateful to the club for that, and would certainly recommend visiting the club to others too, so thank you.

Full time Sevenoaks Town 1 Ashford United 2