19th April 2008 - East Peckham Juniors 2 - 2 Paddock Wood
Starting Lineup
Nichols |
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Tom Revell |
Meager |
Philpott |
Ryder |
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Willett |
Vince |
Scott |
Tony Revell |
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Hayes (1) |
Lardner |
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Substitutes Used
Matt Jagelman (1) > Ollie Scott, Brett Howell > Dean Hayes
Report
Juniors went into their penultimate league game of the season with one eye on Thursday’s cup final, and having already won the league, changes in the line up reflected this. Jennings and Howell were both rested, and with Matthews having fallen down the stairs the previous night, it was decided not to risk him. In came Tony Revell, Dean Hayes and Rob Vince.
It was a cagey affair from the start, with Paddock Wood being the only team to have taken any points from Juniors this season, and as always their strikers were looking lively early on. Within the first 10 minutes Paddock Wood worked themselves a number of opportunities but they were let down by wayward shooting. The Juniors back line were strong and Ryder was nullifying the threat of the Paddock Wood manager’s son on the right wing, so much so they decided to switch their wingers early in the half, and Tom Revell picked up where Ryder had left off. Paddock Wood were having more of the attacking play, and Nichols was the first keeper to be called into a save, Paddock Wood cutting inside from the left before firing a shot at goal.
Juniors were looking dangerous on the attack with Lardner making good runs forward, but the attacks were sporadic, and it was the away side that eventually took the lead in the 30th minute. A long ball was played forward from the Paddock Wood midfield, and as the Juniors defence stepped up, it left Paddock Wood with two strikers running through on goal, as Nichols came charging out the first striker nicked the ball past him before the second slotted home into the empty net.
Within minutes of taking the lead, Paddock Wood broke through again passing the ball into the Juniors box before being thwarted by Nichols diving away to his left. This seemed to kick Juniors into action, and they soon equalised as Scott and Vince began to dominate the midfield. Tony Revell and Ollie Scott linked up well down the left, before a ball across the box from Revell found its way to Dean Hayes at the far post, and Juniors’ leading scorer placed his shot into the far bottom corner, leaving the away keeper with no chance.
The teams went in at half time with the scores level. Scott was rested ahead of Thursday and was replaced by Jagelman with Lardner dropping back into midfield with Vince. With Paddock Wood needing to win to give themselves any chance of promotion, it was clear they would come out all guns blazing in the second half, and they did jut that.
Having already had a few early attacks in the half that coae to nothing, around the 55th minute one such attack almost gave Paddock Wood the lead. The away side’s right winger pushed to the touch line while being closed by Tony Revell, but he managed to squeeze the ball across, the Paddock Wood striker reached the ball first and unleashed a shot at goal, which Nichols saved from 2 yards away with his face. The game was held up for around 10 minutes with the keeper dazed and they attempted to stem the flow of blood from the keeper’s nose. Eventually the game was back under way with the keeper clearly still feeling the effects of the incident, and this showed 5 minutes later. Juniors had the ball in midfield but passed it to the opposition who split the defence with a routine ball into the box, Nichols went down to collect the ball and misjudged the pace on it, with it hitting his chest before leaving the Paddock Wood striker to easily slot home.
With Juniors facing their first defeat in the league, they once again kicked into action, Philpott and Meager were holding strong at the back nullifying the away side’s attacks, and when they did break through, again wayward finishing cost them. Juniors made a change and replaced Hayes with Howell.
The Paddock Wood defence didn’t look comfortable dealing with the substitutes and eventually it was one of the changes that lead to a deserved equaliser. Jordan Willett broke down the right hand side of the pitch, going past the full back before pulling the ball back to the edge of the box, where Jagelman hit a first time shot into the keeper’s bottom right hand corner to score his 12th goal of the season.
Again Paddock Wood pressed hard but the Juniors back line and midfield held firm, repaying the favour to AFC Valour as the result secured their promotion along with Juniors.
In the final moments of the game, Philpott broke into the Paddock Wood area before being harshly upended, the ref blew his whistle and it looked to all the world that Juniors had a penalty, instead the ref gave a free kick in the other direction but did not book Philpott for the supposed dive, clearly realising he’d made a mistake. EPFC!