Ryman League Division 1 South Table Table is up to and including Satur<strong>day</strong> 16th January 2016
<strong>Match</strong> Reports By Tony Rickson Satur<strong>day</strong> 19th December 2015 Ryman League Div 1 South Peacehaven & Telscombe 2 <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> 6 Att 78 Trailing 2-1 with an hour played, <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> were staring down the barrel of what would have been the most embarrassing defeat of a topsyturvy season. After all, Peacehaven’s squad had been decimated in midweek when half the team walked out after the club cut the budget in half. Then to add to their problems, their keeper got injured in the warm-up and they had to draft in an untried 17-year-old. Yet here they were, energetic undoubtedly, but mainly inexperienced at this level and many of them strangers to each other, leading a key relegation battle with only half-an-hour left. Then <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> took off. In the remaining time they pulled Peacehaven apart, scoring five times to complete an extraordinary morale-boosting 6-2 win. It was their biggest win since Ramsgate away in January 2010 and, more importantly to the current team, took them out of the relegation-endangered bottom three. And put Peacehaven there in their place. Davis made three changes from the team that drew at South Park in midweek – Stefan Wright and Josh Wisson returning in midfield, and Jack Steventon recalled at centre-back. Out went the injured Conrad Lee, Billy French and Jordan Wells. On a blustery grey <strong>day</strong> on the edge of the South Downs, <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> looked the better and more organised team throughout the first half but needed a decent save from Vincente Mansanet to keep it goalless. It took a spot of magic from Steven Ita, who’s on fire at the moment, to break the deadlock. He left a defender on his backside after collecting the ball from a throw-in and then was bundled over as he cut into the penalty area. Ita took the spot-kick himself and confidently converted his fourth goal in five games – what a signing he’s proving to be. Incidentally, that’s the first penalty <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> have been awarded all season – though they’d probably have sooner got one in a 0-0 stalemate with 89 minutes rather than in a game that turned out eventually to be as one-sided as this. <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> could have added to their lead twice through Kerry Kenze, once from a tremendous Wisson pass, but it was 1-0 to the visitors at halftime. Peacehaven turned the game on its head immediately after the interval. They equalised virtually from the restart, West heading in at the far post from a brilliant left-wing cross. And when George Crimmen fouled a home player on the edge of the area, picking up a yellow card for his troubles, Perry fired Peacehaven ahead direct from the free-kick. <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> regrouped and levelled it at 2-2 just past the hour when Ita’s curling right-wing corner with his left foot looked as if might be going straight in when Jono Richardson helped it over the line. And then three minutes later Richardson got his second from a yard out, heading home when young keeper Secku missed Jack Steventon’s fired-in cross. A word for Steventon, who has been out of the side lately, but in my opinion was just about the best player on the pitch in this match. <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> got a third goal in a nine-minute spell when sub Dan Hughes played a one-two to get behind a static Peacehaven defence and neatly fired left-foot into the corner. By now Peacehaven were demoralised and the hard running of the <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> players was more than they could cope with, Wells running onto a great through ball by Miles Cornwell before shooting home for 5-2. For both Hughes and Wells it was their first goals for <strong>Sittingbourne</strong> and although neither are like-forlike replacements for Harry Smith, they both provide Davis with attacking options – and selection headaches. To round it off, Ita set up yet another goal in added time, finding Cornwell to strike a perfect volley into the far corner for a goal that was warmly greeted by his now jubilant colleagues in recognition of his hard work for the team. <strong>Sittingbourne</strong>: Mansannet, Brunt, Richardson, Steventon (Hughes 77 mins), Crimmen, Wisson (Wells 83 mins), Kedze, Wright, Cornwell, Bankole. Ita. Sponsors of the Woodstock stadium—www.dma-group.co.uk