Sittingbourne FC Match day programme

Match Reports
By Tony Rickson
Tuesday 22nd December 2015
Ryman League Div 1 South
Dorking Wanderers 0 Sittingbourne 0
Att 109
A superb Sittingbourne performance on a
dreadful night gained them another vital point,
and against all the odds.
They played more than half the match with only
10 men after Miles Cornwell was sent off, yet
they battled so well a draw was nothing less
than they deserved.
Up against a home team who are sixth in the
Ryman South table, Sittingbourne more than
held their own and were the better side before
Cornwell got his controversial red card in the
42nd minute.
It was hardly a night conducive to football with
rain pouring down throughout, but only right at
the end did the ball get stuck in the mud when
by then conditions were getting virtually unplayable.
But who knows whether the sodden pitch was
maybe dangerous to play on as Sittingbourne
lost key players George Crimmen and Steven
Ita to ankle injuries in the second half.
The draw extends Sittingbourne’s unbeaten run
to an impressive four games – three of which
have been away – and it was their first clean
sheet in the league for 17 games.
Sittingbourne, who recalled Adam Molloy in
goal after suspension and gave Dan Hughes
his first game up front with Kerry Kedze dropping
to the substitutes’ bench, were cheered on
by a small number of fans who braved the rain
to stand out in it throughout.
And they started the first half well, Ollie
Bankole – who was outstanding on the night –
firing the ball across the goal from Hughes’
clever pass, and an Ita cross almost found
Hughes on the far post. It was Hughes again
who was just wide from Ita’s pass and skipper
Tom Brunt
fired a 20-yarder over.
Sittingbourne were hassling Dorking so well
that the home side, who like to play it neat and
tidy with ex-Brickie Jake Beecroft their playmaker,
hardly got a look in and Molloy had little
to do throughout the first half.
The game changed on 42 minutes when Cornwell
was accused of stamping right in front of
the Dorking bench. They raised such a huge
and noisy protest about it that the referee consulted
his assistant before sending
the Sittingbourne player off. I must have seen
Cornwell play about 50 times now and can’t ever
recall
him committing a deliberate foul, and the player
himself was adamant it was an accident which
sounded bad because he caught the opposition
player’s shinguard.
Whatever the rights and wrongs - and the Dorking
player was substituted off with his injury - it
obviously changed the game and limited Sittingbourne
as an attacking force for the rest of
the match.
But they continued to chase and harry and spoil
Dorking’s possession, and for almost the whole
of the second half kept them from threatening
Molloy’s goal.
Sittingbourne still looked dangerous on the occasional
break and had appeals for a penalty
turned down when sub Jordan Wells went over
in the penalty area.
Mostly, though, it was a question of whether
they could hold out, and they did that just fine,
another ex-Sittingbourne player, Dane Luchford,
going closest for the home side when
he hit the post in the 85th minute.
Into six added minutes and Molloy rescued Sittingbourne
on a couple of occasions by claiming
loose balls but, even with a young defensive
centre-back pairing of Jack Steventon and
sub Billy French thrown together, they held out
well.
It was Sittingbourne’s first goalless draw of the
season in the league and was a brave and determined
effort which took them another place
up the league. And how the exhausted players
could do with a few days off now before resuming
action next Monday at home to old rivals
Ramsgate.
Sittingbourne: Molloy, Brunt, Richardson,
Steventon, , Crimmen (French 60
mins), Wisson, Wright, Bankole, Cornwell,
Hughes (Wells 66 mins), Ita (Kedze 77
mins)