hastings-greenwichb311216

Match Reports by Tony Rickson
10th December 2016
Ryman League Div 1 South
Dorking Wanderers 3 Sittingbourne 0,
Att 132
At the end of their toughest week of the season,
Sittingbourne finished with a win, a draw and a
defeat.
Not a bad record as all three opponents have
real promotion potential, and for this final match
of the three, they faced a side who now lead the
Ryman South.
And you could see how they got there, making
Sittingbourne chase shadows for the first half
hour and undeniably deserving of the win.
Sittingbourne played well at Lewes the previous
Saturday to get a draw, played even better in
the second half to beat Walton Casuals in midweek,
but were absolutely shut out of a chance
to make a similar impact here.
They fielded the same team from both of those
games with Dorking anchored smoothly in midfield
by Jake Beecroft, who impressed in an all
too brief stay with Sittingbourne last season,
Dorking set themselves up from the start to
pass Sittingbourne out of the game, though
they weren’t without the occasional dark art,
with Stefan Wright very much the man targeted.
In fact a nasty looking challenge on him straight
from the kick-off earned Dorking’s Gunner what
must surely be one of the quickest yellow cards
ever.
Dorking were hardly giving Sittingbourne a
touch of the ball and they took the lead after 15
minutes through a penalty taken by Sole, an
experienced striker with a pedigree in Conference
football.
Just as at Lewes the previous week it was a
soft pen, Jono Richardson stretching to challenge
Sole for the ball with his left leg. Too high,
ruled the referee.
I remember saying of the Lewes penalty that I
would have wanted it to be given if it was in Sittingbourne’s
favour but I wouldn’t have thought
that here. Harsh in the extreme.
In a rare Sittingbourne attack Jordan
Gallacher fired across the home goal on
the end of an excellent Tom Carlse pass and
later in the half Anthony O’Connor shot just
wide from Joe Loft’s through pass.
But these were isolated moments as generally
Dorking, a side very comfortable on the ball
from No 1 to 11, dominated the half and Sittingbourne
too easily gave it away again when
they did get the occasional touch.
And it was 2-0 just before half time as Sole
nipped in behind the central defence to head
home a left-wing cross after 41 minutes. A bit
too similar to the Lewes equaliser the previous
week, so that’s a concern for Sittingbourne.
With the rain now settled overhead, the second
half was slightly different with Sittingbourne
strengthening midfield to try to stop Dorking
having so much of the ball.
It worked, but when they got forward Sittingbourne
were beating their heads against the
brick wall of a defence with by far the best record
for goals conceded in this division.
Sittingbourne put together one outstanding
move down the left, where they were so strong
against Walton, but it ended with O’Connor’s
shot missing the target.
That, and a couple of shots from distance by
Conrad Lee and sub Josh Wisson that were
way too high, was about all they had to show
for a second half where pulling back a two-goal
deficit always looked much too tough a proposition.
And Dorking made it three near the end when
McShane found space in the area from a rightwing
pass to pick his spot in the far corner.
So Sittingbourne’s sparkling unbeaten run of six
matches was unceremoniously ended with a
decisive defeat, but they still have a record of
just two defeats in 10 matches as a consolation.
It’s how they bounce back from this hardly unexpected
setback against such a decent team
that will shape how well they do in the second
half of the season.
Sittingbourne: Simon Overland, Sam Welch,
Tom Carlse, Danny Rumbol, Jono Richardson,
Joe Loft, Stefan Wright (Josh Wisson, 58 min),
Conrad Lee, Anthony O’Connor (Tom Brunt, 81
min), Ricky Gundry (Jake Embery, 74 min), Jordan
Gallacher (Yellow card).
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