thamesmead171205

Substitute Martin makes instant impact

In the end Beckenham thumped eight past the visitors and it simply could have been more. Manager Gavin Rose described his sides performance as “one that ground down our opponents”.
 
The match started fairly cagey as both sides were sounding each other out and it became a contest of possession rather that goal chances.

The visitors controlled the ball well and were commanding in the air while Beckenham fought hard win the ball back and mounted a series of counter attacks only to be frustrated by the Thamesmead off-side trap.

Both goalkeepers were hardly troubled during that period. At one stage it looked as the match would end in a goalless draw with each side cancelling each other out with a series of tactical moves.

However, a nasty injury to home debutant Dean Lodge was the turning point of the game. As Beckenham lost a tremendously skilled player he replaced by ball wizard Ryan Martin who immediately imposed his presence on the game running at defenders twisting and turning.

On 32 minutes a poor clearance fell to Martin who was just on the edge of the area and before anyone could close him down he unleashed a powerful volley into the top corner for what is a very good candidate for the goal-of- the-season.    
 
Having just created a chance out of nothing, Paul Vines went one better and crafted a goal out of thin air. A long ball down the middle looked liked being intercepted by Mead’s defence but Vines kept on chasing and somehow got in a shot that re-bounded off the keepers legs only to fall into his path and Vines made no mistake from 3 yards.

This goal killed off the visitors, who up to that point had mounted a serious comeback but were no match for Town’s resilient defence. Going into the break the home side had started to push the ball around and were finding plenty of space.
 
Within a minute of the re-start Vines was again on target as he powered his way through to calmly slide the ball beyond the helpless keeper. What followed can only be described as a display of clinical finishing. Goals from Green then Stewart followed in the space of 10 minutes before Kadi fired in a well worked free kick.

It looked as if Vines was going to complete his hat-trick when he was tripped inside the area as he closed down on the goal. His resulting penalty sailed over the cross-bar.
 
Green made it seven shortly afterwards when he controlled the ball on the edge of the area and drifted past four players before firing home.

To their credit Thamesmead never gave up and continued to press forward. Stewart rounded off a very good personal performance by scoring goal number eight. 
 
It was a very entertaining game packed with goalmouth incidents and talking points including the two Beckenham disallowed goals. There was no shortage of effort from the visiting team.
 
Beckenham now have a break until they entertain Deal Town at Eden Park Avenue on Saturday January 7th, kick-off 3.PM.

Beckenham have been drawn to play Leatherhead at home in the next round of The Surrey Senior Cup (date to be announced). This week Beckenham have applied for promotion into the Ryman League.