Bearsted 0-1 Pagham - We've got to be better in the final third and we have to stop making silly mistakes to concede goals, says Bearsted head coach Mike Ward

Bearsted 0 – 1 Pagham
Location	Otham Sports Ground, Honey Lane, Otham, Maidstone, Kent ME15 8RG
Kickoff	10/09/2016 15:00

BEARSTED  0-1  PAGHAM
The Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round
Saturday 10^th September 2016
Stephen McCartney reports from Honey Lane

BEARSTED head coach Mike Ward says his players’ must improve in the final third after their FA Vase debut ended in an unlucky defeat.

The newly-promoted Otham-based outfit went into this First Qualifying Round tie sitting in the bottom three in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division with three points from their opening seven games.

Pagham arrived at Honey Lane sitting in the top four in the Southern Combination Premier with 12 points from their opening five league outings and went down to a 3-0 home defeat to Ryman Premier League side Dulwich Hamlet in The FA Cup First Qualifying Round last weekend.

Bearsted were punished for a slow start to the game, playing with only Andy Irvine up front for nearly an hour, playing a poor player at right-back in the shape of Isaac Walters and by the time he was hauled off after only 25 minutes into his debut, Pagham had scored the only goal of the game to seal a home tie against Horsham YMCA on 24 September.

Pagham hit their hosts on the counter attack and Scott Murfin scored his sixth-goal of the season.

But it was going to be one of those days for Kevin Stevens’ side as they hit the woodwork twice and had a last-gasp equaliser ruled out through offside.

“We didn’t start too well. We gave them the first 20 minutes really and they scored, which we keep doing, just giving them a goal in transition which has really kind of killed us,” admitted Ward after Bearsted’s fifth defeat in eight games.

“Our reaction was quite good. In recent games when we’ve gone a goal down, we’ve always had a good reaction. We spoke about that in training, we saw a good reaction today and probably felt our second half performance and the amount of possession we had and the amount we got the ball in their final third that we could’ve created a few more chances and probably taken one or two that could’ve got us into extra time or a replay.

“We say to the boys we’ve got good enough players in the final third. We’ve got Pete Williams who got 23 goals last season, Andy Irvine, whose scored goals all around this league and players like Brad Webb whose come in whose got four goals and Flisher whose scored goals for most seasons.

“We know we’ve got players in the final third that can score goals. I guess it’s just getting that confidence. We’ve started to shore up a little bit at the back now and now it’s getting solid at both ends.”

Pagham started the game with plenty of possession and they enjoyed building up down the left and Walters was clearly struggling as Pagham played neat triangle passing movements on a regular basis.

Bearsted created a half-chance inside the opening six and a half minutes, meanwhile, as Pete Williams sent his towering header into James Binfield’s hands after Michael Holliday swung in a free-kick from the left.

But Bearsted had goalkeeper Scott Andrews to thank to prevent Pagham deservedly opening the lead inside 11 minutes.

Dan Kempson threaded the ball into Kieron Pamment’s feet and the striker cut into the penalty area and his dinked shot was turned around the post by the advancing Bearsted keeper.

“We didn’t really start well,” admitted Ward.

“They moved the ball pretty well through the midfield and we knew that, we had them watched against Canterbury in The FA Cup, so we knew they were going to try to get it down and play so we wanted them to play quite direct.

“We didn’t deal with that one. They got down the side of us and we haven’t reacted well on the second ball and that was said at half-time.

“To be fair to the lads they are quite good at correcting their own mistakes and they saw that incident and they got in and Scott has made some great saves (this season). We know Scott has got that in his locker to provide good saves but we’ve just got to stop these opportunities being created way too easy from our point of view.”

Pagham right-back Andy Brown floated in a cross into the Bearsted box, which was miss-judged by Andy Foster, but the central defender did well to get back on his line to prevent Kempson scoring.

Williams, who started the game out wide on the right, was seemingly clipped by onrushing Pagham keeper Binfield just inside the box, the poked shot going wide by some distance.

Pagham skipper Neil Murfin played a diagonal pass out of defence and Scott Murfin controlled the ball and hit a deep cross which was put back into the box by left-back Jordan Warren, the ball was headed clear to George Bingham, the central midfielder smashing his volley just wide of the right-hand post from 22-yards.

Pagham grabbed the winning goal – although it was deserved at the time – with 20 minutes and 43 seconds on the clock.

Bearsted advanced into Pagham’s half of the pitch, lost the ball and winger Ryan Morey collected the ball on the half-way line, easily won a foot race with last defender Rob Lyall to reach the by-line before cutting the ball back for Scott Murfin to slam his shot into the bottom right-hand corner from six-yards.

“We don’t react very well from when we’re attacking and we got into some very pretty good positions and we’re looking to create and it’s two passes and they’re through our midfield and again hence why the change happened because we wanted a bit more legs in there,” said Ward.

“It feels like 20 minutes we give teams a goal. Rob’s a bit upset there with his one-v-one defending but as their cross comes in it’s three-v-two to them and that’s just not good enough at this standard, so we have to make better decisions higher up the pitch to keep the ball and as we lose it those little triggers that we can really get set.

“That was a carbon copy of the Croydon goal that we conceded on the first day of the season. We spoke about it and worked on it in training each week but there’s still these little mistakes creeping in that need to be rectified.”

Lyall was keen to make amends and he put his head in his hands in despair after glancing his header across goal and past the far post after Holliday swung in a left-wing corner at the other end.

But hauling off Walters and putting Graeme Andrews in his place at right-back and putting substitute Matt Garner in midfield was the kick-start that Bearsted needed.

“Isaac came to us for the last two weeks and he’s training quite well. It was a little bit of a punt today. We’ve lost Jack West, he’s gone to Hollands & Blair, so we had to have a look at him today, being a cup game, although The FA Vase game is important to the club. We really wanted to see what he was like and we felt we were getting done down our right-hand side a little bit too much.

“We still see Graeme Andrews as preferably playing centre midfield this season at some point and it was a decision to make. It weren’t to say Isaac was struggling, we needed someone like Matt Garner to cover midfield. He gives us a bit more energy and get about and buzz and also someone like Graeme can defend well one-v-one because their number nine (Pamment) was causing us problems for the first 30 minutes.”

They started to play better following that change and Williams cut the ball back to Brad Webb, who whipped in a quality cross from the left which was met by Sam Flisher’s towering header, which agonisingly clipped the far post.

“We worked hard with those front four, playing off Andy Irvine is such a good pillar to play off. We have to try to rotate and get into wide areas and deliver and get players in the box.

“Flisher, for someone who is five foot nothing can really jump and attack the ball and I think he got five or six goals with his head last year. He will score again this season.  I thought Flisher was outstanding today. He must’ve played three or four different positions. We chopped and changed to try to get an equaliser and he did a job everywhere he went so he done a job today.”

Bearsted were now enjoying a good spell of good football and Webb won the ball in the Pagham half and threaded the ball to Irvine, who cut across and into the box and his left-footed angled drive was tipped around the post by Bingham, diving to his left.

Ward said: “Everyone looks at Andy, sees the size of him and thinks get it to his head and get it wide. He’s scored a couple of headers this season and he’s also scored a couple of volley’s. If he can get on the half turn, especially on that left-foot of his and we said to him to hit the target. He’s had a good non-league career scoring goals and we believe he’ll get 20 goals this year.  The keeper’s made probably two or three good saves including that one and we’ve hit the post twice.”

Pagham had a chance to grab a second goal when the impressive Pamment whipped a dipping right-footed free-kick into Scott Andrews hands from 30-yards.

Bearsted struck the post for the second time on the stroke of half-time.

Holliday swung in a corner from the left and Irvine called out his name to plant his towering header which pinged against the left-hand post.

The ball was cleared and came back out to Holliday, who delivered another decent cross and Graeme Andrews glanced his header past the far post.

Ward said: “We work on our set-plays. We’ve got a big squad, we’ve got Rob Lyall, Andy Irvine and Graeme Andrews who are all six foot players so I spoke to them in a break of play about our timing of our runs from set-plays and they got to do better and our delivery was good and if we scored then I’d really fancy us to come out and really win the game because just before half-time is a really good time to score, but look that’s cup football, I know it’s an old cliché.

“We came out second half and we couldn’t really break them down so it’s a bit of a shame.”

When asked about his thoughts at the break, Ward said: “We spoke about the goal because it’s happened to us two or three times to us this season and we talked about how we can improve and not let that happen, not only the second half but also moving forward.

“We spoke about how we might change it if a goal didn’t come or if they nicked a second on the break because we knew we was going to come out.

“We reacted well to the goal. We can’t let this 15 minutes dent our momentum and motivation, let’s go back out and go again and we did.

“I knew they’d get it down and pass and pass because that’s how their manager sets them up and fair play to them they can knock it about well.”

Binfield was called into making a save with only 182 seconds into the second half, courtesy of some good play from Flisher.

Flisher drove forward and set-up a chance for Webb, who cracked a right-footed drive on the turn from 22-yards, which was palmed over the bar by Binfield’s outstretched left-hand.

Ward said: “We’re creating chances, we’re moving the ball well. Brad’s very well in one-v-one situations. He always seems to pop up. It’s another opportunity where their keeper has made a decent save.”

Stevens made a tactical change when he brought on right-winger Keelan Mooney.  Williams joined Irvine up front and Andy Foster moved over to right-back with Graeme Andrews now partnering Lyall at the heart of defence with Hart staying at left-back.

Lyall’s throw was flicked on by Irvine and Williams dipping drove bounced into the side netting and Mooney burst down the heart of the pitch but his shot was poor and rolled into Binfield’s hands.

Ward added: “Andy Irvine said to me ‘you have to make your own luck!”

“We do feel in some of the games we’ve had this season, when it’s bounced off a left back whose turned his back, it seems to fall to their midfielder rather than our midfielder coming onto it but that’s just football I guess.

“We’ve got to be better in the final third and we have to stop making silly mistakes to concede goals here and there, it’s as simple as that!”

A nasty challenge on Bingham by Foster put the Pagham midfielder out of the game and referee Tom Nicholls or his assistants failed to notice the offence and allowed play to continue where Irvine found space down the left channel to float over a cross where an unmarked Flisher glanced his header wide.

Flisher’s energy was causing Pagham problems, the visitors were hanging on for most of the second half and Williams fed Irvine, who flicked the ball up and smacked a volley bouncing past the far post.

Pagham’s first second half opening arrived in the final 15 minutes, Scott Murfin cut in from the left wing and drilled his shot around the diving keeper and past the far post.

Warren then broke into the Bearsted half and played the ball out wide to substitute left-winger James Thurgar, who put over a cross which was drilled wide by Scott Murfin from the edge of the box.

Hart was thrown up to make it a three-man forward line for the final 10 minutes as dominant Bearsted went in search of the equaliser that their attacking play deserved.

But you just knew it wasn’t going to be Bearsted’s day when Mooney whipped in a cross from the right wing, the ball came out to Garner who drilled his shot just past the foot of the left-hand post from 20-yards.

“It was one of those days,” admitted Ward.

“Last year Garner got two goals. He knows he needs to be adding goals to his game but in terms of his energy and the pressing he puts in midfield and the way he plays on the ball he’s an all-round midfielder. If he can add 10 or 15 goals to it then he will be a very good midfielder for us this season.

Bearsted will need to work on their heading at training as Lyall came up from the back to glance the ball wide after rising to meet a long free-kick into the Pagham box from his goalkeeper.

Bearsted were to be denied a deserved equaliser by an offside flag, which was despairing for the Kent side as it proved to be the last kick of the game.

Lyall clipped the ball over to Mooney, who controlled the ball with his chest and whipped in an inch-perfect ball, which flashed towards Irvine at the near post who poked his shot into the bottom right-hand corner – but his celebrations were cut dead as the flag went up.

“It looked tight but I’m not going to sit here and say it was or it wasn’t offside because I just couldn’t see it,” said Ward.

“We were going for it. We went three at the back and gone three up front and we were trying to win the game. People said to us as we walked off why didn’t Keelan Mooney go up front? But we wanted to keep width in the game, keep the ball moving sideways to get round the sides.

“I’m nowhere near it but Andy’s telling me he’s onside so it’s a bitter pill to take but I think if we’d have got to extra-time you might’ve fancied us as a neutral sat here and said Bearsted have got the momentum but there you go, cup football.”

Kent Invicta League champions Bearsted are experiencing that players are better in the league above and that they must be more clinical in the final third from here on in to start picking up points to climb the Premier table.

Bearsted travel to second-placed Ashford United on Tuesday night and league leaders AFC Croydon Athletic next Saturday.

Reflecting on their FA Vase debut, Ward said: “We said in the warm-up we’re the history makers, the first group to play in a national competition for the club. It was a good experience. It would’ve been a better experience to get the draw to maybe travel down there on a Tuesday night.

“Results haven’t been good enough in the league. We worked so hard last year to get into this league but we don’t want to let ourselves down now.

“If you’ve been to every game you’d probably sit here and say Bearsted are better than the three points they’ve got – but we’ve got three points from seven games.”

Bearsted: Scott Andrews, Isaac Walters (Matt Garner 25), Andy Hart, Andy Foster, Rob Lyall, Graeme Andrews (Saul Grant 86), Peter Williams, Michael Holliday (Keelan Mooney 56), Andy Irvine, Sam Flisher, Bradley Webb.
Subs: Stephen Etienne, Matthew Guest

Booked: Rob Lyall 55, Bradley Webb 86, Andy Foster 90

Pagham: James Binfield, Andy Brown, Jordan Warren, Neil Murfin, Darryl Woller, Liam Humphries, Dan Kempson, George Bingham (James Thurgar 66), Kieron Pamment (Ben Mepham 76), Scott Murfin, Ryan Morey.
Subs: Lloyd Rowlatt, Dan Swain, Joe Shelley

Goal: Scott Murfin 21

Booked: Dan Kempson 90

Attendance: 70
Referee: Mr Tom Nicholls (Hither Green, London SE13)
Assistants: Mr James Paternoster (Sidcup) & Mr Kane O’Beine (Bexleyheath)


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