Beckenham Town 3-3 Crystal Palace - We're going to make a big push for the league this year, says Beckenham Town coach Jason Clews

Beckenham Town 3 – 3 Crystal Palace
Location	Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3JL
Kickoff	15/07/2016 19:00

BECKENHAM TOWN  3-3  CRYSTAL PALACE
Pre-Season Friendly
Friday 15^th July 2016
Stephen McCartney reports from Eden Park Avenue

BECKENHAM TOWN coach Jason Clews says he wants his side to replicate tonight’s good performance against young pros from their Premier League neighbours Crystal Palace during their League campaign.

Beckenham Town finished a disappointing fourteenth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League last season and a crowd of 575 were left stunned that 22 unpaid players could compete against players who are on the books of a Premier League outfit.

Crystal Palace enjoyed bundles of possession during a slow tempo first half and goalkeeper Rilwan Anibaba heightened his reputation by making a string of fine saves to keep the Eagles at bay.

Inevitably, Beckenham Town stunned their visitors by grabbing the lead just before half-time with their first shot at goal when striker Hassan Jalloh lashed a penalty into the top left-hand corner.

Both sides played 22 players and Beckenham made six changes at the break, while Crystal Palace added more urgency to the game with eight younger players entering the field.

Ricoh Hackett beat the offside trap to level for Crystal Palace, before Jamie Humprhies flicked the ball into the back of the net from close range to give Beckenham their second lead of the night.

Each time Beckenham scored, it gave Crystal Palace the kick up the backside they needed and sub Jason Lokilu levelled with a fine finish.

Beckenham Town took the lead for a third time through Brazilian Bruno Coccia, but Hackett touched the ball over the line to prevent Crystal Palace losing to a club that play eight leagues lower down the football food chain.

The post-match interview was conducted in the new stand alongside the touchline because there was a band playing outside the clubhouse to entertain the crowd.

Clews said: Great! The result is a positive thing to take out from the game, drawing 3-3 against Crystal Palace, a local team for us, a local derby as we probably say.”

“Quite a few good things to take out from there.  Obviously a few new players in for us performed very well so there’s a few things to look at as well but yes we can take quite a few positives from that.

“Defensively in the first half I thought we were tremendous at the back. That’s something that we can work on as well because we conceded a lot of goals last season and dropped points.”

Crystal Palace almost opened the floodgates inside the opening four minutes when left-back Jason Akiolu played the ball in low and striker Corrie Andrews’ low first time shot was saved by Anibaba.

Beckenham right-back Jamie Turner struggled against the pace of impressive winger Jerome Williams but Turner played a suicidal back-pass straight at Andrews’ feet but was relieved to see the ball flash past the foot of the right-hand post.

Turner is usually dependable in League games but came up against a stern fitness test tonight.

Clews said: “James is probably a little bit unfit at the moment. He knows what he’s got to do. He said to us he needs to work on his fitness because I think his first five passes he’s given away. He got into the game after that. He knows what he done wrong and he’ll work hard to correct that.”

A poor headed clearance from left-back Marlon Patterson was controlled by Aaron Bissaka, who played the ball inside for Andrews to drag his shot wide.

Luke Drehar played a long ball from inside the Crystal Palace half to release Andrews down the left. He cut into the penalty area and Anibaba made a vital save at his near post.

Anibaba pulled off a flying save halfway through the first half.

Ryan King-Elliott played the ball inside to central midfielder Drehar, who took a touch before drilling a left-footed drive towards the top right-hand corner from 25-yards, the Beckenham keeper diving full-length to his left to tip the ball behind for a corner.

“He made tremendous saves. There was one in the second half where he parried to the left, strong hands, strong hands,” said Clews.

“We’re pleased with Rilwan, he’s back at the club and he’s made a statement, a claim for first choice. He hasn’t done no wrong to play at the moment. We’ve got three keepers here at the moment, which we’re looking at but Rilwan, at the moment, stands out a little bit from the others.”

It was just too easy for Crystal Palace to open up Beckenham at will but the home side received a slice of luck on the half-hour mark when Bissaka was left in acres of space inside the box and skimmed the top of the right-hand post with his shot.

“They’re clean through. We know they were going to create a lot of chances,” added Clews.

“It was a case of that’s why we set out with a 4-2-3-1 formation first of all.  I think it didn’t work at first.  It was hard for the two holding midfielders (Frankie Warren and Danny Akers) to cope with that but we changed it to a normal 4-4-2, which worked a little bit better for us.”

Andrews played a one-two with Drehar on the edge of the penalty area and slid a first time drive which was saved comfortably low down by the busy Anibaba.

Crystal Palace wasted a free-kick chance when central midfielder Husin’s 30-yard attempt dipped just over the crossbar.

“I saw just before half-time someone had on their phone and they had 66% or 68% possession, which you’d expect that from a Premier League under 21 side,” added Clews.

“They keep the ball well, they move the ball well, their movement off the ball is something that we can learn from.  They were always on the move. As soon as they’ve made a pass, they’re always moving for the next one so it’s good for our youngsters that we’ve had out there to learn from and try to aspire to.  We’ve got quite a few young ones in there, late teens, early 20s so that’s something they can look at and try to improve their game a bit.”

Beckenham Town ventured into the Crystal Palace penalty area and were awarded a penalty by Dartford based referee Chris Myatt.

Turner improved as the half went on and clipped a long ball out of defence and the ball was chased down by highly-rated Adam Allen.

The ball fell to Hassan Jalloh, who was fouled inside the box by Akiolu and the referee pointed to the spot.

Hassan Jalloh stepped up and stunned the visiting supporters by lashing his right-footed penalty into the top left-hand corner to give Beckenham Town a shock lead.

Clews said: “Definite penalty, obviously he’s got in front of the player and the player’s made a tackle from behind so definitely a penalty and he’s struck it away well.

“We were actually thinking about bringing him off because he had a little injury, a little knock, so we didn’t want to push him any longer really.  He’s an important player for us. He’s creative and skilful but because we didn’t take him off he’s taken a penalty and he’s stuck it right in the top corner.

“It was our first shot, we weren’t expecting a lot really because we knew they’ll be pressing high.”

Anibaba ensured the lead was intact at the break making another low save, this time from Williams, which was the last kick of the first half.

Clews was full of praise for central defender Aaron Williams, who alongside Anibaba ensured a clean sheet was secured by the interval.

Clews admits he fears he could lose Williams again.

“I thought he was tremendous first half, every tackle, he was a rock,” he said.

“He’s one of these players that probably wants a bit of money but we can give him a great surface and everything like that to play on so we’re doing anything we can to keep him. He’s a big player and one we want to keep.”

As per the norm in pre-season, the second half was a different affair as Crystal Palace added urgency with the game with a younger, quicker attack.

They levelled in the 53^rd minute when a long ball put sub Hackett through on goal and with Adam Allen on the deck, the striker beat the offside trap, ran through and kept his composure to steer his shot past Anibaba.

Clews said: “We wanted to keep it tight. Obviously we’re not going to create a lot of chances so it’s a case of take what we’ve got and defend and if we can catch them on the break and we’ll do that.

“I think they got straight back into it didn’t he? He looked a bit offside. That’s one of our mistakes that we do a lot because we change the back four a lot. A couple of them are used to playing offside and we tell the team when they play the offside rule always go with the man.  I think one of them played them onside. Adam Allen was down. They collected the ball and literally caught us on the counter attack.  He kept them onside because he was down from a tackle. It’s one of those things, you have to take it but that’s one of the mistakes we have to learn from.”

Anibaba was called into action again and this was another fine save to deny Andre Coker drilling an angled drive from the right-hand side into the corner.

Beckenham Town’s second shot on target arrived on the hour-mark when sub Coccia played the ball inside to fellow sub Harrison Bray, whose left-footed drive was pushed around the post by diving substitute keeper Colm McAdden.

Humphries scored 24 goals for Beckenham last season and the highly-rated attacker got on the scoresheet in the 61^st minute tonight.

Coccia swung in a corner from the right towards the far post and Allen rose to plant his header across goal and towards the far corner and Humphries flicked his volley over his shoulder into the far corner from inside the six-yard box.

“He’s a little fox in the box is Jamie when he’s there in the six-yard box,” said Clews.

“It was a great leap from Adam at the back, he’s headed it back across the goal and Jamie Humphries is there to finish it off. That’s what he’s like.  The good thing with Jamie, he’s looking a bit sharper this season. He had a quiet spell last season, he’s looking sharper. He’s done a lot of pre-season with us this year. The thing is now he’s going on holiday so he misses the next two games so that doesn’t help him. He’s working on his own in the gym. I think he knows his responsibilities for the club.”

Allen was another Beckenham Town player to impress and can clearly play at a higher level of football.

Clews said: “He works hard. He tracks back all the time and he gets up and down.  You know what you get with Adam. He’s a big important player for us. We’re trying to keep him. He’s had offers from other clubs (Ryman One South side) Sittingbourne where he went last year on dual-registration because he played for us in midweek games so we’re doing all we can to keep these players.”

The lead didn’t last long, however, as Crystal Palace equalised for the second time in the 66^th minute through Lokilu, who picked his spot past Anibaba after twisting and turning the Beckenham defence.

“He was the fast winger, he was rapid! He was quick and was a danger for us when he came on,” said Clews.

“I think we switched off a few times. There was a couple of occasions when the balls turned dead and turned our backs on the play and that’s another thing we’ve got to learn from.”

Michael Phillips will be asking himself why he didn’t score after his pacy run down the right saw him cut into the Beckenham penalty area and blaze his shot over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

Anibaba was substituted with 20 minutes remaining and Dan Clarke proved his worth by making a low save to his right at his near post to deny Lokilu after the midfielder cut inside.

Beckenham Town received a huge slice of luck when they took the lead again with fourteen minutes left.

Luciano Osborne played the ball inside to Coccia, who unleashed a left-footed drive towards goal from 25-yards, the ball taking a wicked deflection and looping over the grounded keeper, dropping into the empty net.

Clews said: “He struck it well. It’s on target. We haven’t had many chances but when we did or the odd four or five that were on target so that’s another thing. You’re not going to get many against a Premier League under 21 side so we’ll take them but everyone was on target so that’s a good thing to take from it.”

But Beckenham’s hopes of claiming a shock victory were dashed when Crystal Palace completed the scoring just 126 seconds later.

Lokilu used his pace to attack Beckenham down the right and drilled a shot towards the near post, which was parried by Clarke, the ball looped up and Hackett was there to stab the ball over the line.

Clews said: “I felt sorry for Dan because he could’ve done a little bit better there. He's made a little bit of a mistake but again he can learn from it. I’m a bit disappointed with conceding straight after.”

Clews felt midfielder Adam Wadmore should have done better when he ran forward before scuffing his shot across goal and past the far post.

Clews held his head in his hands in despair when an attack from his side broke down and pacy Hackett sprinted down the left from the half-way line, cut into the penalty area and floated over a cross which was met by Coker’s bullet header.  The ball was at a nice height for Clarke to tip the ball over his crossbar.

Clews said: “It was right at him so he’s made a great reaction save there, he’s put it over the bar. He’s done the one minute and up the next with a good save. He done well there when he’s come on.”

Clarke ensured Beckenham Town claimed a draw when he somehow kept out Giovani McGregor’s fiercely struck angled drive form the right hand side at the death.

Reflecting on the result, Clews, who is Jason Huntley’s right-hand man, said: “It’s brilliant! There’s a lot of positives we can take from that. We’ve got a few good games coming up.

“We’ve got Stansfeld on Tuesday, which we’re going to give a few other boys who haven’t had any run outs today and then we’re looking forward to (National League side) Bromley (at home) next Saturday.  Another local derby, the history between the two clubs with Jerry Dolke (Bromley chairman and former Beckenham Town player) and Peter Palmer (Beckenham Town secretary).

“If we can perform like that against Bromley, that’s going to be a really difficult game for us.”

Beckenham Town fans will be hoping they replicate this performance against their League rivals.

“That’s our problem over the last few seasons,” admitted Clews.

“We play really well against the top teams and then we sort of drop our level when we play the lower teams, no disrespect to the lower teams. They always want to come here and perform well but we never keep that same standard week in week out and that’s a thing we have to aim to do this season, is to continuously do it.

“We have no budget. We’re hopefully sorting things out this season. I’m not saying we have a budget, we’re working on it, to try to get people in and perhaps we might keep the players that we’ve got.

“It was a great performance against an under 21 Premier League side. It’s a quite promising season ahead and we expect to do a lot better and finish higher than we did last season so we’re going to make a big push for the league this year.”

Beckenham Town: Rilwan Anibaba (Dan Clarke 70), Jamie Turner (Shay Whyborne 46), Marlon Patterson (Jamie Spenser 46), Danny Akers (Bruno Coccia 46), Aaron Williams (Aziz Khan 62), George Mitchell (Gassimu Jalloh 46), Frankie Warren (Adam Wadmore 62), Adam Allen (Kelvin Ogboe 62), Hassan Jalloh (Harrison Bray 46), Jamie Humphris (Quintin Conteh 62), Eky Deen (Luciano Osborne 46).
Subs: Gio Fullone, Harry Draper

Goals: Hassan Jalloh 44 (penalty), Jamie Humphris 62, Bruno Coccia 76

Crystal Palace: Harry Campbell (Colm McAdden 46), Ryan King-Elliott (Michael Phillips 46), Jason Akiolu (Callum Sturgess 46), Luke Drehar (Jason Lokilu 46), Ben Wynter (Bryce Hossamah 62), Sam Woods (George Lucas 46), Aaron Bissaka (Andre Coker 46), Noor Husin (Jack Denton 62), Corrie Andrews (Ricoh Hackett 46), Jake Gray (Giovani McGregor 62), Jerome Williams (Randell Williams 46).

Goals: Ricoh Hackett 53, Jason Lokilu 66, 78

Attendance: 575
Referee: Mr Chris Myatt (Dartford)
Assistants: Mr Joshua Few (Warlingham, Surrey) & Mr Alexis Stacchini (Orpington)