Kentish Football 
Carshalton Athletic 3-2 Tonbridge Angels - Alex O’Brien threatens to wield the axe
Tuesday 07th September 2010
CARSHALTON ATHLETIC 3-2 TONBRIDGE ANGELS
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 7th September 2010
Stephen McCartney reports from Colston Avenue
TONBRIDGE ANGELS boss Tommy Warrilow stormed out of Colston Avenue after seeing his underperforming side slump back inside the relegation zone after six games.
They were twice in the lead, courtesy of goals from skipper Scott Kinch and on-loan striker Sherwin Stanley, but mistakes cost them at least a point in a battling contest.
Central defender Sonny Miles had a night to forget after he gifted Carshalton an equaliser right on half-time and was red-carded for a professional foul, only to see goalkeeper Lee Worgan save the resulting penalty, but two late goals from the home side ensured Warrilow swiftly made for a get-away, leaving his assistant Alex O’Brien to face the questions.
“Really disappointing considering we’re away from home, we went down to 10 men, we saved a penalty, we’ve gone 2-1 up, yet we’ve still come away with nothing,” O’Brien told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.
When asked about Warrilow’s swift exit towards his car, the former Chatham Town boss said: “Tommy’s won things and he’s been at fantastic clubs and he’s had a fantastic footballing career and it’s not nice to lose. No-one wants to lose.
“We need the players that we’ve got to realise that losing is a painful thing and I’m sure they do - but we’ve got to get them into the mindset for 90 minutes that football’s very much personal and you want to win for 90 minutes and win the game and then kick-on.
“We’ve said for a while that we need a little bit of bite an that will come. Winning games breeds confidence and it breeds little things like that.
“Saturday against Horsham (in our only win of the season) we showed in the second half we can hold onto a game and win a game of football but we’ve come here tonight and we’ve done extremely well in patches, our work-rate was through the roof but unfortunately we’ve lost. They got the decisive goal, that’s just killed us but like I say we’ll go again, without a shadow of a doubt.”
Carshalton Athletic created a couple of chances from free-kicks early on, which central defender David Ray came up from the back to nod past the near post, before the Robbins called Worgan into making a smart low save to deny Luke Pigden from scoring with a low drive, following Paul Johnson’s lay-off from inside the penalty box.
But Tonbridge Angels grabbed the lead, with their first shot on target, after 29 minutes.
Jake Beecroft and Frannie Collin combined down the left with a give-and-go free-kick routine and Beecroft had time and space to whip in an excellent cross for skipper Kinch to smash the ball past goalkeeper Craig Ross and into the corner - to the delight of the vocal travelling army.
Both sides were vocally supported behind the goal - despite the low crowd of 228 due to England’s European Championship Qualifier in Switzerland.
Carshalton turned defence into attack as they swept the ball forward from Beecroft’s right-wing corner and released lively winger Chris Henry down the left, who sprayed the ball diagonally for Joel Ledgister, who dragged his shot past the far post when well placed.
But suicidal defending from Miles ensured it was a night to forget for the Tonbridge number 6.
Carshalton played a hopeful ball forward through the heart of the Angels defence and there was no immediate danger, but Miles’ attempted header back to Worgan was poor and Henry pounced on the blunder swiftly and slotted the ball into the bottom left-hand corner to bring Carshalton level 45 seconds into stoppage time.
Tonbridge should have regained their lead within the opening six minutes of the second half when a slick move involving Stanley and Lee Browning resulted in Frannie Collin blasting over from six-yards, who slid in despite being under pressure.
But Tonbridge did double their lead after 57 minutes when Stanley received a sliding pass from the right, turned his marker and fired across Ross to find the bottom far corner, a good finish from a player who was to be a lone-striker later on.
Carshalton missed a couple of decent efforts before they were awarded a penalty when Johnson’s hooked pass released Byron Harrison, whose pace took him past Miles, who chopped down the striker inside the box, and watched the remainder of the game from inside the steel cage after Wimbledon based referee Mr John O’Brien brandished a deserved red card.
Harrison stepped up and his penalty was brilliantly saved by Worgan, who dived to his left to prevent the ball flying into the corner.
Tonbridge were hanging on to dear life, throwing bodies in the way of the ball, and it looked like their resilience would see them through to collecting at least a point.
But Carshalton midfielder Johnson had other ideas, as his 30-yard left-footed screamer flew past Worgan and into the roof of the net to bring the hosts level with eight minutes left.
Things got even worse for Tonbridge - a club that are supposedly be chasing promotion this season - as Michael Boateng had time and space to deliver an excellent cross from the right for Harrison to make amends for his earlier miss, powering home a header that sailed across Worgan into the far corner.
“It’s frustrating because in the first half I thought they got at us brilliantly,” added O’Brien. “We’ve got a 1-0 lead and we do what we’ve done all year and made a silly mistake, a silly choice if you like.
“Sonny knows he’s gone wrong there and hopefully will learn from it and learn quickly and get on being the player we know he is.
“When we scored (our second goal), we were playing a good spell of football and we were moving the ball around, winning seconds and it was their bench that was shouting “get tighter and get the ball and this that and the other,” and then we stopped, which was annoying. We let them back into the game and they were knocking, knocking, knocking and you saw the result.”
Speaking about Miles’ red card, O’Brien admitted: “It killed us because we were doing ever so well and to lose a man with the pace that they’ve got it was difficult to sort of live with.
“The boys work-rate was fantastic and they crept silly options in unfortunately instead of turning them. They were getting a lot of the ball and forcing it down our necks.”
When asked about the winning goal, O’Brien said: “You would’ve thought they had won the FA Cup, that’s how football is. It’s one of those, everything is on an emotion. The boy’s took his goal well but unfortunately for us it was a job short of done half well. We’ve come away with nothing and that’s what we don’t want to achieve.”
Six games in and only 4 points to show for their efforts, O’Brien warned players that they could be heading for the exit if they continue like this.
When director Garry Pass came out with bold statements in June saying, “We have a five-year plan for the club. In year one, we are aiming for promotion to the Conference South. We will consolidate for three years in the Conference South and then by the fifth, we hope to be in the Conference,” the Kent side are massively underachieving.
“It will come, it’s just that we’ve got to get players doing what we ask and being a little bit cuter as in staying with their runners and picking up from corners and this, that and the other,” said O’Brien.
“These things we’re drilling in but players have got to take it on board or unfortunately play football somewhere else.
“It’s something that we believe in wholeheartedly and to get Tonbridge as high or as close to the steps that Garry’s been talking about as quickly as possible.
“It’s been a bit of a blip but we need to turn another corner.”
Former Carshalton defender, Liam Harwood, admitted he “enjoyed” playing against his former side, although he got plenty of stick from the home fans behind Worgan’s goal.
“I played here for three seasons, I enjoyed it,” the 22-year-old told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.
“I love the fans down here, they always looked after me and treated me well. I enjoyed it, but disappointed with the loss.”
When asked his views on the game, Harwood said: “A bit confused really by it all really! I thought when we played we battered them, destroyed them really but it was a bit of a topsy-turvey game really. They had a little bit, we had a little bit and at crucial points of the game our decision making was a bit off and it cost us the game really.”
Harwood refused to point the finger of blame to his defensive partner Miles, for the club’s fourth defeat of the season.
“It was obviously a bit decision in football,” he said of the first goal. “He’ll learn from that, he knows what he did, he’ll learn from that and it’ll help him in the future.”
And reflecting on Miles’ sending off, Harwood added: “It made it harder obviously but I don’t think it caused us enough problems - we caused ourselves the problems by just not doing the simple things. We just needed to get it together for five minutes and just calm things down but we didn’t and a nervous 10 minutes really cost us the game.”
Tim O’Shea and his assistant Neil Smith, who quit disgraced Croydon Athletic last week, were in attendance tonight, as was Martin Larkin and Brad Sandeman, who were on a scouting mission ahead of Tunbridge Wells’ trip to Colston Avenue in the FA Cup First Qualifying Round on Saturday.
Carshalton Athletic: Craig Ross, Michael Boatang, Ricardo Joseph, David Ray, Justyn Roberts, Tommy Williams, Paul Johnson, Luke Pigden (Lloyd Blackman 81), Joel Ledgister, Byron Harrison, Chris Henry.
Subs: Rishi Nangani, James Duncan, Brett Cooper, Liam Stone.
Goals: Chris Henry 45, Paul Johnson 82, Byron Harrison 86
Booked: Byron Harrison 49, Chris Henry 48, Lloyd Blackman 90
Tonbridge Angels: Lee Worgan, Matt Hollyoak, Jon Heath, Scott Kinch, Liam Harwood, Sonny Miles. Jake Beecroft, Jacob Mingle (Sam Jones 87), Frannie Collin (Adam Burchell 87), Sherwin Stanley, Lee Browning.
Subs: Kirk Watts, Paul Semakula, Alex O’Brien.
Goals: Scott Kinch 29, Sherwin Stanley 57
Booked: Liam Harwood 21, Jacob Mingle 67, Matt Hollyoak 68, Lee Browning 90
Sent Off: Sonny Miles 67
Attendance: 228
Referee: Mr John O’Brien (Wimbledon, London SW19)
Assistants: Mr Simon Griffiths (Horsham, West Sussex) & Mr James Harding (Burgess Hill, West Sussex)
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