Chatham Town 0-3 Sittingbourne - We can't do the job with our hands tied behind our back, says Ward

CHATHAM TOWN  0-3  SITTINGBOURNE
Kent Senior Cup Sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com First Round
Tuesday 3^rd September 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Maidstone Road

SITTINGBOURNE begin the search for a new management team after brothers Jim and Danny Ward resigned following their side’s comfortable 3-0 win over Chatham Town in the Kent Senior Cup.

Danny Ward was interrupted towards the end of the press conference at Maidstone Road following their morale-boosting victory to be called by his brother in to a team meeting inside the visitors’ dressing room before re-emerging at around twenty-past-ten to reveal that the pair have quit the club.

Sittingbourne went into the game sitting second-from-bottom in the Ryman League Division One South table with three points from their opening six games, but they scraped past Chessington & Hook United in The FA Cup at the weekend, courtesy of Joe Taylor’s goal.

Sittingbourne sealed a morale boosting victory after they booked their place in the Second Round of the Kent Senior Cup tonight after they extended their impressive run of form over their old rivals Chatham Town as goals from Ryan Golding, Tom Brunt and substitute Luke Girt sealed a home tie against The Skrill South (Conference South) Ebbsfleet United in the next round.

Sittingbourne left Bourne Park at the end of last season to move in to the Woodstock complex, but they don’t make a penny from bar takings and run on a small playing budget.

Maurice Dunk is now the Sittingbourne chairman after fulfilling the same role at Woodstock Sports last season – but the Ward brothers have lasted only eight games under Dunk’s leadership.

Danny Ward re-emerged from the team meeting and revealed; “Me and Jim have resigned!  We’re trying to do this with our hands tied behind our back. We don’t even have keys to Woodstock. We had to stop training last week at eight o’clock and that about sums it up!

“We’ve been told we’ve got a minibus and we’ve been asking for it for our own good and it came to head on Saturday when I had to pay for the coach to take the fans’ and the players to the match so I’m still owed money for that and they haven’t had the decency to give me the money so we’ve resigned.”

Ward added: “We’ve just won three out of four and won two grand in the FA Cup and they still haven’t given me the money they owe for the coach.

“You can’t do it with your hands tied behind your back and that’s why we can’t make eight changes (like Chatham Town did) tonight.”

When asked about the futures of the former Ramsgate pair, Danny Ward replied: “Sittingbourne can go where they want. It’s up to them.  We’re available. We’re proven, myself and Jim. We’re good managers and I want a job. If anybody needs new managers they know our numbers. They could phone us. We’re open to anything.”

Sittingbourne put in a very impressive performance against a Chatham Town side that went into the game on the back of three wins on the bounce and in ninth-place in the Ryman League Division One North table.

Kevin Watson made eight changes to the side that thrashed Erith & Belvedere 5-0 at Park View Road in The FA Cup Preliminary Round at the weekend, and keeping only goalkeeper Jack Bradshaw, left-back Liam Hickey and central defender Corey Holder in the team caused more harm than good.

Chatham Town assistant manager Keith Levett said: “I think the more I reflect about it, they definitely deserved the win. They all round competed better than we did. They won a lot more first and second ball. Consequently when you win those first and second balls you don’t have the possession you like because you don’t have the ball. They were sharper. We were well beaten tonight.”

Levett admitted they should have made less changes against their old rivals.

He said: “In hindsight definitely. We wanted to win the game. We had that in our minds and we told the players it wasn’t a question of not having that as an intent but of course when you do make changes you run that risk but that doesn’t take anything away from them because I’m sure they made a few changes no doubt.

“We didn’t do very well in the tempo of the game. I think they dictated to us more in the game. I think we did put up a better show in the first part of the second half for ten minutes. We got back in the game a little bit but then conceding the second goal has a negative effect on everyone, but overall certainly they were the better side.”

Danny Ward admitted he is pleased to be able to maintain Sittingbourne’s impressive run of form over Chatham Town.

He said: “One of my fans has been on about that since we’ve been here!

“What they keep on telling me is they haven’t lost to Chatham for thirteen years before we got beaten last season in a pre-season game and they were telling me that again tonight – that we couldn’t lose!”

Reflecting on his last game in joint-charge, he said: “I thought it was a comfortable win.  We’ve played some excellent stuff at times, excellent stuff.  As I said to the lads there, we’ve played that well in every game this season. The only thing is we haven’t scored the goals. We could have had six or seven tonight and some of the one-touch football and the passing and the moving was excellent.

“Why you do football, that’s why you do it. You don’t want to kick 70 yards and chase it. You want to pass and play, give it to your mate and get it back and score goals and keep a clean sheet. It was an excellent performance.”

Chatham Town created the first chance in this first round tie when Billy Bennett whipped in a cross following a short corner towards the far post where Kes Metitiri rose to plant his header across goal and wide of the far post after only 42 seconds.

Sittingbourne – who made four changes from Saturday’s FA Cup victory – created their first chance shortly afterwards.

Right-back Brunt clipped the ball upfield and Hicham Akhazan – playing his first game of the season following his honeymoon – laid the ball off to Golding, whose left-footed drive from 25-yards was comfortably caught by Bradshaw.

Sittingbourne keeper Adam Molloy caught the ball above his head to thwart Travis Jackson, who hooked an angled drive towards the near post from fifteen-yards after James Alderman played a fine diagonal pass.

Levett praised the young winger and said: “He’s a good lad. He’s young. He’s got lots of pace but he’s still learning the game. Tonight was a good experience for him, I hope it was and we didn’t take him off because he was playing badly. We just wanted to change a couple of things, but he’s a very good boy, a great attitude and he’s a definite plus for us.”

But Sittingbourne were denied in the eighteenth minute thanks to a fine double save from Bradshaw, who was making his home debut for the club.

Central defender Sam Hayes clipped the ball out of defence to release man-of-the-match Taylor through on goal and his right-footed drive forced Bradshaw to make an excellent stop low to his left before the keeper got back up to make a fine block to deny Connor Coyne scoring from the rebound.

Ward was full of praise for winger Taylor and said: “Joe Taylor has been like that all season! He was whingeing when he came off with five minutes to go because he got taken off. He thought he could score. He’s been unplayable. The amount of balls he put in the box today, different class. The goal he scored Saturday in The FA Cup was fantastic. He could have had a hat-trick tonight, didn’t. Could have made five. Didn’t.”

Reflecting on Bradshaw’s fine game, Ward said: “We got told about him before the game. We knew he came from Erith & Belvedere and we knew he was very good and the double save he made there was fantastic. He must have made four or five saves that we’re different class but that’s life. He was decent. He probably stopped us scoring a couple more goals but I’ll settle for 3-0.”

Meanwhile, Levett was full of praise for his new goalkeeper.

He said: “He’s done very well for us. He’s a good lad. He fits in well. He’s got good attributes both goalkeeping and in terms of his character so we’re very pleased to have him. He’s a definite plus for us for the season.

“I don’t think he was at fault for any of the goals. I thought they were defensive errors and then leading to that no fault for any of the goals and overall he’s been very good so it’s just a shame we couldn’t give him a bit more protection on the night.”

Taylor then played a low pass in from the right which fell at Coyne’s feet, who cut the ball back to Brunt, who cracked a fierce right-footed drive sailing over the Chatham crossbar.

Sittingbourne were dominating the first half and didn’t look like a side that were struggling near the foot of the table and would lose their management team later on in the evening.

Akhazzan flashed an angled right-footed drive past the far post, before Sittingbourne deservedly opened the scoring just four minutes before the break.

Keeper Molloy launched a big kick down the middle of the pitch and Akhazzan’s clever pass released Golding through on goal and after out muscling Metitiri stroked his left-footed drive into the bottom right-hand corner.

“Ryan needs a goal and he took it fantastically,” said Ward.

“Hicham has been a big miss. He’s been on honeymoon for the last two and a half weeks. He came back last night and some of the touches he done until he got tired were different class. On other days he would have made three or four chances. He’ll get himself fit with more games and he’s a great addition to the squad. He’s a nice lad.”

Levett thought the goal should have been dealt with better by Metitiri.

He said: “He took the goal well, but defensively he got a good call from the goalie to say he’s going to take it and he’s decided to clear it with his wrong foot and it’s lead to the goal.

“We all put our hands up and said tonight we didn’t play as well as we can. Unfortunately what we had in mind in terms of a performance wasn’t really there tonight and you have to give credit to Sittingbourne. They didn’t allow us to play. What we walk about in terms of not allowing the other team to play, they did that to us tonight. We never really got going so it’s difficult to analyse it at the moment. Basically we were out fought, out worked and all those things that are important in football that we didn’t do tonight and they did and if you can’t have the ball you can’t really play.”

Sittingbourne could have doubled their lead inside injury time but Bradshaw caught Nick Dunsdon’s angled right-footed drive at his near post following a short corner from the left.

Sittingbourne created the first chance of the second half when Hayes floated a free-kick into the penalty area and his central defensive partner Nick Davis planted his header over.

Taylor then cracked a powerful left-footed shot on the turn while under pressure from 25-yards which brought a low save from Bradshaw, who won the Kent League double for Erith & Belvedere last season.

Chatham Town began to show more desire with the half-time introductions of midfielder Matt Solly and striker Alfie May adding more spark and determination to the team.

Levett added: “We just felt we give a bit more energy, if you like, to the team or a little bit more game understanding, a bit more experienced. 

“Matt Solly always plays a role where he can get on the ball and get us playing a bit, which he did when he came on.

“Since Alfie has been with us he’s very lively and very difficult to mark so he’s also good on the ball and he can pass. Both of them give us more game understanding which we needed.”

Solly swept a first time ball out wide to right-back Taylor McDonagh, who whipped in a first time cross and Alfie May’s downward header at the far post bounced just wide following a deflection.

McDonagh then burst forward and was given time to whip in another cross towards the far post but Luke May looped his header over.

McDonagh then clipped the ball down the right wing to release Alfie May and his cross from the right was spilt by Molloy, who gathered the ball at the second attempt before a quiet Andy Constable could pounce.

But Sittingbourne doubled their lead in the 67^th minute through an excellent strike.

Davis played a long clearance out of defence which Taylor chased down and Bradshaw came out of his box to clear the ball, which caused confusion amongst the Chatham ranks and Brunt took advantage of the chaos ahead of him by sailing his right-footed chip into the top near corner of an empty net from 30-yards.

Ward said: “I thought he’s missed, but he’s chipped the keeper from there and it’s gone into the top corner. It was a good goal, good finish, excellent goal!

“He’s one of the new additions that we’ve got.  We’ve got him, George Crimmen, Nick Dunsdon and Sam Hayes. They’ve all made a difference to the squad and to the team.”

Levett added: “We started to get stretched because they played it in early, that makes you run and they start to run at you and then you’re too deep so their work-rate was a really good key or figure for us to recognise where we need to be in terms of our possession and work-rate.

“Sittingbourne had a lot more energy tonight. I know we made a lot of changes and in all fairness to the lads a lot of them haven’t played for two or three games so they came into a game like that and maybe we made one or two too many changes. We probably could have made three or four rather than six, seven or eight, but that’s in hindsight obviously.”

Bradshaw then made a flying save to tip Brunt’s shot from distance around the post.

Chatham Town created a decent chance to claw themselves back into the game with fifteen minutes remaining.

McDonagh and Solly combined inside Sittingbourne’s half and McDonagh delivered the ball into the middle of the penalty area for Constable to send his diving header straight at Molloy.

Alfie May was then released down the left channel but he kept hold of the ball as he was closely marked before he cut the ball back to Solly, whose speculative right-footed drive sailed wide.

Sittingbourne wrapped up the victory with their third goal in the final ten minutes.

Tom Loynes did well to skip past McDonagh’s challenge before releasing Golding whose right-footed drive was pushed around the post by Bradshaw, diving low to his right to make another smart save.

Dunsdon whipped in the resulting corner from the left which came out to substitute Girt, who took a touch before lashing his right-footed shot into the roof of the net from sixteen-yards.

Ward said: “Luke Girt has been head and shoulders my best player. The ball came to the edge of the box, he took a touch and rifled it into the top corner for a great goal.”

Levett added: “It’s a disappointing goal really. I don’t remember us making any proper tackles. I’m not talking about tackles late or hurtful, I’m talking about a physical tackle and I thought they got the measure of us.  They knew that we weren’t really tackling and putting ourselves about. That gave them a lift. We were off the pace unfortunately.

“Overall, disappointing but the positives will be we gave lads opportunities and they got minutes. It’s not the end of the road for these lads. They haven’t played for three or four games. I think probably you could see that out there in the end we weren’t getting around them enough and they had a bit too much time and space to play.”

Chatham Town rallied late on in the game and created a couple of chances.

Solly’s cross should have been headed home by skipper Metitiri, who nodded the ball down and across goal to allow Molloy to step to his left to gather the loose ball, before Corey Holder stayed up for a free-kick only to deflect his shot just wide of the post.

Reflecting on Metitiri’s chance, Levett said: “I thought the best chance was from our centre half who should have taken control of it. He’s tried to duck and head the ball and the ball was nearly on the line. I thought he had a bit more time there but we didn’t have that many chances.  On the balance of play they had better chances than us. I think we’re well beaten tonight but we move on.”

This season’s Kent Senior Cup Final will be staged at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium on Bank Holiday Monday 5 May to mark The Kent FA's 125th anniversary.

Levett said: “We’re disappointed for the fans that came to watch. They’d like to see us go through and disappointed to go out ourselves. I suppose we had not more important things but other things to think about now the games gone so we move on.”


Chatham Town: Jack Bradshaw, Taylor McDonagh (Austin Gachero 76), Liam Hickey, James Alderman, Kes Metitiri, Corey Holder, Kevin Watson, Luke May, Andy Constable, Billy Bennett (Alfie May 46), Travis Jackson (Matt Solly 46).
Subs: Greg Benbow, Brad Potter

Booked: Matt Solly 47, Luke May 85

Sittingbourne: Adam Molloy, Tom Brunt, George Crimmen, Nick Davis, Sam Hayes, Nick Dunsdon, Joe Taylor (Adam Lingham 85), Connor Coyne (Luke Girt 67), Ryan Golding, Nick Treadwell, Hicham Akhazzan (Tom Loynes 67).
Subs: Luke Doherty, Jonathan Hogg

Goals: Ryan Golding 41, Tom Brunt 67, Luke Girt 80

Booked: Nick Dunsdon 57

Attendance: 128
Referee: Mr Simon Finnigan (Maidstone)
Assistants: Mr Craig Burton (Rochester) & Mr Joe McKay (Maidstone)