Chatham Town 2-3 Tooting & Mitcham United - It's going to take us a ltitle bit of time to find our feet and get it right, says Chatham Town assistant Darren Anslow

Chatham Town 2 – 3 Tooting & Mitcham United
Location	Maidstone Road Sports Ground, Bournville Avenue, Chatham, Kent ME4 6LR
Kickoff	15/08/2016 19:45

CHATHAM TOWN  2-3  TOOTING & MITCHAM UNITED
Ryman League Division One South
Monday 15^th August 2016
Stephen McCartney reports from Maidstone Road

CHATHAM TOWN assistant manager Darren Anslow says it will take a little bit of time to get it right after losing his first home game in the Maidstone Road dug-out.

 

A Monday night crowd of 239 watched an entertaining game against Tooting & Mitcham United, who came away with a 3-2 victory to climb into second-place in the table on four points.

Frank Wilson’s side raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes through striker Danny Bassett and Goal of the Season so far from pacy winger Taurean Roberts.

Ade Yusuff, 22, who was making his return to Chatham Town following his move to Dagenham & Redbridge (where he was also sent out on loan to St Albans City, Leatherhead, East Thurrock United and Welling United) headed home to bring Tony Beckingham’s side back into the game.

The first half was entertaining, but the second half disappointed and Tooting & Mitcham restored their two-goal advantage through Billy Dunn’s deflected drive, but Chatham Town pulled an injury time goal back through a second header, this time from Ricky Gundry.

Anslow said: “We started slowly, I think that was pretty obvious. It gave us a little bit of a mountain to climb. We gave away another sloppy goal and it’s fair to say defensively they were three sloppy goals to give away.  We got back into it again with four minutes to go, disappointing really.”

Chatham Town attracted four crowds of over 200 last season so to get 239 tonight was pleasing and vindicates making Monday’s their midweek match night to bring in the crowds.

“We thought we’d try this season and it’s seemed to have worked.  They’ve seen five goals, so hopefully they’ll come back again. It’s just a shame it wasn’t 3-2 the other way,” said Anslow.

After finishing in the bottom six last season and fourth-from-bottom the year before that, it was important for Chatham Town to win their first home game after coming away from Three Bridges with a goal-less draw on the opening day of the season. Tooting & Mitcham United were held to a 1-1 draw by Herne Bay.

Tooting & Mitcham United’s first shot was wayward, midfielder Kurtis Pykes hitting his shot high over the bar from 30-yards before Yusuff knocked the ball down for Ross Morley to hit his dipping drive over the Terrors’ crossbar from 25-yards.

Tooting & Mitcham United opened the scoring with nine minutes and 36 seconds on the clock.

Right-back Sol Patterson-Bohner released Roberts down the right and the ball was played inside to Bassett, who powered his low left-footed angled drive across the keeper from 16-yards, the ball nestling into the bottom far corner of the net.

“I think it’s fair to say we started slowly,” admitted Anslow.

“I think we started slow on Saturday. Sometimes it’s difficult to put your finger on why we started slowly. It’s not for the want of trying and the information. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb but we’re making it difficult for ourselves, it’s fair to say.

“I said to the boys the other day, this is a tight league, it’s a tight division and every game will be like that.  We had a 0-0 on Saturday, a 3-2 defeat today and they had 1-1 on Saturday. Every game will be won or lost by the odd goal or little mistakes or slow starts.  It’s something that we’ve got to get out our system and we’ve got to come out firing!”

Tooting & Mitcham, who brought a good number of travelling supporters with them for this game, called on-loan Gillingham keeper Henry Newcombe into making a comfortable save.

The impressive winger, Jordan Wilson played a short corner to Roberts, who swept his cross into the box, bouncing into the hands of the young keeper.

But Newcombe could do nothing about Roberts’ brilliant goal, timed at 19 minutes and 8 seconds, and Goal of The Season so far.

Roberts received the ball inside the Chatham half, brushed aside his marker, cut inside and drilled a stunning right-footed drive into the top right-hand corner from 35-yards.

Anslow said: “Anything you can say about the strike, it’s a great strike. I don’t think anyone would’ve saved that!

“But from our point of view we’re looking at how he’s managed to travel so far with the ball before he actually got a shot off and that’s something that we need to look at. Could he have been closed a little bit earlier?”

Chatham were all over the place and struggling with their diamond formation, so much so they changed it to 4-2-3-1 after the break.

“It’s not so much a diamond, but we’ve done a lot of shape and we were a little bit of the pace today,” admitted Anslow.

“We started slowly, we were a little bit lethargic. There were too big gaps between the back four, the forwards and the midfield. It’s something we have to look at and come Thursday have a chat and see what we can do.”

Going two goals down was the spark that Chatham Town needed and target-man Luke Medley held the ball up before playing the ball through to Gundry, whose first time flicked pass put Aaron Rhule through on goal down the middle but his right-footed dipping drive from 12-yards flew straight into the midriff of visiting keeper Matte Pierson.

“We went 2-0 down and then we sort of came alive,” said Anslow.

“I thought for the rest of the half, the second goal almost woke us up and we started to create one, two and three chances after that.  Like we said to them the other day, this league is won or lost on taking your chances.”

Bennett unleashed another similar drive to his earlier strike but this time Newcombe made the save.

Anslow said: “He’s on loan from Gillingham, he’s a young boy. He’s done well the last couple of games Henry. He’s here to learn and he is learning but it was a decent save.”

Chatham Town pulled a goal back with 28 minutes and 8 seconds on the clock.

Full-back Abdul Lyoubi whipped in a lovely cross from the left towards the near post, which was headed on by Gundry and an unmarked Yusuff ghosted in to loop his header across the keeper into the far corner.

With his first goal in the bag this season, Anslow believes Yusuff will get another chance in the professional ranks, having left Chatham Town in September 2014 to sign for Dagenham & Redbridge for an undisclosed transfer fee.

“Good finish, I thought, a good bit of movement, the first time we really put a string of passes together, in all fairness,” said Anslow.

“He’s finished it well. We know Ade can do that. What we have to do is create more of those chances. I thought today we were a little bit, you know, when you create those chances but they’re not really chances, they’re flashing across the goal and someone’s not getting on the end of them.  But I felt we were like that today, we didn’t really create as many chances what I call clear cut chances apart from Aaron’s one.

“Ade’s great in the dressing room. He’s gone away, got a lot of experience and I think that in fairness of Ade his chance will come again if he gets his head down and he works hard and he starts scoring goals, people will take notice of him.

“I think he’s got to learn to adjust to this level of football again. You just don’t think because he’s dropped three divisions that you’re going to score four or five goals a week, it’s not going to happen in this league, it’s just not going to happen.

“It’s about him being patient and working with us. You can see by the way he scored, it’s a quality finish and he’s got that. I think his time will come again and long as he keeps working.”

Chatham Town were now on the front foot and Pierson stretched to palm Morley’s shot behind for a corner, which was swung in by Rhule and headed over by Yusuff.

Yusuff swung in a free-kick from the left, the ball was brought down by Medley and Rhule curled his shot around the far post from the left-hand side of the penalty area.

Poor tracking from Morley allowed Roberts to drill his right-footed shot over the crossbar from a tight angle from the right by-line after the winger was released by a pass from holding midfielder Lee Hall.

Anslow felt his side had claims for a penalty when in the 39^th minute Yusuff released Rhule in behind for Terrors’ back four.  The former Bromley and Merstham man went to ground as keeper Pierson came off his line and stayed on the deck for a while before the lightweight winger got back up to join in with the game.

“It was a bit of a shout for a penalty,” claimed Anslow.

“I’m going to be perfectly honest, from where I was it was difficult to say, it looked like he was clipped. He got clipped and it looked like he was going down and then he regained his composure and got to his feet again.”

The first half served up entertaining football, but the second half disappointed.

“We spoke about the slow start. We didn’t get into them. We felt after the second goal we started to get in it. We gave them too much respect. We sat off them a little too much in the first 20 minutes. It’s fair to say once we started getting in their faces a little bit more in the second half we started creating chances,” said Anslow.

Reflecting on the second half, Anslow said: “I felt we just edged the second half.  I think definitely up to their third goal we looked, whether they were sitting on their lead or we were getting at them a little bit more, they resorted to…I’ve seen them play more long balls tonight than I’ve ever seen from a Tooting side.  We pinned them in a little bit without really creating what I call clear cut chances.”

It took ten minutes for the first chance to be created, a good move from Tooting & Mitcham saw Roberts sweep the ball to Wilson, who screwed his shot harmlessly wide of the target.

Yusuff was clearly annoyed with himself for missing a headed chance in the 63^rd minute.

Substitute Austin Edwards whipped in a quality free-kick from the left which was met by Yusuff, his header sailing harmlessly over a crowd of players and past the far post.

Anslow added: “I think with Ade he can’t beat himself up. He’s got to forget, it happens, missed chance and you go again. He’ll get there and he’ll score goals. He’s just got to believe in himself, keep doing the right things, keep making the right runs and they’ll come.”

The crowd had to wait until the final 15 minutes for the game to explode back into life.

Tooting & Mitcham’s right-back Sol Patterson-Bohner fed Dunn, who cut inside and drove a left-footed shot into Newcombe’s hands from 20-yards.

Anslow said: “I think that was their first chance of the second half.  I think we’ve been on top for the majority of that half in terms of possession and going forward. It was a comfortable save from Henry but I’m questioning how we’ve allowed people get shots off so easily.”

But a bad mistake from Lyoubi ensured Chatham Town’s chances to claiming a point went down the toilet as Tooting & Mitcham United regained their two-goal lead with 77 minutes on the clock.

Lyoubis poor clearance out of defence went straight to Dunn, who controlled the ball before hitting a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which took a wicked deflection off powerfully built holding midfielder Junior Kaffo, the ball sailing past the flat-footed Newcombe into the back of the net.

“I think we had a couple of chances to clear the ball,” said Anslow.

“Do you know what? You’ve got to put your foot through the ball and clear your lines and we need to learn that and we need to learn that quickly as a side.

“There’s nothing wrong in being a defender first. Abdul’s had two chances to clear it and didn’t and got punished and probably when we were on top and looking like the side to get the equaliser.”

Gundry whipped in a cross form the right for Yusuff to send his towering header over the crossbar, before Chatham Town pulled a second goal back, timed at 45:29.

Edwards whipped in a quality free-kick from the right towards the near post for the unmarked Gundry to direct his downward header into the bottom far corner from four-yards out.

Anslow said: “Great delivery, really, really good delivery.  I thought Austin came on and did really well. He’s buzzing about and gave us a little bit more energy, he’s good on the ball.  The delivery was exceptional.

“Ricky works really hard and that’s one thing you can say about Ricky, he gives you 100% every single time he crosses that white line and it was a good finish.  We were back in it with four minutes to go.”

Tooting & Mitcham United played out the remaining time heading towards the corner of the pitch and they could have increased their lead further when a driven shot from sub Leon Lalor-Dell was cleared off the line by Lyoubi, who made amends for his earlier costly mistake.

Chatham Town are 15^th in the Ryman League Division One South table tonight with one point from two games and travel to Whyteleafe to play league rivals Walton Casuals in The FA Cup Preliminary Round on Saturday.

“As a team we have to look at ourselves in terms of the goals we conceded because if we can turn that around with the threat we’ve got going forward – we’ve got some boys that can score goals – we’ve just got to make sure we don’t concede cheap goals,” said Anslow.

“I think it’s completely fair to say it’s a complete set-up here and it’s going to take time to gel.  I think there’s only, on top of my head, two or three players from last season, so we’ve added so it’s just going to take us a little bit of time to find our feet and get it right.”

Chatham Town: Henry Newcombe, Harvey Brand, Abdul Lyoubi, Ambrose Kamara (Billy Parkinson 15), Jon Difford, Junior Kaffo, Ross Morley (Charlie Holness 63), Luke Medley (Austin Edwards 57), Ade Yusuff, Ricky Gundry, Aaron Rhule.
Subs: Lee Radford, Freeman Rogers

Goals: Ade Yusuff 29, Ricky Gundry 90

Booked:  Ricky Gundry 27, Abdul Lyoubi 53

Tooting & Mitcham United: Matte Pierson, Sol Patterson-Bohner, Tenny Adebowale, Lee Hall (Leon Lalor-Dell 81), Antonio Simeone, Quincy Rowe, Jordan Wilson, Kurtis Pykes (Bashir Alimi 68), Danny Bassett, Billy Dunn (Mike Dixon 88), Taurean Roberts.
Subs: Oliver Bennett, Athan Smith-Joseph

Goals: Danny Bassett 10, Taurean Roberts 20, Billy Dunn 77

Booked: Sol Patterson-Bohner 62, Lee Hall 71

Attendance: 239
Referee: Mr Michael Marsh (Sandwich)
Assistants: Mr Kane Dempster (Hythe) & Mr Simon Cutler (Sheerness)

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