Coney Hall 2-2 University of Kent - Managers should snap up our players, says Tom Parkinson

CONEY HALL  2-2  UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Haart of Kent County League Division One
Tuesday 17^th April 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Tiepigs Lane

COACH Tom Parkinson says non-league managers should cast an eye over his University of Kent players after his side impressed against Coney Hall.

Parkinson, 20, who plays for Ryman League Division One South side Hythe Town, who were given the night off training by their manager Scott Porter tonight, says some of his players can play at a much higher level than the Haart of Kent County League First Division.

The Canterbury-based students took the lead within the opening two minutes, courtesy of Elliot O’Reilly’s header, and they squandered some decent chances to increase their lead in a game reduced to 80 minutes by referee Damon Colvin.

Ninth-placed Coney Hall, who were out-played for the first half, fought back with two goals in the opening thirteen minutes of the second half.

Former Fisher, Maidstone United and Sittingbourne defender, Cedric Abraham, who wore the number 9 shirt for Coney Hall, but was listed as Tom Perkins on the team sheet that was handed to the referee before the game, hooked his shot into the top near corner, before Coney Hall’s player-manager Peter Allen swept in a first time shot to give the hosts the lead.

But University of Kent scored a breakaway goal in the final five minutes when Andrew Chafer slotted home to share the points.

“We had the better of the first half, they never had a shot first half and we should’ve come in two or three up,” was Parkinson’s assessment of the game at Tiepigs Lane.

“The referee’s had a bit of a howler on a penalty decision and booked one of our players.  I think he was watching Sky Sports the night before!

“But we should’ve been more clinical in the first half.

“Second half they had a couple of chances, they had the wind behind them. I thought we done alright considering we had a makeshift team out today.”

Coney Hall’s player-manager Peter Allen, 33, meanwhile, felt his side threw away two points.

He said: “A bit gutted to be honest. I thought we deserved to win in that second half.  Two stupid mistakes really. 

“I thought we should’ve beaten them today though. I think all my boys walked in absolutely gutted but they’ve done really well, but it’s one of those things isn’t it?”

Eighth-placed University of Kent opened the scoring with their first chance with only 77 seconds on the clock.

Left-back Stefan Wolf made progress down the left flank before delivering a cross, which resulted in Coney Hall centre half Billy Scott miss-kicking the ball and O’Reilly accepted the gift, by looping a header over Kyle Morgan, which dropped in just underneath the crossbar.

Parkinson said: “We started off really well, got the ball out side, good delivery in the box and the smallest player on the pitch headed it in!

“We should’ve scored from two or three opportunities but the goalie has made a couple of saves, a couple of them we should’ve done better.  No.  I was pleased with the first half performance.”

Allen added: “That’s been our season!  We don’t start playing until we concede a goal. Again, a sloppy mistake from a very, very rusty centre back, but I think he made amends towards the end, won some great headers and he’s tackling, Billy Scott, was immense.

“We don’t start until we go 1-0 down, but we showed great character in coming back and clawing it to 2-1.  Again, a silly mistake at the end there.”

Within a minute Morgan made a fine save, tipping over O’Reilly’s header and from Alex Nelson’s resulting corner from the right, Simon Woodward powered a free-header wide of the far post.

The dominant students squandered an excellent chance to double their lead in the 19^th minute when Woodward shrugged off a challenge from Adam Pharo and danced past three other players to create a fine chance for himself, but his left-footed shot from 12-yards was blocked by Morgan’s knees.

A mistake from Pharo failed to cut out Nelson’s through ball for Chafer, whose low right-footed drive from 15-yards went straight at Morgan, who made a comfortable low save at his near post.

Coney Hall’s only real first half chance should have been taken when skipper Booth exchanged a one-two with Abraham, who swept the ball across the face of goal to find Booth unmarked, who swept a right-footed shot agonisingly wide of the far post from the edge of the box.

University Of Kent missed a decent chance when Chafer got in behind right-back James Cook and pulled the ball back to striker O’Reilly, who steered a right-footed shot just past the near post.

Nelson cracked a stunning right-footed volley on the turn, which sailed just over the top of the far post, before the Students midfielder brought the very best out of Morgan.  Nelson cracked a right-footed drive, which dipped just in front of the keeper, who got down on to his knees and pushed the tricky shot away for a corner.

Coney Hall appeared to be a different team after the five minute interval and they benefited from kicking into the wind for the second half as they came out fighting.

When asked what he told his players during the short break, Allen revealed: “There was nothing to change really.  It was cutting out the silly mistakes and maybe create a bit more for us forwards at the top.

“They came off at half-time with our heads high.  We knew we was in the game. They knew University were there for the taking. We almost took it, I thought.”

When asked the same question, Parkinson replied, “Just more of the same!  Keep it down. It’s a big pitch, try and get the ball out side, use our wings and same as we did in the first half and just don’t switch off, which we switched off with two goals in five minutes.”

A poor clearance by University’s skipper, Daniel Smith, fell to Abraham, but his glancing header towards goal bounced off the bobbly pitch and visiting keeper James Thompson was able to gather.

Thompson made his first save when he pushed away Jenden’s right-footed drive from 35-yards, before Daniel Tanner curled an excellent left-footed shot from the edge of the student’s penalty area, which smacked agonisingly off the far post, with Thompson rooted to the spot.

That chance was the catalyst for Coney Hall to take the game to their younger opponents.

Coney Hall pulled a goal ten minutes into the second half, courtesy of Abraham’s hooked finish.

Booth’s long ball over the top of the University’s back four appeared to be held up in the strong wind and Thompson failed to collect the ball as it bounced high over him inside his penalty area. 

Abraham was left untracked by left-back Wolf and the striker pounced on the chance, hooking a right-footed shot into the top near corner from eight-yards.

Allen said: “He’s got something about him the boy.   He seemed to get in the right places at the right time and today he was in the right place. 

“There was obviously a big bounce over the goalkeeper’s head.  I thought the goalkeeper should’ve read it better. He’s not my goalkeeper so I’m not really bothered about that!”

Praising Abraham, Allen said: “He’s superb!  He shows he can play in any position you ask him to play in and today we asked him to go up top and he done a job for me.”

Parkinson knows all about Abraham, having played together at Maidstone United last season.

And he was disappointed with his side’s defending for the goal.

He said: “It was a bit of a howler between goalkeeper and a centre half, no communication and it’s one long ball but it’s this sort of level where you make mistakes, but to be fair, he’s finished it and fair play to him.”

And Coney Hall stunned their opponents when they took the lead for the first time in the 53^rd minute.

Booth played a quality swept pass with his left foot some 35-yards from goal and Allen latched onto the pass and swept a first time left-footed shot, which looped his shot over Thompson to find the top left-hand corner from 12-yards.

It was just a quality goal all round and Allen agreed, saying, “I’m always happy to get a goal.  Great vision from him. He’s got that about him Boothy. He can peel a pass better than most players I know!

“I was lucky, my old legs made the run and it was a good finish. I was quite happy with it!”

Parkinson added: “To be fair, it was a good ball from one of their midfielders, diagonal across pitch just caught our back four out and the fella finished it off well.”

Parkinson admitted he was shocked that his side were losing at that time, despite dominating the first half.

He said: “We should’ve been three or four up, but that’s football for you!  If you don’t take your chances the other team are always going to get one or two chances and to be fair to them they took them.”

Coney Hall’s two central midfielders, Booth and Jenden, were starting to enjoy themselves and Jenden flashed a right-footed drive wide after a lay-off from Booth.

They should have increased their lead when Jenden sent over a left-footed cross from the left which found Abraham at the far post, but the big target-man powered his header wide.

Both sides had chances to score in a thrilling final ten minutes.

Nelson, who took all eight of University of Kent’s corners, swung in a corner from the left and Coney Hall got bodies in the way of Wolf, who looped over a right-footed shot.

But University of Kent deservedly levelled with five minutes remaining.

Parkinson made a tactical switch, which had the right outcome as Smith (who switched from central defence to forward) latched onto O’Reilly’s pass and flicked the ball across the face of the penalty area and Chafer flicked a first time right-footed shot, which bounced past the stranded keeper, into the bottom right-hand corner.

Parkinson said: “Good finish!  The centre half, who normally plays up front week in, week out, he had to do a job at centre half.  We put him up front and within two minutes he’s made an impact, put a lovely ball across the goal and Chafer’s tapped it in.

Allen added: “Good finish!  They’re a very, very good team, quite well organised and I thought we just switched off for that last 5-10 minutes. He was at the right place at the right time from a mistake.”

But both keepers were tested as both teams went for the win.

Visiting keeper Thompson pushed over Ricky Francis’ left-footed shot, before Morgan pushed away O’Reilly’s right-footed shot at the other end.

Coney Hall could have snatched victory at the death when Booth’s angled drive with his right-foot forced Thompson into making a fine low save to his left, but after Abraham flicked the ball into his path, Jenden blasted a good chance over.

Parkinson said: “They had one or two chances – so did we – we’re a bit disappointed we haven’t won it, but I thought a draw’s a fair result at the end of it.”

University of Kent are back in action on Wednesday night, away to Kennington, before playing Saga Sports & Social at home just 24 hours later.

Parkinson said: “I think as far as I’m aware we’ve got the same set of players so it’s similar again.  More of the same. As long as we get the ball down and play we’re the best football side in this league by miles. It’s just if we can a team out every week.  If we can get our best starting eleven out we’ve got no problem in this league, or the league above (premier division) or the league above that (Kent Invicta League).

“We’ve got players here who shouldn’t be playing for the University, they should be playing in non-league, but they play for the University. 

“Non-League managers should come down and have a watch because we’ve got some talented players down there and quite a few will be leaving us and that’s a chance for non-league managers to come in and snap them up.”

They have eight league games and one cup final to play in the next three weeks and Parkinson explained why he thinks the team will never win the Kent County League.

He said: “I don’t think the University will ever win this league because just for the fact we come back late, we don’t play over Christmas, over Easter everyone goes home, we have a month off. These 12 boys are the only 12 left at University.

“Last week seven of these 12 were in Salou partying it up all week, having a drink up, so they only got back Sunday night so a few of them we’re still feeling under the weather.”

Allen felt it was a good night of football, despite there being only ten people in the ground watching the game.

“It was a great Tuesday night game really,” he said.  “They’ve come from miles away to get here, obviously they don’t want to come here and lose. We’re on a cold Tuesday night and we don’t want to lose and we’re at the wrong end of the table as well so three points would’ve been very vital to us, but it wasn’t to be today.”

Coney Hall: Kyle Morgan, James Cook (Billy Perry 59), Scott Baker, Morgan Jenden, Billy Scott, Adam Pharo, Ricky Francis, Scott Booth, Cedric Abraham, Peter Allen (Brian Allen 73), Daniel Tanner (Chris Stephenson 59).
Sub: Aidan Traynor

Goals: Cedric Abraham 50, Peter Allen 53

Booked: Scott Booth 25, Daniel Tanner 36

University of Kent: James Thompson, Dominic Willis, Stefan Wolf, Daniel Smith, James Robins, Simon Woodward, Jack Singemore, Alex Nelson, Elliot O’Reilly, Andrew Thorne (Ryan Davis 73), Andrew Chafer.

Goals: Elliot O’Reilly 2, Andrew Chafer 75

Booked: Andrew Chafer 23

Attendance: 10
Referee: Mr Damon Colvin (Bromley)