Cray Valley 1-2 Lordswood - Hopefully he'll take us up next season, says Steve Chapman

CRAY VALLEY (PAPER MILLS) 1-2 LORDSWOOD
Southern Counties East Football League
Wednesday 23^rd April 2014
Stephen McCartney reports form Middle Park Avenue

CRAY VALLEY’S outgoing manager Steve Chapman has tonight explained why his player-coach Paul Gross has been appointed his successor.

Chapman stands down after Saturday’s trip to Greenwich Borough, with the club sitting in a disappointing seventh-place in the Southern Counties East Football League table with 50 points.

The Millers, who are 27 points adrift of champions Whyteleafe, can finish in sixth-place if they beat Ian Jenkins’ side at the weekend and if Phoenix Sports lose away to runners-up Ashford United.

Lordswood, meanwhile, must settle for an eleventh-place finish after winning their penultimate league game of the season tonight.

The Lords welcome basement side Woodstock Sports to Martyn Grove on Saturday after winning their 12^th league game of the season tonight, which puts them on 39 points.

Lordswood skipper Adam Hooper drilled a 30-yard shot into the corner to give his side the lead during a poor first half, before Robert Norman stroked home a second after the break.

Cray Valley scored a consolation at the death through striker Richard Pearce, which proved to be a disappointing end to Chapman’s three-year reign in the home dug-out at the Eltham-based club, after originally revealing he would be stepping down at the end of the season on 22 March.

“Probably sums up our season, a very disappointing result, just inconsistency lets us down again,” admitted Chapman following his side’s ninth league defeat of the season.

“It was a typical end of season game. Very difficult to motivate the players, nothing on the game. We still want to finish as high as we can, which is sixth.  Now it goes down to the last game, I suppose.”

Lordswood boss Jason Lillis, who was taking charge of his eighth game in his second spell of the club, said: “I thought we done really well.  The pleasing thing for us was our shape.  We set off with a shape and they stuck to it and we got our just rewards for it. The boys worked hard.”

It took eleven minutes for Cray Valley to create the first goalscoring opportunity of a first half that lacked quality.

Dan Gunner swung in a quality corner from the right with his left-foot but star-striker Laurent Hamici directed his header over the bar from close range.

Lordswood’s first opening came in the seventeenth-minute when Richard Styles whipped in a right-footed free-kick towards the edge of the Millers’ penalty area but Peter Huggens’ header bounced into Bobby Sturgeon’s hands.

Hamici produced a woeful attempt at goal when he drilled a right-footed shot harmlessly high and wide of the goal after good link-up play involving left-back Steve Springett and impressive right-winger Ola Rabiu.

Chapman said: “Ola a very in and out player. He just has to work on his final delivery.  Again, in the second half he’s got down the line a few times and beat the player and put the ball out for a goal kick.  It’s just frustrating.”

Cray Valley midfielder Phil McBean resorted to trying his luck from the centre circle in the 25^th minute, but his shot sailed harmlessly wide of the goal as Lordswood formed a solid brick wall in front of their goalkeeper Matt Byott.

But Lordswood squandered an excellent chance to break the stalemate just past the half-hour mark.

Right-back Gabriel Luckhurst fed Samuel Hallett down the line and the winger whipped in a cross, where Hooper put Norman through on goal but he lacked composure and blasted his left-footed shot over the bar from 12-yards when he only had Sturgeon to beat.

“I think it was on his wrong side,” said Lillis. 

“He’s predominantly right-footed but all he has to do is hit it into the ground.  You’ve seen the (wet) conditions with a bit of grease on the ground.  He probably would’ve sored but he had a bit of a rush of blood.”

Lordswood were to be denied again when striker Dominic Elmes played the ball into Hallett, who beat goalkeeper Sturgeon but his right-footed shot bounced off the heels of recovering defender Ryan Sawyer and rolled agonisingly past the foot of the far post for a corner.

But Lordswood opened the scoring from the resulting 35^th minute corner.

Norman swung in the corner from the left, which was sliced away by McBean at the near post, the ball coming out to Hooper, who brought the ball under control with his chest before drilling a left-footed volley, which skidded off the turf, past the diving keeper to nestle into the bottom right-hand corner of the net from 30-yards.

Lillis said: “He took it really well.  We told him to hang out on the box a little bit more today for set-pieces because at Sevenoaks he had a bit of a free reign but he done that. He didn’t even hit it hard.  Again, he used the conditions well, drove it into the ground, skidded off with pace, in the corner.”

Chapman admitted McBean and Rogers were too slow in closing down the goalscorer.

“I think the surface helped him out. It skidded off the surface.  Again, disappointing. I thought we should have had someone out to at least press him. We gave him a free shot on goal but he took it well. It was a good goal.”

Byott made a comfortable save at his near post to prevent Rabiu scoring with a right-footed angled drive after the ball was fed to him by Pearce.

But Lordswood’s lead remained intact at the break, thanks to the agile goalkeeping of their goalkeeper, as the home side hit them on the counter-attack.

Pearce swept the ball out wide to Rabiu, who drilled a right-footed shot across the keeper, who dived low to his right to push the ball away.  Hamici was to be twice denied by the highly-rated keeper as the ball bounced around the face of the goal.

Chapman said: “Their keeper had a good game.   He kept them in it at times but I think the quality of strikers we had on the pitch I would’ve thought they would’ve put one of those chances away.  It ping-ponged across the goal-mouth three or four times. We should’ve equalised and it would have been a different game in the second half.”

But Lillis wants more from his goalkeeper, saying: “Matt is a good goalkeeper, but he’s still not sharp enough. He’s going to have a good full season with myself and a good pre-season and we’ll see what happens then.  He needs to be a little bit more sharper because he’s a lot better than that so it’s a brilliant future for him.”

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the break.

Chapman said: “We often find ourselves 1-0 down at half-time! I just asked them to go out and perform in the second half. It was my last home game as manager and I asked them to put a bit more effort in, but for whatever reason I don’t think we upped our game at all in the second half.”

Lillis added: “We didn’t say too much.  All we wanted to do was we maintained our shape and our formation when they got the ball and that’s all we worked on. There was no other tactics apart from when they got the ball where we should be around the pitch and they done it.”

Cray Valley created a number of decent second half chances to win the game.

Right-back James Golding swept the ball out to an unmarked Jimmy Rogers, who was given time and space to crack a right-footed drive towards the bottom near corner from 35-yards, which forced Byott to dive low to his right to push the ball just around the post after 53 minutes.

“Jimmy Rogers has been consistent for us since he joined after about ten games in,” said Chapman.

“I thought he was probably our best player again tonight. He got forward a little bit more than he usually does and had a few good chances.”

Chapman introduced central midfielder Dan Bradley, 17, into the game and his corner from the left failed to beat the first defender at the near post and the ball came out to Rogers, who produced a woeful attempt at goal.

Chapman revealed he will remain at the club to bring through players such as Bradley and un-used sub Mason Simms.

He said: “We’ve got two youth teams coming in next year, two strong under 18s so I’ll be looking at those youth players.

“Tonight we had young Mason Simms on the bench from our under 16s and Dan Bradley came on as sub, from our under 18s.

“I think Dan was very mature for a young lad. He spent many years at Millwall and he was one of those that got released when he was about 15-16.  I think that’s Millwall’s loss and our gain because he will develop and he’s certainly one along with Grant Lye and one or two of the others in the under 18s who have done well to come in and it will be good to continue because they’re all first year under 18s as well.”

Lordswood grabbed their second goal in the 64^th minute to seal back-to-back wins after beating Sevenoaks Town 3-2 at Greatness Park eight days’ ago.

They were awarded a free-kick some 35-yards from goal and Hooper dinked his delivery towards the edge of the box.  Poor defending from Millers’ central defender Michael Aziaya allowed Norman a chance, who gleefully stroked his right-footed shot across the diving keeper to find the bottom far corner.

Lillis said: “He took one touch past him and stroked it into the corner. Again, there was no pace on it, just used the ground and it skidded into the net. 

“I think it’s what we deserved, just through what we’ve achieved and how far we’ve come over the last three games.”

Chapman added: “Again, a defensive mistake!  Young Michael has come in this year, we’ve given him a chance, he’s been very impressive but he’ll learn from these games. He had an opportunity to clear it and didn’t and we paid the price.”

Clinical Lordswood wasted a good opportunity to score a third goal within two minutes.

Hallett played a sublime diagonal pass intended for Elmes, who capitalised on another mistake from Aziaya, but his right-footed shot was comfortably saved by the Millers’ keeper.

“Dom was up there to be the bonce ball for us and just put the defenders under pressure so it got us out, up the pitch so we could support quickly.

“I think he’s got the hunger back in his belly. He’s been out of the way a little bit in himself and his confidence has been lacking but if he can put that work-rate in like Tom Box did against Sevenoaks, these kids might do well.  I think he wants to put himself up there to give it a go and on that performance a good pre-season who knows what he will do?”

Cray Valley pressed forward in search of a goal and Lillis was full of praise for his two central defenders, one his nephew Brady Lillis and beside him Samuel Lovage.

The Lordswood manager explained why player-coach Gary Cook was left on the bench tonight.

“Gary’s always going to be a good coach. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s going to be an asset for me.  Generally he’s going to play because we need his experience out on the pitch.  He should have been playing tonight but we rested him because of his hamstring.

“But the two centre halves, two seventeen-year-olds came in and they’ve done well against Sevenoaks and they’ve done well again today.”

When the pair were beaten, they relied on Byott to make a fine stop.

The Millers’ were awarded a free-kick just outside the corner of the penalty area and instead of going for goal himself, Hamici laid the ball off short to Rogers who was denied by a fine diving save from Byott, who tipped the ball around the post.

A better chance fell Cray Valley’s way when the impressive Rogers started the move which also involved Hamici and Pearce but Gunner was denied by quick thinking from Byott, who rushed off his line to smother the ball at the midfielder’s feet.

Hamici and Gunner both stung the Lordswood keeper’s fingers with shots from outside the penalty area, before Cray Valley pulled a goal back inside injury time.

Chapman admitted: “I didn’t really have much on the bench to change things tonight really.  I could have brought Grossy on but I felt we weren’t getting the ball up enough tonight. In the final third we didn’t get it up to Laurent (Hamici) or Richard Pearce.  The balls up were falling short so it wasn’t worthwhile bringing Grossy on.”

Sturgeon kicked the ball forward and a stretching Hooper failed the clear the ball glancing the ball towards Rabiu.   The winger, who was quieter during the second half penetrated the right hand side of the pitch to reach the channel before cutting the ball back for Pearce to bring the ball under control before lashing his right-footed shot into the top left-hand corner.

Chapman was pleased that his side’s persistence finally paid off.

He said: “We always come strong but it was too little too late tonight.

“Very good goal from Richard. He’s come in from Beckenham. He’s not really match fit.  You could see from him in the second half, he’s got some good touches. Hopefully we’ll keep him next year and he’ll have a good run in the team.”

Lillis added: “That was disappointing, conceding a goal for how hard they worked but I’m not disappointed with that at all! That’s something we can work on.”

Cray Valley announced tonight that Paul Gross, 31, is to take over from Chapman after next weekend.

“We had a lot of interest in the position and in the end Paul was interviewed and he did a very good interview,” said Chapman.

“What it does it hopefully gives us a bit of consistency in terms of selection so we don’t have to start all over again with a new squad.  We can keep the basis of the squad we’ve got now.

“Paul’s got some good contacts in the game. I’ll still be around to help him out when he needs but all the best to him. He’s deserved it and he’s come on leaps and bounds as a coach this year.

“Hopefully he’ll take us up next season.”

Chapman revealed the vacancy received plenty of interest.

“I think we had about nine people express an interest in the club which is a big testament to how we’ve come on since we entered the league three years ago and I was extremely impressed with the quality.

“I didn’t imagine that we’d attract the people who rang the chairman up and expressed an interest.

“I think if we didn’t have Grossy in the club already, one of those candidates would have got it.”

When asked about his future role within the club, Chapman replied: “I’ll still be heavily involved with the club. I’d like to think since I’ve been here we’ve learnt a lot over the three years about how to manage at this level and how to run a club at this level. 

“There’s lots of reasons why I’m standing down, one of them is to help out off the pitch so you’ll see me doing a bit of scouting.  I’ll be watching our opposition, which we’ve lacked this year not being able to look at our opposition before games and I’ll be helping out in the background generally.

“It’s been a really enjoyable three years and just wanted to go out while still loving it, rather than disliking it. That’s how I can sum it up.”

Chapman’s last game in charge is away to ninth-placed Greenwich Borough on Saturday.

Holmesdale player-manager John-Paul Collier scored a late goal to win 2-1 at Princes Park tonight, after defender Joe Vines levelled for the home side.

“Nice way to go out,” was how Chapman described his last game in charge.

“Dartford’s a nice ground.  I’ve got a lot of friends who play for Greenwich Borough.  Lewis Wood is there, Joe Vines.  I know Jenko very well so hopefully we’ll go out on a high with three points.

“We’ll be looking to finish sixth.  I want to go out and finish sixth.  If we finish sixth it’s continuous progression for Cray Valley and next year we’ll be looking to finish even higher.”

Cray Valley (Paper Mills): Bobby Sturgeon, James Golding, Steve Springett, Jimmy Rogers, Michael Aziaya, Ryan Sawyer, Ola Rabiu, Phil McBean (Dan Bradley 52), Laurent Hamici, Richard Pearce, Dan Gunner.
Subs: Ben Healy, Mason Simms, Paul Gross, Matt Bailey

Goal: Richard Pearce 90

Lordswood: Matt Byott, Gabriel Luckhurst, Imran Englefield, Brady Lillis, Samuel Lovage, Richard Styles, Samuel Hallett (Will Mawson 69), Peter Huggens (Stephen Munn 72), Dominic Elmes (John Huston 78), Adam Hooper, Robert Norman.
Sub: Gary Cook

Goals: Adam Hooper 35, Robert Norman 64

Booked: Brady Lillis 59, Robert Norman 76, Adam Hooper 81

Attendance: 35
Referee: Mr Sikiru Idris (Denmark Hill, London SE5)
Assistants: Mr Orville Bentley (Lewisham, London SE13) & Mr Jordan Whitworth (Catford, London SE6)