Ebbsfleet United 2-1 Stafford Rangers - Daish praises energy shown by his ten-men

EBBSFLEET UNITED 2-1 STAFFORD RANGERS
Blue Square Premier
Saturday 24^th November 2007
Stephen McCartney reports from Stonebridge Road

Ebbsfleet United boss Liam Daish praised his team’s energetic display as they piled more misery on struggling side Stafford Rangers at a bitterly cold Stonebridge Road today.

The Fleet were reduced to ten-men following the dismissal of striker Chukki Eribenne after 37 minutes, and fell behind early in the second half when 43-year-old striker Neil Grayson gave Stafford Rangers, a side that’s inside the drop zone and with only one win on their travels all season, some cheer.

But Ebbsfleet United sealed the points courtesy of George Purcell and Stacy Long, who both took their tally to four goals for the season, as the Kent club climbed into eighth place in the Blue Square Premier table - just five points adrift of the play-offs with 20 games gone.

Daish was without defender Mark Ricketts, whose nursing a hamstring injury and is expected to be out of action for a couple of weeks.

Midfielder Danny Slatter has undergone surgery on his knee and has successfully had his anterior cruciate ligament constructed and has now started early mobilisation exercises as he begins his way back to a full recovery.

Long-term injury, Gary MacDonald has spent the last week at Lilleshall, where he underwent strength tests and some very intense rehab. His Achilles is getting stronger and was able to join in with the rest of the Fleet squad for an exercise this week.

Raphael Nade, Phil Starkey resumed training this week, with Neil Barrett fit enough for a seven minute cameo at the end of today’s game.

And it was Swanscombe star Purcell who had the ball in the back of the net after just 143 seconds - but his goal was ruled out for offside.

England goalkeeper Lance Cronin kicked a back pass from James Smith upfield for Purcell to latch onto and after the flag had been raised drilled a shot across goalkeeper Scott Loach and into the bottom right-hand corner.

The Kent side’s best chance, however, arrived after 13 minutes.

Midfielders Chris McPhee and Long combined and Long, formerly of Charlton Athletic and Notts County, curled a right-footed shot agonisingly past the far-post from 25-yards.

It took 28 minutes for Stafford Rangers to create their first shot on goal, after being forced on the back-foot as the Fleet were dominating proceedings.

But their chance was wasted as Kevin Street drove a right-footed shot past the right-post from 25-yards.

But Ebbsfleet United were reduced to ten-men in the 37^th minute.

The stunned Stonebridge Road faithful looked on in disbelief when big striker Eribenne was shown a straight red-card by Essex referee Mr Simon Beck, for violent conduct towards Street.

It wasn’t clear what actually happened over by the Stonebridge Road terrace of the ground, but Mr Beck did pull out a red card to Stafford Rangers’ right-back Richard Sutton, before noticing that he pulled out the wrong coloured card, and issued a yellow one instead.

“I haven’t seen the video yet, so I’m not going to comment,” Daish told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“I didn’t see it at all, I didn’t see anything. I just saw the referee, I didn’t see no player reaction.

“I think the referee’s made, well, he’s decided he’s obviously seen something.

“I asked him afterwards, at half-time, and he said “have a look at the video”, so I will do and I’ll decide then.”

Daish was forced to change his formation from 4-4-2 to 4-3-2 and visiting skipper Wayne Daniel should have done better when presented with a rare chance, but Cronin was able to make a comfortable save.

Ebbsfleet United did call Loach into action on the stroke of half-time when he clawed out a header from skipper Paul McCarthy.

Despite dominating the first half against semi-professional opposition, it was one former professional that grabbed Stafford the lead.

Grayson, on as a half-time substitute, drove a low shot across Cronin from 20-yards, which found the bottom far-corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season after 50 minutes.

“He’s a good player,” said Daish. “He’s a great pro and he hit it so early (he) gave Lance (Cronin) no chance, but yes, he’s always a threat isn’t he?

“But we kept on working had, we kept on closing people down. We put the graft in to get level with a bit of brilliance from George.”

But it didn’t take long for the equaliser to arrive, with Purcell scoring from a wonder strike just seven minutes later.

The youngster appeared to be a couple of yards offside when he latched onto a through ball from Michael Bostwick down the right-hand side.

But the media-shy striker burst forward, cut inside his marker and unleashed a stunning 20-yard left-footed screamer, which curled into the top far-corner, leaving Loach flat-footed, and sending the Fleet fans wild.

In the build up to the match, Daish described that Purcell, who spent time on loan at Ryman Premier League side Heybridge Swifts earlier in the season, had the same attributes as Manchester United and England forward Wayne Rooney.

“Well, he’s got that build hasn’t he,” Daish said of former Gillingham youngster.

“He’s got that low centre of gravity. He can turn one way and the other and he’s got a shot. He gets on that left foot, he can strike a ball.”

But like all players, Purcell can improve.

“He’s still learning the game, positionally and his appreciation of the game sometimes lets him down a little bit,” admitted Daish.

But he added: “He’s got that ability that you’ve just got to chuck him up there and give him a rabbit to chase and he’ll get after teams’ and once he’s got the ball at his feet he comes alive.”

Stafford went close through David McNiven in the 66^th minute when he got in front of his marker to shoot across Cronin, who was relieved to see the ball bounce past the far-post, after Chris Humphrey got in behind the Ebbsfleet defence and whipped in a near-post cross from the right.

Grayson also sent over a cross for the unmarked Nathan Smith, who smashed a right-footed shot past the right-post from eight-yards, but the flag had already been raised.

But the Fleet faithful went home with smiles on their faces when Long netted the winner with fourteen minutes left.

Teenager Luke Moore raced towards the advancing Loach after French left-back Sacha Opinel played the ball up field.

Loach thwarted the striker by blocking his initial shot, but Moore managed to pounce on the spinning loose ball and instead of shooting from an acute-angle, he cut the ball back to Long.

And Long rifled his shot over the defender’s head and into the roof of the net, scoring from 12-yards.

Daish, however, was delighted with the energy shown by his side that lead to the winner.

He said: “That was the difference, We can always break on them because we had the legs.

“If you look Georgie’s got pace, Luke Moore drove in there, charged it down and Stacy’s another one, who covers, he can go box to box all day long and that’s got our winner, sheer energy and fitness.”

The two combined again late on, when Moore left the visiting defence in knots before laying the ball off to Long, whose right-footed shot from the edge of the box curled agonisingly over the top of the far-post.

Despite escaping a last-gasp scare, Fleet boss Daish was delighted with the determination shown from his side, as they chalked up their ninth win of their campaign, to the delight of their Kent based supporters.

“I was quite confident at half-time that we still had enough in our locker to get something out of it,” admitted Daish.

“But then of course when you go a goal down you think, “it’s gonna be one of them days”.

“But credit to the players. We worked so hard and I thought we deserved what we got in the end.

“I thought we were always the better side. We did find it hard to break them down a little bit but we had a few opportunities and we kept doing the right thing.

“I thought if it stayed like that we’d just have to keep our discipline and sooner or later we’d have enough quality to get ourselves in front.

“But then we have to go a goal down and do it the hard way here, a man down sorry.”

Local hero Purcell took plenty of persuading before speaking to the press afterwards, but he said: “I’m very happy with the goal. I thought it was a very good team performance in the second half.

“We worked very hard and a good goal by Stacy as well, so quite happy, yes.”

Ebbsfleet United: Lance Cronin, Peter Hawkins, Sacha Opinel, James Smith, Paul McCarthy, Michael Bostwick, Chris McPhee, Stacy Long, George Purcell (Neil Barrett 83), Chukki Eribenne, Luke Moore.
Subs: Liam Coleman, John Akinde, Phil Starkey, Rob French.

Goals: George Purcell 57, Stacy Long 76

Booked: Paul McCarthy 75

Sent off: Chukki Eribenne 37

Stafford Rangers: Scott Loach, Richard Sutton, Djoumin Sangare, Luke Potter, Fred Murray (Neil Grayson 45), Chris Humphrey, Wayne Daniel, Chris Flynn, Kevin Street (Ross Draper 79), Nathan Smith (Phil Robinson 79), David McNiven.
Subs: Tom Ingram, Danny Alcock.

Goals: Neil Grayson 50

Booked: Richard Sutton 37

Attendance: 1,055
Referee: Mr Simon Beck (Shoeburyness, Essex)
Assistants: Mr Lee Betts & Mr Robert Mackay
Fourth Official: Mr Stuart Butler

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