Kentish Football 
Erith & Belvedere 0-5 Gillingham - I can't thank Gills enough for prestigious game, says Collins
Tuesday 12th July 2011
ERITH & BELVEDERE 0-5 GILLINGHAM
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday 12th July 2011
Stephen McCartney reports from Park View Road
ERITH & BELVEDERE manager Micky Collins paid tribute to Andy Hessenthaler for bringing a very strong Gillingham side to Park View Road tonight.
The Kent League hosts enjoyed their strenuous work-out against full-time professionals that play five league’s higher and League Two class told in the end as Gillingham ran out comfortable 5-0 winners.
Erith & Belvedere held out for only ten minutes before Gillingham skipper Garry Richards headed home, only for midfielder Luke Rooney to add two further goals before the half-hour mark.
Spirited Erith & Belvedere stuck to their task well during the second half, before former Welling United striker, Danny Kedwell, opened his goalscoring account for his home-town club with a close range header in the 85th minute, before trialist Paris Cowan Hall drove home a fifth.
Collins, 40, who scored his first goal for Gillingham in an FA Youth Cup game against Welling United on this ground 25 years ago, said: “It’s a fantastic night for the football club. Hessy and Gllingham, one of my former clubs, they’ve done us proud tonight. They’ve taken it seriously, they’ve come down and put a really good side out.
“It’s our first friendly, it’s their third, you can see the difference in class it’s amazing! But it’s great for our football club, absolutely amazing!
“You look at their players and our boys’ aspire to be that and it’s just nice to see that on our pitch, people of that quality and they’ve treated us with respect and I can’t thank them enough.”
Collins added: “It was a tough work-out. That was the idea behind it. It was prestige for the club, which is a good thing.
“The boys enjoyed it. When they got a couple of chances, it’s ‘we’re not far off it, we nearly scored!”
“You know they’ve (Gillingham) got another one or two gears in them!
“It’s a pleasure, an absolute pleasure standing in the dug-out watching it. It takes me back to playing full-time. It was a really enjoyable evening. The result doesn’t matter, it was irrelevant, but our boys have done a proper work-out and they know that!
“They’ve come off and know where they’ve got to be if they have any aspirations to push to that level.”
Gillingham boss, Andy Hessenthaler, said: “It was a good work out. It’s about getting the fitness levels up and getting minutes in their legs, getting formations and start getting into good habits in games. It’s a good run out, it’s always nice to get a few goals, but at the end of the day it’s not a bad scoreline for me even though it’s always nice winning games.
“But the biggest thing for me is we had a few trailists here as well. We’ve obviously had a few missing tonight and they will play tomorrow night (at Ramsgate). We’ve decided to do it that way. All in all, a good workout for us.”
As expected, the part-timers didn’t have much of the ball or the golden goalscoring chances, but their effort and desire was there for all to see.
The home fans saw Collins’ four summer signings, strikers Andy Constable (Thamesmead Town), and Marcus Elliott (Redhill), winger Lee Radford (Redhill) and midfielder enforcer, Lee Morgan, from Erith Town.
Elliott scored 34 goals for Redhill last season and his pace will cause problems to Kent League defenders in the months ahead.
Erith & Belvedere right-back, Allan Matthews headed the ball off the line inside the opening three minutes as Joe Martin’s corner was headed back across goal by Simon King and Chris Whelpdale was denied his first goal for his new club.
But Gillingham broke the home side’s resilience inside ten minutes.
Whelpdale was the architect as he whipped the ball towards the far post from the left-hand side of the penalty area and skipper Richards ghosted in and beat goalkeeper Richard Stroud at his near post with a downward header from two-yards.
Gillingham raced into a two-goal lead, just 197 seconds later.
Whelpdale managed to beat the offside trap as he burst down the right and cut the ball back to an unmarked Rooney, who swept the ball across Stroud to find the bottom far corner from twelve yards.
Former Hastings United striker, Frankie Sawyer, who is about to join up with Northampton Town for a trial, squandered Erith & Belvedere’s best chance soon after.
He capitalised on a miss-placed back-pass, but lacked composure when he was through on goal and stroked a right-footed shot from 25-yards straight at former Dover Athletic keeper Ross Flitney, who saved comfortably.
Collins said: “Frank’s a good player. He goes on loan, I don’t think he’s here for the Ramsgate game (away on 19 July) He goes off to Northampton for a trial and then he hopefully comes back, hopefully he gets a deal, or he’ll come back to us. He’s a good player. There’s a very good look up front for us this year. We’ve got Marcus Cassius playing in different positions (right wing) and he can still play up top.”
A move involving Rooney and striker Dennis Oli, carved open a chance for Stefan Payne, but the former Sutton United striker saw his shot saved at the second attempt by Stroud.
The former Chatham Town keeper made a morale boosting save low to his right to prevent Rooney from sliding the ball into the bottom near corner after the midfielder cut inside Matthews.
But Rooney bagged his brace as he scored Gillingham’s third in the 29th minute, aided by a deflection.
Whelpdale played the ball to Oli who laid the ball off to Rooney, who cut inside Matthews and Lee Morgan and cracked a right-footed shot from 25-yards, which took a deflection and deceived the diving keeper.
Gillingham were threatening to run away with their third pre-season friendly, having comfortably beaten Kent Invicta League outfit Ashford United comfortably 3-0 last Wednesday, only to suffer a 2-1 defeat at Blue Square Bet South side Bromley at the weekend.
A slick move saw Whelpdale sweep the ball square to Rooney, who glanced the ball to Joe Martin on the left and the left-back played the ball to Oli, who exchanged a slick one-two with his strike partner Payne, only to be denied by the right-hand post, when put through on goal with only Stroud to beat in the 36th minute.
Erith & Belvedere winger, Kirk Watts, meanwhile, turned back the years when he twisted and turned Gillingham right-back Matt Fish and whipped in an excellent cross towards the near post but Constable looped a header into Flitney’s gloves.
Instrumental playmaker Rooney ended the first half with a rasping right-footed drive, which went straight down Stroud’s throat after a move involving Charlie Lee and Payne.
Collins made five changes at the break – only Stroud and defender Paul Gross featured for the entire 90 minutes – although Hessenthaler made just the one change at the break.
And it was that substitute, Cowan Hall, who flashed a shot towards goal, Stroud saving low to his right inside the first five minutes of the second half.
Constable, was put through on goal, but only a well-timed sliding tackle by last defender Jack Baldwin prevented a certain goalscoring chance.
Moments later Constable forced Gillingham’s substitute goalkeeper, Paulo Gazzaniga into making a comfortable low save beside his near post, before Gillingham stepped up another gear and wrapped up a comfortable victory.
Kedwell opened his goalscoring account for the Gills in the 85th minute, before Cowan Hall wrapped it all up three minutes later.
Substitute Dionisis Liosates was released down the right and his rasping drive stung Stroud’s fingertips and the spinning ball looped up and Kedwell nodded the ball into the net from underneath the crossbar.
And Cowan Hall’s right-footed drive from 25-yards skidded off the wet lush playing surface and nestled into the bottom left-hand corner past the diving Stroud to make it five.
Collins added: “It’s difficult. The first half, 3-0, what I would say was almost their first team, I can take that on the chin.
“The boys really worked hard. We’ve signed Lee Morgan (from Erith Town), he’s just come back from a broken ankle and he’s played centre midfield and he said it’s a great workout.
“The most important thing tonight was the boys’ got 45 minutes each roughly under their belt of real hard football and they’ve done that. We’ve come through it unscathed, no injuries and it’s a good night for the club. Hopefully Gillingham have enjoyed it. They’ve seen the Kent League isn’t that low for them. Hessy is a good pal and I can’t thank them enough. They’ve been absolutely fantastic for us.”
Gillingham unveiled the signing off striker, Adam Birchall, 26, from Blue Square Bet South side Dover Athletic for an undisclosed fee this afternoon and Hessenthaler revealed the Maidstone based hit-man may feature at Ramsgate on Wednesday night.
He said: “We’ll see what he’s like in the morning and see how he’s feeling but we may get him involved tomorrow night for 15-20 minutes to just get his legs going but we’ll wait and see how he’s feeling after training tomorrow.”
Central defender, Jack Baldwin, 17, who played Ryman League Division One South football for Faversham Town last season, featured for just under 20 minutes tonight, and Hessenthaler gave an update on the trialist’s progress.
He said: “It’s not easy to come on in games. He looks assured, he wins his headers, he reads the game. He made a fantastic tackle back there (on Constable).
“The manager at Faversham last year, Justin Luchford, who is now the manager at Horsham, said ‘take a look at this kid, he’s got a chance!’
“He’s been with us, we like him. I don’t think he’s ready yet, but I think he could be at some stage. I think he’s going off to Hartlepool on Monday for a week’s trial up there because they want to have a look at him. We want him to do that and then we’ll see what happens, but if all off a sudden there’s a contract on the table for him for Hartlepool, we may well step in so we’ll wait and see how it goes.
“We’re certainly going to keep an eye on the kid. He’s got a future.”
Hessenthaler, meanwhile, will speak to non-league managers here in Kent about taking on some of his first year professionals on work experience deals.
He said: “We’ve got a number of young players at the football club who have turned first year pros and they’ll probably go out on loan at some stage for a bit of education because in non-league that’s a good upbringing for them.
“I’ll be honest with them because they know it’s going to be tough for them at this stage. You let them go out on loan to get a bit of experience, keep an eye on them. There’s some good first year pros here who can help some of those non-league teams and that’s what we want to do.”
Hessenthaler revealed that Kedwell, Barry Fuller, Lewis Montrose, Danny Jackman, Danny Spiller, Jack Payne and Birchall are expected to feature at Ramsgate on Wednesday night.
He said: “We’ve brought a strong squad tonight along with some trialists and we’ll do that same tomorrow night. I think you can see the ones who were missing tonight, they’ll be performing tomorrow night.”
Erith & Belvedere: Richard Stroud, Allan Matthews (Freddie Pooley 71), Kermal Bulant (Adam Gross 46), Lee Morgan (Mike Azzopardi 46), Paul Gross, Richie Davies (Jay Hedges 77), Marcus Cassius (Ashley Everett 71), Jamie Wood (Huseyin Budak 46), Andy Constable (Gary Rose 83), Frankie Sawyer (Marcus Elliott 46), Kirk Watts (Lee Radford 46).
Gillingham: Ross Flitney (Paulo Gazzaniga 73), Matt Fish, Joe Martin, Charlie Lee (Tom Brunt 66), Simon King (Jack Baldwin 71), Garry Richards (Callum Davies 76), Chris Whelpdale (Dionisis Liosates 63), Curtis Weston (Shane Defoe 77), Dennis Oli (Danny Kedwell 57), Luke Rooney (Matt Kosylo 57), Stefan Payne (Paris Cowan Hall 46).
Sub: Josh Awuah.
Goals: Garry Richards 10, Luke Rooney 12, 29, Danny Kedwell 85, Paris Cowan Hall 88
Attendance: 220
Referee: Mr Neil Baker (Welling)
Assistants: Mr Martin Lehane (Bexleyheath) & Mr Steve Perry (Bexleyheath)
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd