Erith & Belvedere 4-2 Thamesmead Town - Manager of the Month curse strikes McMahon

The match started very lively with end to end football which showed promise of goals.

The Deres caused a scare for Mead on six minutes with Lee Morgan rattling the post with a curling shot from the edge of the box.

With Thamesmead starting to get in to the game more by trying to work the wings, Rikki Cable stuck home on 18 minutes to provide the lead.

Curtis Williams pace saw him able to chase down a through ball to cross on from the byline on the right. Dimmock ended up in the net as he challenged goalkeeper Grant Wallis for the cross, who could only punch the ball to Cable in the middle of the area to fire home low to Wallis's right.

Some of the Erith & Belvedere's players protested that Dimmock had not stepped back on to the pitch, but as Dimmock's momentum for the original challenge on Wallis caused him to go over the goal line, the goal could be allowed.

From here the game became a midfield battle with Thamesmead, who were looking static in the middle of midfield, failing to penetrate the opposition penalty area and The Deres attacks rarely leading to a shot on goal.

After this period, it was Erith & Belvedere who started taking control of the game, with a couple of swift moves resulting in long range shots.

The equalising goal arrived on the half hour mark. Chris Conneally dashing to the near post at the edge of the six yard box was beaten by an attacking header, which travelled accross the face of goal for Sam Prett to nod past James Brown, defending on the goal line.

The goal gave Erith & Belvedere renewed confidence and just a couple of minutes later, were unlucky not to take the lead as a firm header beat Conneally and crashed against the Mead bar.

The second half started unlike the first, with Erith & Belvedere coming out of the block quicker as Smith outpaced Dean Kearly to place his shot across the goal and just fractionally wide of the post on 47 minutes.

Tight marking restricted Mead's build up play, especially picked out was leading scorer Dimmock.

The game was also broken up by a series of free kicks, which prevented the game from flowing.

On occasions where Thamesmead created chances, there was really time to get a decent shot away as most attacks were snuffed out.

The closest Mead came to the lead was on 67 minutes when Dimmock was allowed space to run inside the Dears box, however, he pulled his shot which enabled Wallis to dive and gather low to his left. From this save, there ensued three mad minutes which effectively sealed the game in the Deres favour.

Wallis's kick from his save from Dimmock, bounced to the feet of Nick Smith on the halfway line.

His pace caught the Mead defence napping as he ghosted to the right of midfield and outpaced the defence to leave him to steer the ball daisycutting past Conneally.

Just over a minute later, Lee Coburn committed a foul in the middle of the Thamesmead half. The resulting free kick floated to Mead’s left post where Matt Johnson got in front of Lew Watts early to fire home.

Mead desperately needing to make the most of the last 20 minutes for any hope of a comeback were left frustrated as The Deres defended well and continued to prevent Mead from penetrating the box.

There was, however, a glimmer of hope of a comeback on 89 minutes. Sam Thomas played a square ball from the wing where Deres Defender Peresimou struck the ball with venom in to his own net from the edge of the six yard box.

However, any hope of an injury time equaliser was snuffed out when Mead were caught on the back foot as Johnson was past the defence to slot past Conneally and kill Mead's unbeaten league run.

Despite the disappointment of defeat, Mead still top the Kent League table, now level on points with Beckenham but with three games in hand.

The Mead, whose manager Keith McMahon was awarded the manager of the month award in the week leading up to today’s match, must now raise their game and keep heads held high as the go in to the FA Carlsberg Vase Second Round match next Saturday, at home to local rivals Greenwich Borough.