Erith Town 1-1 Corinthian - I'd love to play final on Ebbsfleet's carpet, says Matt Longhurst

ERITH TOWN  1-1  CORINTHIAN
(Corinthian win 5-2 on aggregate)
Macron Southern Counties East Football League Challenge Cup Semi-Final Second Leg
Tuesday 18^th March 2014
Stephen McCartney reports from Middle Park Avenue

CORINTHIAN manager Matt Longhurst says he feels immensely proud after guiding the club to their third successive League Cup Final.

Corinthian did all of the hard work during the second half of the first leg at Gay Dawn Farm seven days’ ago.

Rikki Cable gave Erith Town a first half lead from the penalty spot, before Corinthian scored four in the second half from Ryan Johnson, Josh James, Denzel Gayle and Peter Afolayan.

The Dockers pressed for an early breakthrough in tonight’s second leg, but Corinthian weathered the storm and two players came off the bench to score during the second half.

Corinthian took the lead through striker Adam Marsh, before Erith Town equalised through target-man James Holder, as Corinthian progressed to the final, winning 5-2 on aggregate.

They will meet Beckenham Town, after Jason Huntley’s side defeated Fisher 3-0 at Eden Park Avenue and 6-4 on aggregate, courtesy of goals from Jake Britnell, Alfie Nunn and Jamie Humphries.

Longhurst said: “It’s unbelievable. I’m immensely proud of all the players.  Young team.  To come here tonight, a difficult place to come, difficult pitch.

“To be fair to them they threw the kitchen sink at us from literally the minute go.  We wanted to kick up hill with the wind in the first half but we had to weather the storm, which we did.

“Then we’ve gone in front and a little bit disappointed to concede the goal but over the two ties I personally feel that we were the better side.”

Erith Town boss, Mark Tompkins, admitted his side’s performance in the first leg cost his side a place in the final.

“We didn’t turn up for the first leg,” said Tompkins.

“If we had turned up like we did tonight for the first leg I think we would have gone through to be honest with you.

“I thought there was only one side in it tonight. 

“We had a lot of chances. It just didn’t fall for us in the area.  If we had taken one in the first half, I fancy we could have gone on and won it.”

Erith Town pressed for an early breakthrough and created their first opening after only 66 seconds.

Dockers’ goalkeeper Adam Woodward launched a big kick forward and striker Kofi Quartey teed up a chance for his strike partner Aaron Jeffery, who hooked a deflected shot past the left-hand post.

Jeffery then hooked a shot over the crossbar from inside the D, with Erith Town’s assistant manager Gary Gorman constantly barking out instructions and retrieving match balls from the sidelines from the side of the main stand.

Corinthian’s opening chance arrived in the eleventh minute when Jamie Taylor – who was one in a three-man midfield – spotted Woodward off his line and sent his speculative right-footed half-volley bouncing wide from 35-yards.

Tompkins knew luck was not on his side when his side almost grabbed the lead – courtesy of keeper Woodward.

The former Phoenix Sports keeper launched a right-footed free-kick upfield some 70 yards away from goal, the ball bounced over flat-footed visiting goalkeeper Richard Stroud and dropped just wide of the left-hand post.

Tompkins said: “Again, we’re chasing the game.  We needed three goals just to even the tie up.  You needed something like that to go in and it didn’t fall for us.”

Corinthian weathered the early storm and began to venture forward themselves.

Their best chance arrived in the 17^th minute when left-back Ben Wilson clipped the ball down the channel and Josh James brought the ball under control before poking the ball into Vences Bola’s path, who drilled a right-footed shot past the left-hand post from 20-yards.

A free-kick from Dockers’ set-piece specialist Calum O’Shea flashed past everybody and Ashley Sains lashed his clearance over his own crossbar from on the line and from Conrad Lee’s resulting corner from the right, Lee Coburn came up from the back to power his free header over the bar at the far post.

Corinthian should have broken the stalemate on the half-hour mark when a long throw from Wilson found Taylor on the by-line.  The midfielder hooked the ball back across the face of goal for Gayle to send his free header wide of the left-hand post from eight-yards.

“We could have come here tonight and we could have crumbled,” said Longhurst.

“We’re only a young team and we’ve dealt with what they’ve thrown at us.

“I thought our experienced players, Sam Groombridge, stepped up to the mark tonight.

“I felt they threw everything at us but in fairness we’ve had a little bit of luck.

“For such a young team to come here and to weather the storm.  At half-time we just felt if we can just get through another 15-20 minutes.”

Erith Town – who were kicking down the slope – were denied a vital goal after 115 seconds into the second half.

Lee was released down the left and the winger cut the ball inside to Quartey, who laid the ball off to Jeffery, who held his head in his hands when his right-footed shot from fifteen-yards was somehow kept out by Stroud, who dived to his left to flick the ball away when it was rolling behind his body destined for the bottom corner.

“That’s the one we’re looking at,” said Tompkins.  “We said at half-time, if we can get an early goal second half.  Again, he made the save.  If that had gone in they might have wobbled a bit.  You don’t know, but again, I keep going back. We lost the game in the first leg.  We didn’t turn up.  Four-one. It didn’t flatter us so we’d take that on the chin.”

Corinthian boss Longhurst added: “Stroudy made a great save to be honest.  He’s had a little rest, he’s been out of the side. He’s come back in for the last two or three games.  Young kid, Taylor Gable has done brilliant for us and played in the second leg of the quarter-final.

“Stroudy’s a great goalkeeper at this level. Great save at an important time as well because there would have been a long time to go still in the tie had they scored at that point.”

Erith Town went close again in the 58^th minute when Tom Jewer came up from the back to send his downward header agonisingly against the near post from six-yards after O’Shea swung in a corner from the left.

However, Corinthian killed off a spirited Erith Town performance, when Marsh scored in the 58^th minute.

Taylor progressed down the left before cutting the ball back to Gayle, whose right-footed drive was blocked by Woodward and Marsh was one of two players who had the chance to gleefully sweep the ball into the net from close range.

Longhurst said: “It’s a little bit scrappy. A little bit bibbly, bobbly but that was typical of tonight’s game to be honest. There wasn’t a lot of quality on show but on difficult pitches and fairly windy conditions sometimes you have to do the crap stuff.

“He’s been around a little bit for somebody so young.  He’s probably had too many clubs to be honest. He’s only 22 but he’s got a lot of quality, Marshy.  I thought he came on and done exceptionally second half.

“Marshy is a quality player.  We’ve got him back from Cray Valley. He decided to go to Cray Valley for decent money and unfortunately he wasn’t happy. He said he wasn’t enjoying it so he’s come back to us and he’s a big plus since we’ve brought him back.”

Tompkins added: “It was a little bit against the run of play but we are pressing high trying to get a couple of goals so we did leave ourselves open at the back a bit.”

Longhurst felt his side should have doubled their lead within six minutes when Bola skipped past O’Shea’s meaty challenge to burst into the penalty area before being denied by a fine block from Woodward in a one-versus-one situation.

He said: “Good save but I expect him to score to be honest.  Their goalkeeper played unbelievable against us a couple of weeks ago. It was a decent save but if you’re a centre forward you’ve got to be expecting to take those chances.”

But Erith Town restored parity on the night by claiming an equaliser in the final fourteen minutes.

Substitute Rikki Cable – who was an isolated figure on the right-hand side of midfield – played a short corner to O’Shea, who cut the ball back to Lee, who whipped in a quality cross from the right touchline towards the far post where Holder outjumped his man to plant his downward header into the bottom left-hand corner from three-yards.

Tompkins was pleased that Holder managed to score his sixth goal of the season.

He said: “We threw James on in the end, just for his height because we were getting a lot of long throws and corners so that worked, but it was a little bit too late anyway.”

Longhurst added: “The lad’s massive! He’s a giant!  He’s obviously decent in the air but I think we’ve got to do better to stop the cross.  I weren’t overly happy with it but I’m just pleased that we didn’t panic at any point.  We didn’t jump on the boys backs.  I said to the boys before the game there’s going to be mistakes tonight so we have to remain positive and just keep trying to do the right things and I think once they scored the goal we didn’t panic. We carried doing the right things and we saw the game out.”

Erith Town relied too heavily on Russell Bedford’s long throws into the penalty area, which were comfortably dealt with by a resilient Corinthian defence.

The only chance that the Dockers created by this method saw Stroud punch the ball away under severe pressure and the ball came out to O’Shea just inside the penalty area, who sliced his right-footed shot past the post.

Poor defending from Corinthian substitute Eric Astrom gifted a chance for Jeffery, who burst into the penalty area before drilling his left-footed shot into the foot of the side netting.

Corinthian almost grabbed the winner in the last minute when Bola cut the ball back for Taylor to crack a first time right-footed angled drive towards goal from 20-yards, which forced Woodward to dive to his left to parry towards safety.

But Erith Town have now extended their unwanted record of going eight games without a win against Corinthian, going back three seasons and three managers, Tony Russell, James Collins and now Tompkins.

“I’ve only had three against them or four I think so it’s something that we have to try to break ain’t we!” said Tompkins.

“They’re a decent side. We knew it was going to be a tough one when we got the tie.”

Erith Town are in fifth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League table with 42 points from 21 games.

They are one place higher than Corinthian, who have sealed 41 points this season.

Tompkins’ side are eight points adrift of second-placed Tunbridge Wells and fourteen points behind leaders Whyteleafe.

“Eleven to go. We want to try to finish as high as we can.  I still think second’s up for grabs. So you never know.

“We’ve not had a settled side, so many players have left, injuries.

“I said to the chairman before, it’s not going to happen overnight here. We haven’t got a massive wage bill but next year.

“We’ve got through a lot of players this year.  We’ll stick to high as we can this year.

“The best we’ve ever finished is third (last season), see if we can beat that.”

Corinthian suffered League Cup Final defeats to VCD Athletic and Erith & Belvedere during the past two seasons and Longhurst explained why he wants the showpiece final to be played at a neutral venue this time around.

“It’s a tough game. It’s always a tough game against Beckenham,” said Longhurst.

“Hopefully they will give us a decent pitch to go and play on.  Hopefully they will give us a neutral ground.  The last couple of years’ I just feel that we’ve played a cup final at Cray Valley, which we play at in our league. We’ve gone to Welling last year, which was Erith & Belvedere’s home ground. Hopefully they’ll give us a neutral ground with a decent pitch and make it a competitive tie.

“I’d love to go to Ebbsfleet because it’s a carpet. I’d love to go to Ebbsfleet and play on there. It’s a decent ground. They’ve done it up down there.  I’m not going to be too picky but at the end of the day it’s a cup final, it’s prestigious.  We’ve got young players that deserve to be given an opportunity to go and play on a decent stage, somewhere like Ebbsfleet, somewhere like Bromley.

“We go to Dartford in our league so no disrespect we’d rather not go there because we’ve already been there two or three times this year (playing Greenwich Borough.)

“If they give us somewhere like Ebbsfleet it would make it a better spectacle allowing two teams that will try and play.  They’ve got a lot of pace out wide, they’re quite similar to us. Hopefully it will be a decent game.”

Erith Town: Adam Woodward, Steve Newman (James Holder 58), Danny Moore, Tom Jewer, Lee Coburn, Richard Stevens (Rikki Cable 46), Russell Bedford, Calum O’Shea, Aaron Jeffery, Kofi Quartey, Conrad Lee.
Subs: Matt Knuckey, Danny Akers, Daniel Clark

Goal: James Holder 76

Booked: Calum O’Shea 63

Corinthian: Richard Stroud, Ryan Johnson (Eric Astrom 78), Ben Wilson, Sam Groombridge, Ashley Sains, Bill Parkinson, Jamie Taylor, Josh James, Vences Bola, Peter Afolayan (Adam Marsh 46), Denzel Gayle (Henry Goodwin 84).
Subs: Oscar Saxton, Taylor Gable

Goal: Adam Marsh 58

Booked: Sam Groombridge 23, Ryan Johnson 41

Attendance: 35
Referee: Mr Jack Packman (Margate)
Assistants: Mr Daniel Proctor (Dartford) & Mr Scott Rudd (Dartford)