Erith & Belvedere 9-2 Oakwood - The FA Vase means a lot but if we can go as far as we can go then we'll be happy with that, says Erith & Belvedere boss Owen Jones

Erith & Belvedere 9 – 2 Oakwood
Location	Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Kickoff	15/09/2019 15:00

ERITH & BELVEDERE  9-2  OAKWOOD
The Buildbase FA Vase Second Qualifying Round
Sunday 15 September 2019
Stephen McCartney reports from Park View Road

ERITH & BELVEDERE manager Owen Jones says he expects a tougher FA Vase First Round tie next month after his ruthless side slaughtered a poor Oakwood side.

Since taking Chertsey Town to a replay in the First Qualifying Round back in 2008, Crawley-based side Oakwood have now lost all of their last 11 FA Vase ties and including today’s humiliation, Oakwood have leaked 39 goals in their last five games in this competition. 

This was Erith & Belvedere's record win in The FA Vase.

Oakwood manager Mark Gilbert gave up at half-time and left his position in the dug-out to talk to a couple of women in front of the main stand – with his side only 2-0 down at the time.  He brought on his coach Joe Clark, a goalkeeper by trade and put him in front of a back four and Oakwood went on to leak seven second half goals.

Erith & Belvedere went into this game having beaten Fire United 3-0 here in the First Qualifying Round a couple of weeks ago and sat in the top eight in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division with nine points from six games.

Oakwood play in the weak Southern Combination First Division (Step Six) and were in eleventh-place with six points on the board from their first five games.

This extended their losing run to six games on the spin, which must put pressure on Gilbert, especially when he doesn’t bother to lead his beleaguered side from the technical area and three of his five listed substitutes failed to even turn up.

It took Erith & Belvedere 34 minutes to open the floodgates when winger Guyliano Mpungi came off the bench to drill an angled drive into top bins, aided by the hands of goalkeeper Chris Clark.

Striker Kameiko Pope-Campbell rolled in his sixth goal of the season to put Erith & Belvedere in the driving seat going into half-time.

Striker Baba Adeniran helped himself to a second half hat-trick and substitute left-winger Thomas Ngegba helped himself to a couple of goals.

Oakwood striker Tom Familton scored in the 61^st and 87 minutes but this was a poor day for a club whose FA Vase record is atrocious.

Chan Quan ran past four Oakwood players to drive in his side’s eighth goal, before winger Eric De Melo Calheiros finished off the humiliation.

“It was a tricky fixture,” said Jones. “You could tell from when they turned up to when they came out to warm-up.  I thought ok but they didn’t seem to have enough players’ and everybody was saying that and I said look you can’t go by things like that.

“They seemed to be organised and once the game started you could tell that it was one of those games where we should win and you know you have to do the right things to get a result.

“It was a tricky tie if I’m honest. They were gutsy to start off with, which I expected.  I thought we played the game, we started off far too slow.”

When asked whether Erith & Belvedere were really, really good or Oakwood were really, really poor, Jones replied: “I think it was a mixture! I wouldn’t say they were really, really poor, Oakwood wasn’t really, really, really poor but it looked like they haven’t played against sides of our level, I would imagine.

“I just thought second half we did what we should’ve done in the first half. I’m not saying we were poor in the first half, but we kind of played at a very low tempo. Once we upped it in the second half, they were gutsy, they never gave up. They kept going but we had a bit more quality than they had.”

Erith & Belvedere called Clark into making a save inside the opening six minutes when Tony Hill – who plays on the right-hand side of a three-man defence – stroked his right-footed free-kick towards the top right-hand corner from 25-yards but Clark stepped to his left and flicked the ball over the top of the post and behind for a corner.

“I wanted Tony to put that in really.  Fair play to Tony, we know he’s capable of putting the ball in the back of the net. I thought he done really well,” said Jones.

Oakwood left-back James Senra was a weak link as Erith & Belvedere got in behind him several times during the first half before he was forced off following a poor challenge from Mpungi earlier on in the game.

Erith & Belvedere’s holding midfielder George Jones hit a long ball over the top to release Pope-Campbell down the right and he cut the ball back for Quan, who stroked his first time right-footed angled drive flashing across the keeper and past the far post from 15-yards.

“I told them at half-time, you do the hard work but you get round, you’re cutting the ball back but you’ve not got your head up to look and see what’s on.  In the second half we more than proved that we started to look and put people in at the right time,” added Jones.

Oakwood created an opening in the tenth minute when tough-tackling holding midfielder Ross Swain launched a long ball over the top of Hill to release Callum Jardin but the left-winger lost all composure and drilled his left-footed drive sailing high and wide from 16-yards out.

Quan started a move from the home side when he played the ball up from inside his own half up to Adeniran, who fed Pope-Campbell on the right and he teed up Quan, who swept his shot straight at Clark.

When Oakwood had the ball in their own half during the first half, Erith & Belvedere’s back three were positioned either on the half-way line or on the centre-circle arch but the away side didn’t have enough quality to play the ball in behind Hill, Reggie Yembra or Connor Dobson as their striker Familton lacked the pace to get in.

Erith & Belvedere almost gifted Oakwood an unlikely lead in the 28^th minute, following the away side’s first of three corners.

Joshua Neathey swung the ball in from the right and Dobson was in space at the near post and his back-header sailed back towards the top far corner of his own goal.

Goalkeeper George Stevens, who was making his debut having been plucked from the reserve side as Daniel Teeley was nursing an ankle injury, reacted well to push the ball up and over his head onto the crossbar and a combination of the keeper’s hands and Quan ensured the ball didn’t cross the line in mid-air underneath the crossbar.

Jones said: “Poor George! I felt sorry for him because he was just meant to be on the bench but Dan Teeley’s injured so we just had to get somebody in really quick.”

Dobson was correctly booked when he pushed Neathey into the perimeter fencing and the Oakwood winger suffered with a cut head and Dobson’s sister Courtney (the therapist at Isthmian League South Division side Cray Valley) jumped over the fence to treat the stricken Oakwood player.

Erith & Belvedere deservedly opened the scoring with 33 minutes and 39 seconds on the clock.

Senra struggled to keep up with Arthur Feudjiro’s pace down the right and he played the ball on the outside to substitute Mpungi, who drilled his right-footed angled drive towards the top near corner from 17-yards, the keeper palming the ball into the net where it was heading to fly in.

“Great ball from Arthur and a great run by Guyliano, whose been out for about a month and that’s the quality about Guyliano.  You’ve seen him score goals like that many a time and it’s good to have him back and he did well with his goal,” said Jones, who did well to remember all 11 goals.”

Erith & Belvedere called Clark into making a comfortable save following the first of their seven corners.

Quan floated the ball in from the left towards the far post, the ball was knocked down by Mpungi and rolled across the face of goal for Adeniran, whose right-footed shot on the turn from 12-yards was comfortably saved by the Oakwood keeper.

Jones clipped the ball down the right channel to release Pope-Campbell and he cut the ball back for Adeniran, whose shot on the turn from 10-yards at the near post forced Clark to make a comfortable save low to his right.

A quickly-taken throw-in from Calheiros saw Oakwood’s right-back Joshua Lyden switch-off and Pope-Campbell, now on the left, played the ball inside to Jones.  Space had opened up in front of him as no one in an Oakwood shirt pressed him but he chose not to shoot but teed up Feudjiro, whose right-footed drive from 25-yards was palmed away by Clark.

Dominant Erith & Belvedere doubled their lead with 42 minutes and 46 seconds on the clock.

Quan rolled the ball into Pope-Campbell’s feet, he easily cut inside centre-half Brendon Wilborrow and rolled his right-footed shot past Clark to find the bottom far corner from 12-yards.

“A great goal, good movement by Kam.  I wanted to take him off as quickly as possible because we need someone like that on Tuesday when we play Beckenham and that will be a different ball game all together,” explained Jones.

Oakwood’s created a chance of their own with 44 minutes and 34 seconds when central-midfielder Daniel Webster played the ball out to Tom Routley and he swept in a deep cross into the box, aiming for substitute left-winger Erden Polat and Familton and it was Familton’s downward header, which was easily gathered by Stevens, stepping to his left.

A long ball out of defence from Yembra released Mpungi, who cut into the box into a central position but his weak shot was meat and drink for a busy Oakwood keeper.

Erith & Belvedere went close with the last kick of the first half when good link up play from Feudjiro, Quan and Calheiros set up Feudjiro, who drove his right-footed shot just past the foot of the left-hand post from 22-yards.

“He’s potentially a very good player and he could play a lot higher but he’s got to sort himself out,” Jones said of Dutchman Feudjiro.

“It’s his decision making is not quite there at the moment but he’s listening more now.

“He’s from Holland. It’s difficult with the English and stuff. I mean, god knows how these Premiership managers deal with all these foreign players. I don’t get it myself really but it can be frustrating at times. I’m always having a go at him but he doesn’t understand so I’m just having a go for nothing really and they all laugh at me – but he’s quality, he’s a quality player.”

Jones wanted his side to be more ruthless in front of goal during the second half – and that’s exactly what he got!

“I wanted them to move the ball quicker and to play more direct and penetrate into areas forward rather than tippy-tappy, playing side football, crab football, that’s what it was like. It was just going sideways all the time with it.”

Oakwood’s coach Joe Clark finally turned up and came on at the start of the second half and sat in front of their back four and it had a Sunday League feel to Oakwood when they played a goalkeeper as an outfield player.

“He did alright. He looked alright really when he came on.  I thought he was alright. He’s not fit so it was easy just to over-power him. He was game. I should’ve signed up and got myself out there if I knew that was going to happen,” quipped Jones.

It certainly didn’t do the trick as Erith & Belvedere rushed past Oakwood on several occasions during a one-sided second half.

It took the home side only 49 seconds for Calheiros to cut in from the left and play the ball inside to Feudjiro, who was left in acres of space to trickle his right-footed shot past the left-hand post from 25-yards.

Erith & Belvedere killed the game off as a contest when they scored their third goal with six minutes and 44 seconds on the clock.

Calheiros floated in a deep corner from the right and where was the Oakwood defence as they allowed Adeniran to take a couple of touches at the far post before burying his third touch into the back of the net from six-yards out.

“Baba’s been trying to hard,” revealed Jones.

“I think he’s got to try to relax. He’s been trying so hard to score and he’s ended up scoring three today.

“I thought he was superb. He took full advantage of a side he could see that maybe I could get in here and get some goals and that’s what he did. 

“He did have a few chances that he should’ve scored but it’s a work in progress for him and we know that he’s got something about him and we’re trying to get the best out of him so well done to him.”

This game was too easy and Erith & Belvedere rattled in their fourth goal of the match with 10 minutes and 43 seconds as Oakwood lacked leadership both on and off the pitch.

Quan was released down the left and he easily cut into the box past Lyden and Husett to reach the by-line before putting it on a plate for substitute Ngegba, who simply tapped the ball into the back of the net from three-yards.

“It was a typical Thomas goal, just there at the right time just to tap it in but Chan Quan is quality,” added Jones.

Erith & Belvedere’s fifth goal was just as simple when it arrived with 13 minutes and 21 seconds on the clock.

This time it was Adeniran who easily cut into the box from the left and he put it on a plate for Ngegba, who had time and space to pick his spot into the bottom far corner.

“That’s what Thomas is good at doing but we’ve got to get him to work on his overall game. He still need to work on certain things but he’s getting there,” said Jones.

“I just thought there would be a couple more goals and we would just slow right back down and just pop it about but to be fair we just kept going, which was really good.”

It was so easy, Erith & Belvedere switched off and Oakwood ventured forward and pulled a goal back with 15 minutes and 37 seconds on the clock.

Substitute Polat found Familton in acres of space – in behind Yembra and Hill – to drill his right-footed shot past Stevens and into the left-hand corner from 15-yards.

“Casual, very casual and not really taking responsibility.  In games like this that can happen so I’m not going to beat about the bush about it really,” added Jones.

If this was a boxing match, referee Steven Walsh would have ended the game as Oakwood capitulated and Erith & Belvedere looked like they were going to score every time they broke forward at pace.

Erith & Belvedere slotted in their sixth goal of the game with 19 minutes and 42 seconds when substitute Jacob Kalonda split open a poor Oakwood defence to put Adeniran in through the heart of the pitch and he easily strode past last-man Husett and rolled his shot past the advancing keeper to find the bottom right-hand corner from 15-yards.

Jones added: “He did well with that, again his movement was good and then you’re in font and put it away, so I’m pleased with that.”

Oakwood clearly gave up with 20 minutes of toil remaining and Erith & Belvedere scored their seventh goal with 28 minutes and 53 seconds on the clock.

Mpungi threw the ball to Quan, who played the ball back to Mpungi, who whipped in a deep cross from the right towards the far post.  No one in an Oakwood shirt picked up Adeniran, who spooned his shot across the flat-footed keeper to plant the ball into the bottom far corner of the net from the corner of the six-yard box.

“He got his hat-trick and he said to me he wanted to get a hat-trick for me and he’s glad. God bless him, he’s trying his hardest because he really loves the club and he wants to be a part of it so well done to him,” said Jones.

Clark finally made a save , using his left-boot to prevent Yembra getting in on the act by scoring from a downward header after he met Kalonda’s whipped in cross from the right.

Calheiros played a one-two with Adeniran before smashing his left-footed shot towards the near corner from 25-yards, which forced Clark to beat the ball away but it was clear that he was given no protection in front of him by a team that were out of their depth.

Quan capped off an impressive performance when he scored the home side’s eighth goal with 38 minutes and 40 seconds on the clock.

He picked the ball up on the right, cut in to the middle and ran and ran and ran and ran and four Oakwood defenders couldn’t be bothered to put in a tackle and Quan drilled his right-footed shot past the flat-footed goalkeeper from 10-yards.

“He beat about three or four players didn’t he?  I really do mean it, Chan Quan’s quality and he has been outstanding and I’m really pleased for him because lots of managers over the years, when he’s played at Step Five, they drop him after a couple of months and say he’s just a summer player but he’s more to us than a summer player,” said Jones.

Oakwood were so poor, yet they still managed to score a second goal, timed at 41 minutes and 39 seconds.

Polat was given time and space to unleash a 30-yard drive from a central position, which was parried by Stevens, diving to his right and Familton pounced on the loose ball and was the only outfield player inside the box and he dinked the ball over the grounded keeper from 10-yards.

Jones said:  “Again sloppy! It was sloppy wasn’t it and that what happens when you’re stretching like that to get goals. It just gets sloppy so fair play to them. They didn’t give up, they kept going but I thought it was a sloppy goal but we did well to bounce back and get another one straight after.”

Erith & Belvedere’s ninth goal came with 42 minutes and 55 seconds on the clock when Quan released Mpungi down the right and he played the ball across the keeper towards the far post for Calheiros, who cut in to the six-yard box and walked the ball over the line.

“I said to Eric ‘you’ve got to get a goal’, so I said he’s done all that and he’s quality, you’ve got to get a goal and he did, so I’m really pleased that he did because I just think the lads quality and he’s going places, he’s a very good player.”

This was Erith & Belvedere biggest win since the 10-2 win in the Kent League against Sporting Bengal United on 21 February 2009.

It’s the clubs biggest cup win since beating Faversham Town by the same score in a Kent League Cup Group game on 27 November 2007 and it’s the ninth time that the Deres have scored nine or more in a cup tie.

The First Round takes place on Saturday 12 October, or if the Deres are drawn at home it is likely to take place 24 hours later as Welling United are at home.

“I just want to mention my brother Rupert, whose manager of Kent Football United and I wish him all the best.  I know it’s not going to be an easy job for him but he will succeed and he will do the club proud. I dedicate the game for him for what he’s doing,” said Jones.

Erith & Belvedere have banked a total of £1,275 in prize money, having won two FA Vase ties, while Oakwood walk home with £250.

“It means a lot but if we can go as far as we can go then we’ll be happy with that, as far as it can take us, we’ll be happy,” said Jones.

“Look, let’s be honest, whoever we get it’s going to be a tough game so we’re prepared for that.”

Erith & Belvedere return to Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division football on Tuesday night with a trip to fourth-placed Beckenham Town, who are three points adrift of leaders Chatham Town.

“It’s going to be a tough game. Dave Mehmet and Billy Walton have done a tremendous job at Beckenham, they’ve got really good players,” said Jones. 

“We’re not stupid but if we can compete with them, who knows what can happen but they are a good side, I’m not going to deny that, they are a very good side.

“I’ve got the utmost respect for Dave Mehmet. I think he’s a fantastic manager and coach and I’ve worked with him before and what he’s trying to do at Beckenham is superb, how he’s got them going.  They’re not even firing on all cylinders yet but I hope it ain’t against us. I know they scored six on Saturday (beating Farnham Town 6-0 in The FA Vase) but let’s hope they’ll just prod along on Tuesday and it’s either a draw or we win.”

Erith & Belvedere: George Stevens, Romayle Wade (Guyliano Mpungi 18), Eric De Melo Calheiros, Reggie Yembra, Connor Dobson, Tony Hill, Arthur Feudjiro, George Jones (Jacob Kalonda 53), Kameiko Pope-Campbell (Thomas Ngegba 53), Baba Adeniran, Chan Quan.
Subs: Daniel Teeley, Reece Barrett

Goals: Guyliano Mpungi 34, Kameiko Pope-Campbell 43, Baba Adeniran 52, 65, 74, Thomas Ngegba 56, 54, Chan Quan 84, Eric De Melo Calheiros 88

Booked: Connor Dobson 31, Guyliano Mpungi 18

Oakwood: Chris Clark, Joshua Lyden, James Senra (Erden Polat 40), Ross Swain, Brendon Wilborrow, Charlie Husett, Joshua Neathey (Joe Clark 46), Daniel Webster, Tom Familton, Tom Routley, Callum Jardim.
Subs: Ashley Davey, Charlie Daly, Gerald Manville

Goals: Tom Familton 61, 87

Booked: Ross Swain 5

Attendance: 60
Referee: Mr Simon Walsh (Tottenham, London N17)
Assistants: Mr Timothy Hart (Darenth) & Mr Nigel Eagelton (Sevenoaks)