Kentish Football 
Hampton & Richmond 1-1 Hythe Town - Hopefully we can finish off the job at home, says Scott Porter
HAMPTON & RICHMOND BOROUGH 1-1 HYTHE TOWN
The FA Carlsberg Trophy First Qualifying Round
Saturday 29th September 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Beveree Stadium
HYTHE TOWN boss Scott Porter says he believes his side can finish off the job in Tuesday night’s home replay after coming away from Hampton & Richmond Borough with a deserved second chance in the FA Carlsberg Trophy.
Nick Reeves joined Lowestoft Town’s Jack Defty in being the only players to have beaten Hampton & Richmond Borough goalkeeper Rodney Chiweshe in 810 minutes of football this season after the defender headed Hythe Town into a deserved 38th minute lead.
But the home side, who went into the game sitting in second place in the Ryman Premier League table, with 14 points from six games, drew level through Mo Harkin’s header, just 36 seconds into the second half.
Hythe Town, who went into the game with only Corinthian-Casuals below them in the Ryman League Division One South table, will go into their replay at Reachfields Stadium at the foot of the table after the Surrey side drew with Herne Bay today.
But Hythe Town will take confidence from their battling performance against a club that were playing Blue Square Bet (Conference) South football last season.
Hythe Town’s preparation for the game suffered after their coach arrived at Beveree Stadium just 40 minutes before kick-off due to a pile up on the M25. George Savage, Jake Hobbs and substitute Tassar Hassan didn’t turn up until 20 minutes before kick-off due to the traffic jam.
Porter was clearly proud off his side after their battling performance earned them a second bite of the cherry and a place in Monday’s Second Qualifying Round draw.
He said: “Bad preparation, stuck in traffic for three and a quarter hours and then the referee decided he wouldn’t give us any extra time, which obviously got our backs up straight away, so it just made the game more important to try and get something from it.”
Porter added: “It was a deserved draw. It could’ve gone either way in the end. We had a chance, they had a chance but to come away form a place like this and the situation and the circumstances what we arrived in, is a good credit to everyone at the club and the players and hopefully that will kick-start our season.”
But despite a swift warm-up, Hythe Town were by far the better side against a Hampton & Richmond Borough side who appeared not to take an interest in the game during a poor first half performance from the hosts.
Hythe Town called Chiweshe into making his first save of the match after only 138 seconds when James Dryden, who was playing out wide on the left, intercepted a pass from Hampton & Richmond Borough’s right-back Malvin Kamara, ran forward before stroking a left-footed rasping drive from 25-yards, which brought a comfortable catch from the keeper.
Hampton & Richmond Borough’s first chance of the game came inside nine minutes after Hythe left-back John Walker gave the ball away and Charlie Moone swept a diagonal pass to Joe Benjamin down the right and after cutting inside he scuffed his left-footed shot from 20-yards, which was picked up by visiting keeper Dean Ruddy.
Hythe Town were winning their own personal battles all over the pitch, which cut out the fluency that you’d expect from a Ryman Premier League side on their own patch.
Porter said: “The boys started brightly. We came out the traps really well but like I said before we’ve had them watched and you’ve got to stop teams like this playing, get in their faces and be nasty and to be awkward to play against and we did that.
“We worked our nuts off to be fair, but we created a number of chances in the first half but we got one in the end!”
Chiweshe caught Jake Hobbs’ in-swinging right-footed free-kick at his near post after the former Beckenham Town winger went for goal with a speculative effort just before the half-way point.
Hampton & Richmond Borough’s best first half chance came in the 26th minute when the home side built up from the left and the ball came back to central midfielder Joe Turner, who cracked a right-footed drive from 35-yards, which forced Ruddy into making a fine save to his left, using both hands to palm the ball behind for a corner.
This chance should have been the springboard that the home side needed to get out of their slump, but Hythe Town were having none of that and enjoyed a dominant ten minute spell, which stunned the lowest crowd of the season at Beveree Stadium.
The Kent side issued their higher-league opponents a warning in the 32nd minute when Lee Winfield took a touch before whipping in a right-footed cross which sailed over Dave Cook’s head but Dryden nodded a free-header wide from six-yards, holding his head in his hands after missing a decent chance.
A mix-up in the home side’s defence involving Billy Jeffrey’s and Kamara saw Dryden playing the ball inside to Cook, who flicked the ball to Brendon Cass, but the lone striker screwed his first-time shot wide of the right-hand post when left unmarked on the edge of the penalty area.
Dominant Hythe were denied when terrier Nick Barnes looped a ball into the penalty area and Dryden’s looping header from eight-yards seemed destined to beat the keeper, but Chiweshe clawed the ball away from underneath his crossbar and then gathered the loose ball as it bounced inside his goal-mouth.
A ball forward from Hythe Town left-back Walker saw Cook flick the ball across to Cass, whose flicked shot was deflected behind for a corner by Chiweshe at his near post.
Porter said: “We did sit there and think when you play teams like this when you come away you have to take your chances. If you don’t you might get punished at the other end, but luckily we got one before half-time.”
Those fears weren’t realised, however, because Hythe Town were rewarded for all this pressure after they scored from the resulting corner.
Hobbs swung his right-footed corner out to Reeves who came up from the back to power his header into the top-right hand corner from fifteen-yards.
Porter was rewarded for doing his home-work as Hobbs put the ball exactly where Reeves wanted it.
He said: “We knew they didn’t leave anyone on the post because we’ve watched them! Nick Reeves was free. It was a good header, but it was coming. That was coming! He’s scored a few this season so he knows where the goal is.
“It was a deserved goal. Everyone can see that, but they went up the other end and nearly got one back. We held on until half-time.”
Hampton & Richmond Borough finally woke-up following this set-back and just 80 seconds after conceding only their second goal of the season (ironically from two headers) went close to levelling.
Jeffrey’s pumped a long-ball over the top of the heart of the Hythe defence and Moone cut inside and dragged his low left-footed shot across Ruddy, which curled away from the far post and was retrieved by the touch-line.
Unfortunately Porter’s words during the interval fell on deaf ears because Hampton & Richmond levelled after 36 seconds into the second half.
Porter said: “You say the right things and you get the boys to do their jobs to win the game and then obviously we conceded straight after half-time which put us back a little bit, but then we had chances to win the game. We defended well. They could’ve won it. We could’ve won it!”
Hampton & Richmond Borough manager Mark Harper certainly gave his side the hairdryer treatment during the interval and his side were not given time and space to play during the first half by a battling Hythe side.
Porter said: “Not first half, but that’s credit to us to be fair because we got in their faces and made it difficult for them. If you give teams like that time and space they will just knock the ball around you for fun so we knew what we had to do. We’ve done our homework on them. We’ve heard their manager give them a rollocking at half-time, so we knew they were going to come out, which they did.”
The home side kicked-off and played the ball backwards and across to the left and a long ball released James Simmonds down the left, who chipped the ball in behind Walker and Pat Kingwell for Alan Bray to latch onto and he chipped the ball towards the far post and Harkin was there to head across Ruddy to find the far corner from three-yards.
Porter admitted: “It was a killer! But they are a decent side. There not where they are for no reason so they’re going to create chances and they’re going to open us up at times. After that it was important we’d stay focused and continue doing the hard work and we did that.”
Ruddy made a fine block with his legs at his near post to thwart Harkin from scoring again, with a stabbed shot, after he was presented with a good chance to score his second goal of the season by Moone’s 50th minute cross.
Hythe Town’s chances were limited during the second half, when they were forced to defend for their lives as Hampton & Richmond Borough marginally improved.
Hobbs swung in a free-kick from the left to find Dryden at the near post but the oldest player in Hythe’s team planted his header over from ten-yards.
Porter admitted his side got lucky in the 66th minute when Jeffrey’s played another long ball over the top of Kingwell to put Moone through on goal and destined to score.
Visiting keeper Ruddy came rushing outside his penalty area and flattened Moone outside his penalty box and the referee blew for a foul before substitute Jon-Jo Bates could stroke the ball into an empty goal.
Reading based referee Christopher Wicks consulted his assistant Lennon Davis before issuing the lucky Hythe keeper a yellow card.
Hustwick followed the keeper in the book for dissent as the decision clearly angered the home side and their fans.
“There was no-one round there was there? They were furious and I can see why! As a manager if my centre forward was brought down by the keeper from what, 35-yards with no-one around him you’d expect the geezer to walk so we got the substitute goalkeeper (Tom Elliot) ready to come on but he didn’t.
“You ride your luck, that’s football. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. Luckily we rode our lick with that one today!”
Simmonds should have done better with the resulting free-kick, which ballooned into the trees behind the goal.
Hampton & Richmond Borough pressed for a late winner and Hythe Town were hanging on for the final fifteen-minutes.
Harkin’s fine pass released Moone in behind the Hythe defence but the six-goal striker drove his right-footed angled drive past the foot of the near post and the ball nestled behind the goal after bashing against the advertising boards.
Harkin then swung in a corner from the right which was headed down and wide by Bray from beside the penalty spot.
But a fine pass from Barnes released Cook but the Hythe Town skipper flicked his first time shot wide of the left-hand post from 25-yards.
Hythe Town got another good piece of fortune when Bates rode a couple of challenges on his way towards the left by-line and he cut the ball across the face of goal and Gary Holloway dwelled on the ball instead of side-footing the ball home at the far post and Hythe managed to get bodies back to put in a block.
But Hythe Town almost snatched victory and created yet another famous Cup giant-killing at the death when lone striker Cass was denied his fourth goal of the season.
Cass hooked a left-footed shot from 25-yards, which seemed destine to fly into the top near corner but Chiweshe dived to his right to palm the ball away.
Porter was full of praise for Cass, saying, “He worked his socks off today. He had a few chances. He gives you a lot up there now he’s knuckled down. He’s come into his own with his work-rate and all credit to him and he’s chances will come. It’s only a matter of time when he’ll bang in a number of goals again so it’s important he keeps doing that.
“The goalkeeper pulled off a good save, a deflected shot. He went one way, it went the other way. We thought that was it! But they went down the other end and could’ve scored as well.”
Reflecting on the result, Porter added: “It’s a well-deserved result, a draw. Hopefully we can finish off the job at home.
“Hopefully that will kick-start our season. I said that at the start, to kick-start our season and put a shock on the table, which we did last year and the year before.
“I believe in the boys. Hopefully they believe in themselves after today and hopefully we can do the job on Tuesday because there’s no reason why we can’t!”
Hampton & Richmond Borough: Rodney Chiweshe, Malvin Kamara, Alan Bray, Max Hustwick, Billy Jeffreys, Joe Turner, Mo Harkin, Gary Holloway, Charlie Moone, James Simonds (Elliot Bent 70), Joe Benjamin (Jon-Jo Bates 46).
Subs: Anson Cousins, Darren Powell, Karle Carder
Goal: Mo Harkin 46
Booked: Charlie Moone 29, Malvin Kamara 58, Gary Holloway 58, Max Hustwick 67
Hythe Town: Dean Ruddy, George Savage, John Walker, Pat Kingwell, Nick Reeves, Lee Winfield (Ronnie Dolan 60), Dave Cook, Nick Barnes, Jake Hobbs (Tassar Hassan 71), Brendon Cass, James Dryden.
Subs: Greg Smith, Ashley Porter, Tom Elliot
Goal: Nick Reeves 38
Booked: Nick Barnes 35, Jake Hobbs 56, Dean Ruddy 66
Attendance: 202
Referee: Mr Christopher Wicks (Reading, Berkshire)
Assistants: Mr Lennon Davis (Reading, Berkshire) & Mr Craig Boyles (Reading, Berkshire)
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd