Ilford 1-3 Chatham Town - We don't want to underachieve this season, says table-topping Kevin Watson

ILFORD 1-3  CHATHAM TOWN
Ryman League Division One North
Wednesday 22^nd August 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Cricklefield Stadium

CHATHAM TOWN boss Kevin Watson says he is keeping his side’s aspirations in house after they climbed to the top of the Ryman League Division One North table after winning both of their first two games.

They opened their campaign with a 4-0 home win over Waltham Abbey, courtesy of two goals apiece from Frenchman Jean-Michel Sigere and winger Garry Tilley on Saturday.

And they came away from Ilford with the result that they needed to leapfrog over seven other teams into first place after Tilley opened the scoring in the 28^th minute, before a much-improved Ilford outfit levelled 105 seconds into the second half, courtesy of central midfielder Paul Oshin.

Watson made a double substitution and striker Harry Smith, a seventeen-year-old who lives in Rochester, scored a headed goal just thirteen minutes into his debut to give the Kent side the lead in the 72^nd minute, before left-back Mark Lewis powered home another header seven minutes later.

Watson, 31, who hails from Brentwood, was delighted that his Chatham Town side came away from a difficult venue in his native Essex with all three points in the bag.

Watson immediately stepped off the pitch after the game and said: “Obviously where we’re positioned in the table is irrelevant to a certain extent.  We’ve played two games and got maximum points.  The goal difference side of things don’t really come into play at the moment.

“People will be critical and they will say both Ilford and Waltham Abbey, we’ve played two of the easier teams but I will tell you not many teams will come here and have an easy ride this season.”

When it was put to him that Chatham Town are the dark horses for the Ryman League Division One North title, Watson replied, “No, I wouldn’t say that!  I wouldn’t go that far!  Look, everybody enters a competition to do as well as possible, you’re in it for the wrong reasons if you don’t, but we have our own personal aspirations of what we want to achieve and we pretty much keep that in-house.

“I would never publically say that we need to get into the play-offs or anything like that because we don’t.  We’re ambitious. We’ve got ambitious players in the dressing room. I know that I am an ambitious manager so we’ll do as good as we can.

“I can let you know last season we under-achieved so this season we don’t want to underachive.”

Clear cut chances were at a premium in the first half as both sides adapted to the bobbly playing surface in the middle of a six-lane running track and underneath yellow floodlighting.

Watson said: “It’s a difficult place to come.  Ilford’s team have to play here every other week.  That’s what I said to the lads, not to feel sorry for themselves.”

Ilford created the first chance of the game inside the opening ten minutes when Warren Mfula prodded the ball through to his strike partner Christian Mkwanazi, who stroked a shot across keeper Tim Roberts and the ball bounced agonisingly wide of the foot of the far post from an acute angle.

Chatham created their first chance four minutes later when Lee Hales pumped the ball across to Sigere who cut in from the left before setting up Hales, whose right-footed drive from 20-yards was easily gathered by Ilford keeper Daniel Mbaku.

Watson felt the first half was a scrappy affair, saying, “It’s difficult for any team with a pattern and a way of playing.  It’s a small pitch. The ball runs out of play a lot.  You have to create your own atmosphere because there isn’t much atmosphere.  That was a grievance I had about the balls (not) coming on (after rolling onto the athletics track).  It was difficult.”

Chatham grabbed the lead in the 28^th minute, which was the next piece of action in front of goal.

Hales, who takes all of their set-pieces, released Tilley through on goal and the winger produced a fine finish, stroking a left-footed shot across Mbaku to roll the ball into the bottom far corner from 12-yards.

Watson said: “We got the goal, which was pleasing, which was one of a few times where there was a few passes strung together.

“Garry probably hasn’t had one of his best games. He drifted in and out of the game but we’ve set him a target for goals and he’s on his way of meeting that. He scored a few last season. He needs to try to exceed that this season.  I can’t say (how many), it’s between me and him.”

Ilford were a threat going forward and Oshin released Mfula who ran at the Chatham defence before unleashing a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which only just cleared Roberts’ crossbar.

An even better chance fell Ilford’s way in the 32^nd minute when winger Justin Hounkgatin was released down the left and he whipped in an excellent cross with his left foot but an unmarked Mfula planted his header over from ten-yards.

Shamrez Darr’s free-kick sailed over from 25-yards, before Stephen O’Hara hooked a volley over the Chatham crossbar as once again the Essex side failed to test Roberts in the Chatham goal.

Roberts was finally called into action inside first half injury time when Mbaku kicked a free-kick into the Chatham penalty area and Tony Dawkins right-footed effort bounced into Roberts’ gloves.

When asked what he said to his players at the interval, Watson replied, “I just said we’ve done well to get a foothold in the game. It obviously didn’t work because they went out and scored straight away in the second half.

“There were a few things said in there because I think a few people were feeling sorry for themselves a little bit, which we couldn’t afford to do.

“If you want to do well in any league you need to be able to come to places, which haunt you a little bit and get results.”

Watson’s words during the half-time interval certainly failed to make an impact as Ilford swiftly equalised.

A poor kick from Roberts failed to reach the half-way line and Ilford skipper Brian Okwera played the ball out to Mfula on the left and he floated a cross towards the far post and Roberts made amends when he blocked Mkwanazi’s hooked shot, but Oshin, who had made a late run into the box from midfield, clipped a bouncing shot into the empty net.

Watson said: “I’ve always said fairly rarely we concede what I would consider to be a very good goal that we couldn’t do anything about.

“We tried to break quickly, a poor kick, a poor defensive line, not enough pressure on the ball. There’s three or four things that we could’ve done better, but I’m not blaming individuals because people do make mistakes and they don’t mean to make mistakes but certainly it was avoidable.”

Watson admitted his side would have capitulated last season but by bringing on Cameroon born Rodrique Ndiane and Smith into the action brought a new lease of life into the Medway outfit.

He said: “Probably the most pleasing thing for me to sum it up, last season we certainly wouldn’t have won that game. We might have lost it so that shows how far we’ve come, especially from going 1-0 up and Ilford scoring the equaliser just after half-time.  I think we showed a bit of character there.”

Ndiane’s right-footed snap shot from 18-yards deflected narrowly over the crossbar before Ilford missed an excellent chance to take the lead in the 63^rd minute.

And once again it was their lively two front men that played their part in the chance as Mkwanazi played in Mfula but he slid a right-footed drive narrowly wide of the foot of the near post.

Ilford were looking up at the heavens when they almost scored from a corner.

Mfula was going to take the corner from the right but he allowed substitute Steve Opoku to take it instead and the decision almost paid off for them as the driven corner picked out Mfula at the far post, who turned and cracked a left-footed drive that beat Roberts but the ball bounced off the near post.

That proved to be the turning point in the game, especially as Chatham Town regained the lead in the 72^nd minute.

Ndiane picked up the ball and his downward shot took a deflection off Ilford right-back Dawkins and looped over the stranded keeper’s outstretched hand and bounced down off the underside of the crossbar and Smith was there to nod the ball into the net from three-yards to make it a dream debut for the tall teenager.

Smith’s emergence will delight the club’s faithful, especially as he hails from Rochester and three other players (Ryan Laker, Matt Solly and Tilley) all come from the Medway Towns.

Watson said: “He is a local lad. He came on trial in pre-season and to be honest he wasn’t one of the people you expected too much from. He came into the limelight pre-season and did exceptionally well.

“He wasn’t available on Saturday, otherwise he could’ve been in with a shout, but he’s come back tonight.

“He’s a seventeen-year-old lad, he’s from a good pedigree and we’ve got high hopes for him. He just needs to get used to playing men’s football. He’s ever so tall and decent in the air.  I think he will get better but he’s also quick and very good on the ball and quite intelligent for a lad of his age.”

Watson is delighted that he now has strength in depth.

He said: “I look at the bench as with Jack Jeffery and (former Dartford striker) Jack Pallen. We’ve got people on the bench you can make a difference and I have every confidence. It’s not about me being a tactical genius, it’s having confidence in your players and the type of player I’ve got, I can make substitutions and it won’t weaken the team at all.

“I’ve said it before, you can put Roddy anywhere on the pitch and he can have an impact on the game. They’ll be big players for us this season.”

Chatham Town wrapped up the victory with eleven minutes left when Hales delivered a free-kick from the right and Lewis was left unmarked some ten-yards from goal and he rose to plant a header over the keeper to power into the roof of the net.

Watson praised Lewis, who scooped player-of-the-year at Kent League side Holmesdale last season.

He added: “He’s quite good in the air for his size. It’s probably the only set-piece that was probably a little bit off the cuff that we didn’t work on and we’ve ended up scoring form it!

“A good delivery from Lee, he has got good deliveries. He’s intelligent, he spots runs and Mark finished it off well.”

Chatham could have replicated Saturday’s four-goal feat when Tilley’s dinked pass sent Smith ghosting past last-defender Sean Nyagsungo but this time he couldn’t apply the finish, hooking a right-footed shot across the keeper and the ball agonisingly rolled just past the foot of the far post from an acute angle.

Watson praised Ilford, who on this display will not be struggling near the foot of the table this time around.

He said: “That’s a point we made before, we were coming into the unknown.  I haven’t seen them play. I haven’t done too much research on them and if I’m perfectly honest they surprised me a little bit compared to last season. 

“You always get the physical element. They had some good players, they tried to play. They are physical, we stood up to that as much as possible, more so in the second half.”

Top-of-the-table Chatham Town face a big weekend ahead and it would be rewarding to the players if supporters flock through the turnstiles on Saturday to see them play.

Peacehaven & Telscombe – second in the Sussex County League top-flight with four wins out of four - are the visitors in the FA Cup Preliminary Round.

And subject to FA Cup results, Chatham Town travel to second-placed Grays Athletic on Bank Holiday Monday – or to Peacehaven for a FA Cup replay next Wednesday.

Speaking about his side’s excellent start to the season, Watson said: “Obviously I’m pleased with it but we can’t get carried away with ourselves.  We had a good start last year. We didn’t finish so well second half of the season.

“It’s difficult because every game is as important as the next. Obviously we’ve got the Cup on Saturday and then we go to Grays on Monday and then Needham Market so every game is a big game. It’s very difficult to get yourself up for every game and we’re trying to do that at the moment.”

Ilford: Daniel Mbaku, Tony Dawkins, Alexander Akambi, Paul Oshin, Richard Simpson, Stephen O’Hara, Shamrez Darr (Steve Opoku 61), Brian Okwera, Christian Mkwanazi (Daniel Jones 81), Warren Mfula, Justin Hounkgatin (Sean Nyagsungo 66).
Subs: Guy Bonwick, Marc Rose

Goal:  Paul Oshin 47

Chatham Town: Tim Roberts, Ryan Laker, Mark Lewis, Matt Solly, Matt Newman, Kes Metitiri, Ryan Palmer (Jack Pallen 81), Jamie Lawrence (Rodrigue Ndiane 59), Jean-Michel Sigere (Harry Smith 59), Lee Hales, Garry Tilley.
Subs: Jack Jeffery, Kevin Watson

Goals: Garry Tilley 28, Harry Smith 72, Mark Lewis 79

Booked: Jamie Lawrence 55

Attendance: 68
Referee: Mr Stephen Rae (Uxbridge, Middlesex)
Assistants: Mr Michael Heavey (Colindale, London NW9) & Mr Christopher Reid (London NW10)