Kentish Football 
Phoenix Sports 0-3 VCD Athletic - Our youngsters are good enough to compete, says Tony Russell
PHOENIX SPORTS 0-3 VCD ATHLETIC
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday 23rd July 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Mayplace Road East
VCD ATHLETIC manager Tony Russell says he wants his newly-promoted side to be a strong Ryman League club.
Vickers sealed promotion after finishing runners-up to Erith & Belvedere in the Kent League title race last season and they will open their Ryman League Division One North campaign away to Waltham Forest on 10 August.
VCD Athletic extended their unbeaten pre-season campaign to four games after comfortably beating their neighbours Phoenix Sports in an one-sided game.
Russell gave six teenagers a run-out against a much-changed Phoenix Sports side – a club that have now lost the same number of pre-season games this summer as they did during their entire title-winning Kent Invicta League campaign last season.
Russell admitted that he hasn’t worked on set-pieces during training but two of his side’s three goals tonight came from Steve Okah corners, which were finished off by central defenders Ashley Sains, 18, and skipper Nick Reeves.
Right-winger Okah, 18, got in on the goalscoring act when he finished off a fine three-man move to double Vickers’ lead earlier in the second half as VCD Athletic inflicted Phoenix Sports’ second defeat of the summer.
“I think Steve (O’Boyle) will be disappointed, knowing Steve as I do, but from our point of view, really good,” said Russell, 34, after the game.
“We had six teenagers playing so they’re trying to adapt to what we’re trying to do. We’re working with them trying to plant some seeds and I think they’ve done that.
“The only negative was I thought we could’ve been a little bit more clinical. Being totally honest I thought we maybe should’ve scored a few more. We had that much possession, we got in great areas as well.”
A pleased Russell added: “They’re a good side Phoenix and I thought we controlled the game well. We always try to do that. That’s my way of doing it. I like to control a game of football.”
Phoenix Sports’ joint-manager Steve O’Boyle, 36, admitted his side were outplayed.
He said: “Men against boys really – they were better all over the park!
“Not too many positives from our point of view, so disappointed but we do have to take it into perspective. It is pre-season and you always chuck one in and to be honest they’ve played well tonight and I think we can’t play any worse than what we’ve done.
“I think we have to take that into perspective. We played Cray Wanderers on Saturday (drawing 1-1), with a good performance and maybe coming into tonight’s game playing two good sides in the space of three days didn’t help our cause.”
When asked whether he was concerned with the two defeats in pre-season, O’Boyle replied, “Not at all!” Pre-season’s pre-season. I’d rather lose every pre-season game and win my first five (league) games of the season.
“Pre-season means nothing. It’s about fitness and the best players in pre-season will start the season, that’s the way it is. We haven’t covered ourselves in much glory tonight. Hopefully we can put it right on Saturday.”
But he was concerned that his side are shipping goals from corner kicks.
“Two goals tonight and Saturday’s goal against Cray. I said to my boys on Saturday, when you step up to a Ryman level, one thing you need to do is concentrate on their set-pieces, because you get punished and we’ve been punished by set-pieces.”
VCD Athletic started the game well and a poor clearance from Phoenix Sports’ defender James Brown went straight to Damien Ramsamy but the 19-year-old striker took the ball on before rolling his right-footed shot past the near post.
The corner-count of 12-0 in VCD Athletic’s favour was evidence of their dominance.
Russell said: “Yes, I think those sort of stats reflect the game that’s what I’ll say to you! I think we played a lot of football in their half creating chances so it obviously helps when you’re creating chances, you’re going to get corners.”
They issued Phoenix Sports a warning when Okah’s out-swinging corner from the right was headed towards goal by Sains, which deflected over the crossbar, before VCD Athletic took the lead with 4:55 on the clock.
Phoenix Sports failed to take heed of that warning as Okah produced the same trick with his out-swinging right-footed corner from the right and no red & white hooped shirted defender picked up Sains who was given time and space to send his free-header through a crowd of players and into the net from fifteen-yards.
O’Boyle said: “They actually issued a warning from the corner just before, so yes, we’ve had a warning, it’s gone straight in! It’s terrible defending!”
Russell admitted: “Yes, strange! We haven’t worked on one corner! We do them all year, all these little tricky set-plays and they don’t come off and then we’ve scored two! That’s the strange thing. All the possession we had and all the areas we got into, we scored two set-pieces, which is a plus in one way, but also a negative that tells me that we should’ve done better.”
Russell revealed that the teenagers that were on show tonight are available for loan transfer.
“Ash is eighteen and I’ve been impressed with him, seriously impressed with him. We were really short against Ashford on Saturday and he played 90 minutes and was probably the best player on the pitch, absolutely immense.
“He will go into our under 21’s but they play midweek games so I will probably try to get him out, try to get him in the Kent League for a season. He’s got everything. The physic on the kid is unbelievable.
“There’s five or six really good young players who I’m trying to get out. Very similar how Jamie Day (Welling United manager) helps me out with some good youngsters, so I’ll pass them on to help each other.
“I spoke to Bill (Walton) at Fisher today about one or two in the week, but anyone who wants them, call me and then I’ll talk.”
Russell admitted his side should have doubled their lead when his goalkeeper Nick Blue played the ball to Reeves, who clipped a long ball over the top to release Ramsamy down the left, who latched onto a poor piece of control from Phoenix right-back Ryan Andrews.
Goalkeeper Adam Woodward came rushing off his line and was relieved to see the striker roll his right-footed shot agonisingly past the foot of the far post.
Russell said: “He should’ve scored! I think Adam Woodward’s come charging out and put him off a little bit. He’s in no-mans land. I said to him at half-time, “you’ve got to score that one!”
“We got in some really good areas, we weren’t just that clinical. The two wide boys are so young and sometimes the best wide people get in good areas and make it count. That separates the good ones from the very good ones.”
Phoenix Sports almost punished VCD Athletic for that miss as Jack Asbury almost scored against his former club, but keeper Blue dived to his right and used a strong right hand to push away the right-winger’s right-footed angled drive from inside the box.
Sains was enjoying coming up for corners and he was left unmarked again on the edge of the box, but this time his downward header, following another excellent delivery from Okah, bounced wide.
O’Boyle admitted he was disappointed with his front-two, Dan Parish, who scored 37 goals for the club last season and summer signing Ricky Freeman, who bagged 36 goals for Hollands & Blair.
Dave Croft clipped the ball upfield from inside the centre circle to put Freeman through but the striker cracked a left-footed half-volley high and wide of the near post.
O’Boyle admitted: “We looked pretty poor going forward. The boys up front didn’t really have a cutting edge, didn’t hold the ball up well for jus first half. We told them at half-time. Going forward today, it was pretty poor!”
Speaking about Freeman, O’Boyle added: “He had a good game Saturday. I don’t think he played very well tonight. He will be a good addition to the squad. He scores goals, that’s basically it!”
VCD Athletic created yet another headed chance inside the penalty area after the away side went short.
Okah cut the corner back to Nick Gonsalves, who played the ball back to Okah, who whipped the cross into the centre of the penalty area for Adam Williams to glance his header just wide of the far post.
VCD Athletic finished the first half by failing to turn their dominance into goals.
Okah latched onto a ball down the right hand side and stroked his shot agonisingly wide of the far post from a tight angle before he released Ramsamy through on goal and substitute keeper Dean Nash (who had earlier replaced Woodward who pulled his hamstring) was forced into diving to his left to push the ball away.
Russell said he wanted his players to outclass the team that play one league lower.
He said: “I said to them at half-time, you’ve got to make statements for yourselves. Without any disrespect to Phoenix or anyone, if you’re a team from the league above you should come to a ground and people stand there and would see the gulf.
“We’ve just come out of the Kent League. I know Phoenix have just come up but I wanted there to be (a difference in class).
“I want us to be a strong Ryman League club,” added Russell. “That’s the long-term aim. I had a right moan at them at half-time. We’ve come into pre-season and we’ve rested on our laurels and thought that we’ve done enough on what we’ve done last year.”
VCD Athletic left-back Connor Taylor, 18, was given time and space to crack a left-footed drive from distance, which flashed past the near post, before Jamie Humphris crashed a right-footed drive from 30-yards against the Phoenix Sports’ crossbar after only 65 seconds.
Russell said: “Jamie’s been away for three weeks and done nothing! He’s literally come back Monday and I put him in there and he was terrible to be fair with the ball! He had acres in those little holes and he kept giving it away, but I just wanted to keep him out for as long as possible. That will do him the world of good and we’ll get him into training and we’ll run him and he won’t be too far away.”
Taylor then joined an attack and looped a left-footed shot from 30-yards towards goal which Nash rose to get a strong right hand to the shot to tip over.
VCD Athletic deservedly doubled their lead in the 55th minute, which ended the contest.
Gonsalves played the ball out wide to Karl Dent who whipped in a lovely cross into the box for Okah to plant his towering header from six-yards over Nash into the roof of the net.
“The build-up play was nice,” said Russell. “Sometimes we were pushing it and I said to them at half-time, be patient and pull them out. We drew them out and then put it wide and then we had runners coming in late and to be fair it was a great header!”
O’Boyle added: “I’m disappointed with every goal we’ve let in! Listen, they cut us open didn’t they? We was completely out of position and a free header, middle of the goal.”
VCD Athletic eased into a 3-0 lead just 167 seconds later.
Once again Okah delivered a corner from the right which swung out to Reeves, who powered his header down and through a crowd of players for the ball to deflect into the near corner.
Russell said: “Nick Reeves is a centre half that scores goals! You need them. You need centre halves like that who give you ten goals a season, who will just nick you cheap goals and he does that. He makes great runs and him and Duckers (James Duckworth) who do the corners for league games have got a good understanding so he’s good for a goal.”
O’Boyle made a double substitution just before the corner and this proved fatal.
He said: “We’ve just brought the boy on (Jack Taylor). He’s been away on holiday and we thought we’d give him a run out and to be honest with you he hasn’t picked his man up and the geezer scored!”
Russell made only two substitutions during the game, deciding to give the rest of his squad a run-out at Cray Valley on Wednesday night.
He explained: “We’ve got a game tomorrow so they’ll be another eleven starting so we held all those boys back so we wanted to try and keep people as long as possible so that was the idea unless someone was out on their feet. We weren’t going to make no subs so that’s going to be the same tomorrow as well.”
James Duckworth impressed during his time on the pitch and he produced the pass of the game when he released Williams through on goal but the former Ebbsfleet United striker rolled his right-footed shot agonisingly wide of the foot of the far post from 20-yards as the goalkeeper advanced off his line.
“He hasn’t done a pre-season,” declared Russell. “We spoke in the summer about him coming down. He had a couple of offers from Conference teams, which he wanted to do because his contract finished at Ebbsfleet, obviously with the takeover. He went down to a couple but he’s not doing nothing. He phoned me out of the blue and said can he come down and I ain’t going to turn people like him down!”
Phoenix Sports squandered their best chance of the game in the 62nd minute when substitute Steve Strotten missed a sitter.
Freeman swept the ball out wide to substitute Ben Yiadom who whipped in an excellent cross from the right towards the far post but striker Strotten stuck out his right-foot to smash his volley over the bar from six-yards.
O’Boyle said: “Oh dear. You can’t miss chances like that! Listen, it doesn’t really (matter). If it was a league game it’s a sitter. It’s a friendly, of course he has to score that, yes!”
A clever pass from midfielder playmaker Dent put Williams through on goal again but Nash got down low to his left to make a smart save from the striker’s swept left-footed effort across the keeper.
Dent should have done better with nineteen minutes left when he ghosted in to the box and smashed his left-footed volley high over the bar after Duckworth swung in a free-kick from the left which was flapped away by Nash.
Phoenix Sports had a couple of rare sights at goal, on a night that they were outplayed by their neighbours, but on both occasions Freeman’s long-range shots flashed wide.
Phoenix Sports, who open their Southern Counties East Football League campaign with a trip to Lordswood on 10 August, should have done better with the last kick of the game, but Strotten blasted his right-footed free-kick over the bar from 25-yards, the ball landing on top of the marquee which was positioned behind the goal.
Russell was pleased that his youngsters have given him food for thought.
He said: “Loads of positives, it’s good. Phoenix will be a decent Kent League team, I’ve no doubt about that, so it’s nice for them (my youngsters) to come in and see where they’re at.
“They’ve told me everything that I know, that I’ve got a decent squad. Most of them have come out of the youth team. When you have young players coming through your club, the club means something to them. They’re just not there for whatever and I like that because they want to learn in training as well. There like blank pages. You can mould them to how you want.
“It shows me our youngsters are good enough to compete against a good Phoenix side.
“Negatives? Only a couple. We really need to be more ruthless!”
O’Boyle added: “It’s serious. Don’t get me wrong. Don’t think I won’t go home and think about things, of course I will. We take everything down here seriously but we’ve played a good side tonight. Do you think we’ll play many sides like that next year?”
Phoenix Sports welcome Kent Invicta League side Sutton Athletic on Thursday, before travelling to East Grinstead on Saturday. Scott Porter brings his Hythe Town side here on 30 July, before they welcome Hollands & Blair in the Shield on 2 August.
“We’ll put a half decent side out on Thursday, people who need minutes,” revealed O’Boyle.
“Saturday will be tough at East Grinstead, then Hythe on Tuesday will be another tough game and Hollands & Blair are our old rivals from last year on the Friday, so we’ve got some good friendlies still to play.
“I said to the players afterwards, you’ve got to be going out there putting in your best performances because one thing they don’t want to be doing is stilling next to me and Tony (Beckingham) against Lordswood on the bench do they?
“There is competition for places. You haven’t seen that competition tonight but trust me on Saturday against Cray Wanderers I thought we were fantastic.”
Phoenix Sports: Adam Woodward (Dean Nash 31), Ryan Andrews, Ritchie Hamill (Ben Yiadom 46), Dave Croft (Sam O’Keefe 57), James Brown (Nytram Dixon-Baker 46), Jordan Clarke, Jack Asbury (Jack Taylor 52), Marcos Perona, Ricky Freeman, Dan Parish (Steve Strotten 58), Harry Montgomery.
VCD Athletic: Nick Blue, Ryan Mahal, Connor Taylor, Ashley Sains, Nick Reeves, Karl Dent, Nick Gonsalves, Jamie Humphris (James Duckworth 52), Steve Okah, Damien Ramsamy (Ola Rabiu 64), Adam Williams.
Subs: Peter Smith, Liam Burgess, Lee Craig, Ben Payne, Sherwin Stanley, Barney Williams, Chris Hill
Goals: Ashley Sains 5, Steve Okah 55, Nick Reeves 58
Attendance: 62
Referee: Mr Daren Rudd (Dartford)
Assistants: Mr Dan Gallagher (Dartford) & Mr Jamie Paternoster (Sidcup)
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