Rochester United 2-1 Banstead Athletic - Getting a win is huge, says Rochester United boss Matt Hume

Rochester United 2 – 1 Banstead Athletic
Location	Rede Court Road, Strood, Rochester, Kent ME2 3TU
Kickoff	18/08/2015 19:45

ROCHESTER UNITED  2-1  BANSTEAD ATHLETIC
The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay (Sponsored by Emirates)
Tuesday 18^th August 2015
Stephen McCartney reports from Rede Court Road

ROCHESTER UNITED manager Matt Hume says it feels lovely getting their first ever win under their belts in The FA Cup.

Rochester United came away from Merland Rise with a 1-1 draw on their FA Cup debut on Saturday – with Regan Payne going down in history by scoring the club’s first goal in the competition.

Hume’s players’ grounded out a 2-1 victory tonight against a Banstead Athletic side that play their football in Step Six, in the Combined Counties League Division One.

The hosts – currently at the foot of the Southern Counties East Football League table after losing to Greenwich Borough (1-4) and Canterbury City (0-2), took the lead through Vince Collis’ impressive finish in the first half, before they doubled their lead through Ricki Holmes’ header.

Banstead Athletic pulled a goal back when substitute Billy Targett’s free header sailed across a crowd of players to find the far corner, but Rochester United held on to secure a trip to Ryman League Division One South side Chipstead (Surrey) in the Preliminary Round on Saturday, 29 August.

“A really different game than Saturday,” said Hume after his side’s first win of the new season.

“They were a weaker side, in my opinion, on Saturday and we should have won it reasonably comfortably had it not been the way we adapted and went below what we should be doing.

“Today, I thought they clearly had three or four different players in there. They were strong and they caused us all sorts of problems up front in the first half.

“We weren’t particularly dealing with it very well but at the moment we’re ruing the fact we get lots of opportunities to score – in the first half we had three or four one-on-ones and their crucial in a game that we have to finish off those chances and kill teams off.”

Hume admitted his side should have taken the lead after only 94 seconds after missing the first of three one-on-one chances.

The impressive Jason Long clipped a ball through the heart of the Banstead defence to put Ricky Gundry through on goal but his shot from 10-yards lacked conviction and visiting keeper Colin Harris made the block with his legs.

Hume admitted: “That seems to be us at the moment! I thought the forwards worked extremely hard. I’m trying to keep them positive. You know what it’s like with forwards, sometimes they can keep getting in good opportunities and not score for a little while and they need a little turn of luck sometimes, score one off the pad and it might get them going again.

“But we’re creating chances, which is really positive. We just need to finish these off.”

Rochester United right-winger Rudolf Brenyah delivered a poor corner from the left which Gundry managed to flick his shot straight at Harris at his near post.

Banstead Athletic, who had lost their opening league game, should have taken the lead inside nine minutes.

Banstead were playing a 4-3-3 formation with big target man Rob Griffiths playing through the middle with Sean White and Glace-Palmer either side and Rochester started the game defensively shaky.

Right-back Tom Drinkwater hit a long ball out of defence to release striker Louis Glace-Palmer through on goal and after skipping past advancing keeper Shaun Wicks, he rolled his shot towards the bottom near corner but Holmes got back to clear the ball off the line.

“We had to sort a few things out at half-time because our communication isn’t the best,” admitted Hume.

“What we feel they did quickly was countered attacked.  We was man-for-man for a lot of the time at the back there. It’s just positional play and what we talked about at half-time was our talking and our communication. I thought second half we did a lot better.”

Both goalkeepers were forced into making comfortable saves within a minute of each other as Wicks caught a swerving drive from Banstead’s left-back Byron Brown, before Rochester swiftly broke up the other end and Long cut in to drill a left-footed shot from 30-yards, which Harris dived low to his left to make a comfortable save.

Rochester United’s left-back Steve Rothery floated a free-kick in from the left which was brought under Brenyah’s spell before steering his shot from a tight angle close to the right by-line straight at Harris.

But Rochester United celebrated scoring their first ever home goal in The FA Cup with 23 minutes and 40 seconds on the clock.

Sam Short released Payne down the right and he reached the by-line before cutting the ball back across goal to find an unmarked Collis at the far post.  The left-winger took a touch and then lashed his right-footed shot high across Harris into the top right-hand corner of the goal from 12-yards.

Hume said: “Excellent! Vince gets in some good positions. It was great to see.  It was a really, really good finish, a real positive end to that.

“Vince has been promising that in the last few games. He works really hard, he’s very strong on the ball, gets himself some good opportunities and it was nice to see him strike it in and get a goal.”

Collis nearly turned provider when he cut the ball back from the left and Banstead managed to poke the ball away from Long’s feet on the edge of the box and the ball ran loose to Short, who flashed his right-footed wide.

Brown produced a quality 50-yard diagonal pass out of the Banstead defence to pick out White down the right and he cut in towards the edge of the penalty area before stroking his right-footed drive towards goal, which forced Wicks to dive low to his right to make the save.

Hume said: “They did have a couple of chances in that first half, they was always a threat.”

Rochester United squandered an excellent chance to double their lead on the stroke of half-time.

Striker Payne was put through on goal by his strike partner Gundry, but he never looked like scoring when he only had the keeper to beat, the keeper diving to his left to parry the unconvincing shot before grabbing hold of the loose ball.

Hume said: “At half-time, again we’re talking to the defenders to say what we can do better there and you can tell that is an element of frustration through the team that we don’t finish the chances!

“If you score at the right times it eases pressure for all the players’ concerning the midfield and at the back.

“What we had to do was keep being positive, do our jobs properly and our basic stuff right and then hopefully our forwards will nick another goal.”

Holmes issued Banstead an early second half warning when he came up from the back to loop his header just wide after Short swung in a free-kick from the right.

Banstead Athletic midfielder Billy Frost played a lovely pass to put Sean Bradley through on goal, who drilled his left-footed shot towards the top near corner, forcing Wicks to palm the ball behind for a corner, high to his right.

James Cameron’s side did create openings, but their finishing was woeful as Frost once again set up a chance, this time for White, who lashed his left-footed drive high over the bar.

Hume was just about to make his first substitution by replacing Short with Ashley Cooper, but his side forced a corner and ultimately doubled their lead in the 68^th minute.

Short swung in an inch-perfect corner from the left towards the near post where Holmes peeled away from his marker to plant his free header into the top left-hand corner from six-yards, helped in by the keeper’s outstretched right hand.

Hume revealed: “It was quite funny actually because literally just before the corner we’re taking Sam off and he’s the one that delivered the ball and we was going to bring Ash on there and we all said ‘leave it, just let him take the corner’.

“It was a fantastic thing because we were all celebrating that we kept him on, so it was good!”

Holmes clipped another ball out of Rochester’s defence to send Gundry charging through on goal but his right-footed stinging drive was caught by Harris at the second attempt.

Banstead Athletic pulled a goal back with seventeen minutes remaining, again from a set-piece.

Nathan Collier (not the one at Dartford!) drove in a corner from the right towards an unmarked Targett, who from 15-yards directed his stooping ahead across a crowd of players and to find the far corner past an unsighted Rochester keeper.

Hume blasted: “What really frustrated me with that was how they got the corner in the first place!

“We were a little bit naïve at times. We were messing about in the corner. We hadn’t dealt with it properly and they got a corner through Steve (Rothery) in the corner at the time, getting a corner out of nothing and then you can only give away so many free-kicks and corners before you get punished.

“It was quite a well delivered ball. He just got in front of a player and nipped it in.”

From that moment on, Banstead Athletic pressed for a late equaliser.

Wicks caught the ball on his line after Collier swung in a corner from the left and the ball came through a crowd of players.

Brown swung in a free-kick from the right and the ball ran loose to Glace-Palmer, who steered his shot straight at Wicks from a tight angle.

Rochester United created a chance in the final six minutes when Collis released Long through on goal and his powerful hit left-footed drive struck the keeper’s left shoulder before the keeper grabbed the ball.

Hume hailed his midfielder Long as “excellent.”

“He done really well. He’s getting fitter and fitter. He’ll confess to yourself he hasn’t feel he has 90 minutes at the moment but he lasted 90 today and still did some penetrating runs towards the end of the game.

“We did change it. We brought off Sam Short, who was in the hole and put Longy in there, so we could have a little bit of a breather and hold there and it worked really well, it was good.”

Banstead Athletic will rue a glaring miss when Bradley whipped in a great cross from the right towards the far post where Glace-Palmer who somehow glanced his header just past the near post from close range.

“We was definitely under the cosh in the last 10-15 minutes,” admitted Hume.

“Again I feel we had a lot of chances in that game to finish them off, so yes you can say it was a bit lucky that they didn’t get that draw.

“But you need a bit of luck at the moment. I don’t think we’ve had the rub of the green so far, maybe that was our little bit of luck and it will turn the corner for us?”

Gundry rolled a shot straight at Harris at the death after the goalkeeper came out and headed the ball clear.

Hume could not hide his delight with the club scooping £1,500 in prize money for negotiating the first hurdle of The FA Cup.

“That’s the best thing! That’s absolutely fantastic! We’re a club with a very, very small budget and the commitment from the committee now is fantastic.  They’re striving their best because we’re in a league, there’s a massive gulf between some sides and others.

“You haven’t been down here for a little while and you can see how the club’s progressed, now it’s moving forward and all this extra money is absolutely huge for us.”

Rochester United travel to Beckenham Town on Saturday, before hosting the big local derby against newly-promoted Hollands & Blair on Tuesday, 25 August, before travelling to play Chipstead in the next round.

Chipstead are second-from-bottom in the league above, having collected one draw from their opening three league outings.

They got thumped 6-0 at Hastings on the opening day of the season, before drawing 1-1 at home to Three Bridges, before losing 2-1 at home to Herne Bay at the weekend.

Chipstead were knocked out of the League Cup at the first hurdle tonight, going down to a 2-1 home defeat to Walton & Hersham.

Sensing a Cup upset, Hume said: “Looking at them at the minute they’re not performing particularly well, they seem to be struggling a little bit.

“I know they’re a league higher than us but that could be, you never know.  We’ll go there as prepared as we can, work as hard as we can and I think there’s a potential win there for us.”

Reflecting on their first win in The FA Cup and of the season, Hume added: “This is our first win. We know this is only our fourth game in but what we said to them in there, I don’t think it was particularly a great game. The pitch is a bit bobbly at the moment but what we did was we ground out that result and we’re not always capable of doing that but today we did.

“I’m really relieved. It’s lovely to get the first win. You don’t want to go too far into the season without winning. I feel that our performances haven’t been poor. I feel that we compete really well. Getting a win is brilliant, winning is a habit.

“I don’t look at the table until November-December time anyway but that is what I said right at the beginning – getting a win is huge! Losing is a habit and winning’s a habit and sometimes you can be playing poorly but if you’ve been winning you seem to nick games and that’s what we need to get in our mentality, that we can win games.

“We was under a lot of pressure today and it was a tough game to win. We didn’t have it all our own way and to get a winning game like that is huge for morale and huge for mental performance.

“I said we’ll draw some strength from that and we’ll have some really difficult games in the next few weeks that stands us in good stead.”

Rochester United: Shaun Wicks, Robert Alderman, Steve Rothery, Jason Long, Ricki Holmes, Reece Bishop, Vince Collis, Rudolf Brenyah, Regan Payne (Steve Earle 87), Sam Short (Ashley Cooper 70), Ricky Gundry.
Subs: Dilan Yuletan, Kevin Penfold, Shaun Clark, Matt McHugh, Jamie Kelly

Goals: Vince Collis 24, Ricki Holmes 68

Banstead Athletic: Colin Harris, Tom Drinkwater, Byron Brown, Billy Frost (Jamie Wilgoss 82), Ashley Thompson (Billy Targett 39), Taylor Henderson, Sean White, Nathan Collier, Rob Griffiths (Max Edwards 59), Sean Bradley, Louis Glace-Palmer.
Subs: Zac Fountain-Moore, Matt O’Brien

Goal: Billy Targett 73

Booked: Billy Frost 64

Attendance: 54
Referee: Mr James Hurst (Camberwell, London SE5)
Assistants: Mr Joe Dann-Pye (Maidstone) & Mr Alan Escuider (Belvedere)