Thamesmead Town 0-2 Dartford - We showed there wasn't a huge gap, says Keith McMahon

THAMESMEAD TOWN  0-2  DARTFORD
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 14^th July 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Bayliss Avenue

DARTFORD continued their roadshow of visiting good Samaritans of the past as two first half goals sealed a victory against an impressive Thamesmead Town side.

The Darts may be preparing for life in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier competing against some former Football League clubs but what is refreshing is that the club haven’t forgotten their roots and are helping out clubs that have helped them out during their dark days.

They defeated Kent League side VCD Athletic 3-1 on Thursday night – although the horrendous wet summer forced a switch from Oakwood to the 3G pitch at Dartford’s Princes Park Stadium – and next Tuesday boss Tony Burman takes his side to play Erith & Belvedere at Park View Road.  They also travel to Tonbridge Angels in their final warm-up game, after welcoming Gillingham, West Ham United, Leyton Orient and Arsenal to Princes Park to boost club coffers ahead of their exciting adventure.

A crowd of 115 turned out at Bayliss Avenue to help out cash-strapped Thamesmead Town, who opened their pre-season campaign today ahead of their Ryman League Division One North campaign which starts with a trip to Witham Town on 18 August.

And the Mead more than matched their higher-league neighbours as Dartford needed first half goals from former Dover Athletic striker Donovan Simmonds (a trialist) and midfielder James Rogers to defeat the men in green.

With Burman away on a business trip, assistant manager Paul Sawyer, 46, spoke about the game afterwards.

He said: “It’s not the be all or end all, but it’s nice to win the games and it gives them a bit more confidence.

“We had VCD on Thursday, Thamesmead today and Erith & Belvedere on Tuesday to get everyone back on the pitch, get their timing going and we’ll gradually build it up from there.  We got everybody a game and we’ll look to gradually increase their minutes as the pre-season goes on.”

Thamesmead Town boss, Keith McMahon added: “I thought for 70 minutes I thought we were excellent.  I thought we played a lot of good stuff, created a lot of good chances.  We’ve got a lot of new lads out there.  I thought we passed the ball really well and overall, a good 90 minutes for us.

“Dartford put a good side out. We seemed to move the ball quite well and created a couple of good chances. The front two, I thought held the ball up well and we tried a new formation today and it seemed to work for about an hour. I was really pleased. It’s a shame we couldn’t take our chances in the first 20 minutes.”

Dartford recalled goalkeeper John Whitehouse, 31, currently a free-agent, after first-choice Louis Wells turned his ankle on Thursday night and he was hardly troubled during his 68 minutes on the pitch.

Sawyer said: “At the moment we’ve got Welsie (Louis Wells) who turned his ankle Thursday night. The young lad out of the Academy Stevie Sutton and Del (Deren Ibrahim) gone off to play at Maidstone. He’s dual registered so Del is still attached to us.  Today Del was playing in Maidstone’s game, Welsie was injured and Stevie Sutton had a family occasion so John Macrae (goalkeeper coach) got his magic book out. John Whitehouse was available.  John’s played for us on a number of occasions in the past so it was nice to see him and we appreciate him helping us out today.”

With many games around Kent being called off due to waterlogged pitches, the pitch at Bayliss Avenue was in good condition, although Thamesmead Town remain frustrated with the continued wait to open their brand new facilities at the ground. The main stand remains closed but the sight of green and white seating confirms that progress is being made.

Thamesmead Town started the game well.  Dartford took around 20 minutes to get into the game.

Thamesmead, who got through all 18 players, while Dartford utilised all 22, should have opened the scoring inside the opening ten minutes.

Central defender, James Donovan, clipped the ball over the top of the Dartford defence and a knock down from debutant Rob Carter fell at striker Danny Penny’s feet, but all the number nine could do was sweep his shot across Whitehouse and past the far post.

Another chance fell to Thamesmead, with Penny starting and almost finishing a fine free-flowing move.

Penny picked the ball up just inside the Darts’ half before playing an excellent diagonal ball to pick out Rikkie Cable, who turned Dartford right-back Lee Burns, before he cut the ball back to Ashley Probets.  The left-back was given time and space to float in a fine cross with his left-foot and Penny rose above Dartford left-back Adam Green at the far post to plant his header over the crossbar.

Dartford, however, took fifteen minutes to create their first chance.  Elliot Bradbrook played a fine diagonal pass with his left-foot to find Lee Noble, whose low cross flashed across the face of the penalty area to trialist Anthony Church.  The former Grimsby Town midfielder cracked a right-footed drive, which was beaten out by former Ilford keeper Rob Budd, who was making his Thamesmead club debut.

Dartford turned defence to a trademark swift attack when Whitehouse plucked Probets’ hanging cross out of the air before bowling the ball out to Green, who played the ball up to Bradbrook, who in turn swept the ball to Church, who played in trailist striker Ross Trealeaven in behind the Thamesmead defence but all he could do was drag his low shot across Budd and past the far post.

Church then had a couple of chances when his low left-footed shot from 22-yards rolled into Budd’s gloves and then he cracked a deflected shot wide of the post from closer in after Burns cut in from the right.

Thamesmead went close at the half-an-hour stage, but against higher league sides you have to take the chances that come your way.

Highly-rated midfielder, Ross Lover, floated in a right-footed cross into the Dartford penalty area and instead of pulling the trigger himself, Penny laid the ball off to Carter, who was forced wider than he would have wanted by Penny’s poor ball, but he still managed to get a shot from out of his feet from a tight angle, but Whitehouse made a fine block at his near post.

Lover cut the resulting corner back to an unmarked Probets, who whipped in a cross into the crowded penalty area and Cable glanced his header wide.

But the game turned around in Dartford’s favour, scoring twice in a devastating 119 second spell.

Thamesmead right-back Saleem Masari, a trialist, was shrugged off the ball by Rogers down the inside left channel and the Dartford midfielder sent over a hanging cross towards the far post and Simmonds rose to power a header into the net from three-yards in the 36^th minute.

Simmonds’ name on the team-sheet caused raised eyebrows today and Sawyer revealed the former Dover Athletic player has a couple more games to impress.

He said: “It was a good goal.  Rogo done well to get to the by-line, hung over a good cross and Donovan took the goal well.”

Assessing Simmonds performance, Sawyer said: “I thought he done ok.  He done well and gave us a bit of pace up front, running behind people and we’ll have a look at him over the next couple of games.

“We knew Donovan’s available. He’s a player we’ve been aware off for a little while and we thought we’d have a much closer look at him.”

Dartford immediately doubled their lead when Budd was forced to swiftly get down low to his right to parry Church’s shot, but the loose ball fell kindly for Rogers, who side-footed the ball into an empty net.

Sawyer added: “I thought we got stronger as the half went on. I thought Thamesmead started well and it was quite an even first quarter-of-an-hour, 20 minutes.

“As the half went on I thought our superior, our experience and a little extra fitness began to show and I thought we were good value by the break to be 2-0 up.

“Churchie done well to get in there and Rogo followed up on the rebound to finish it.”

McMahon gave his thoughts on Dartford’s two goals.

“The first goal was a mistake. Lea Dawson’s got the ball in the centre of midfield and he’s dwelled on it and he’s held onto it and they’ve caught him and gone through and scored and then the second goal, I think it’s a decent move, but we’ve played a trailist today at right-back, he’s not normally a right-back and I think he’s switched off and allowed their lad a little tap in, but we could’ve done a bit better but you’d rather in these games than in a proper game.”

Thamesmead could have pulled a goal back just before the break when Whitehouse plucked the ball out of the air after Lover clipped a right-footed free-kick over the three-man wall from 25-yards.

McMahon made just one change at the interval as Masari made way for Oliver Poole, while Dartford made three.

Only four players played for 90 minutes and they were Thamesmead’s Probets, Lewis Tozer, Donovan and Lover.

McMahon said: “Ashley’s just got off a plane in the middle of last night from Jamaica – he’s come off his honeymoon and he hasn’t done any pre-season so he needed it and the same with Ross.  Ross missed a lot of football last year and I just wanted to give him 90 and put him through the reel.

“Lewis Tozer and Donners are my two centre backs. Against someone like Dartford I think you can’t change the centre of your pairings so I tried to keep it a little bit tight with them two and to be fair I thought they played really well as well.”

And as expected, with both teams chopping-and-changing players, the second half wasn’t as good as the first.

Dartford Substitute Ryan Hayes, who celebrates his 27^th birthday tomorrow, unleashed a left-footed drive from 30-yards, which took a deflection off Lover and sailed just over the crossbar.

Green tried to score from similar distance, his left-footed drive also took a deflection on its way over Budd’s crossbar.

With the rain returning after nearly three hours of cloudy skies, Dartford had to wait until halfway through the second half for their next chance.

Hayes swung in a corner from the right and central defender Tom Bonner ghosted in at the far post to send a bullet header over the crossbar from a tight angle.

However, the longer the game went on, the more of Dartford’s players were withdrawn and the club’s talented youngsters’ were given valued first-team experience.

Sawyer explained Burman’s thought process for this friendly.

“We’ve probably got three categories of players at the moment,” he said. “We’ve got the lads who were with us last year and have re-signed and they’re our first team players and then we’ve got the trialists’ who have come in, who we are having a look at and then we’ve got the lads who have either been in our Academy team or the Under 18’s on a Sunday.

“The Under 18’s done well last year, they won three trophies. It’s a little bit of a reward for those boys who have played in that team. We’ll have a closer look at them in the pre-seasons and give them a bit of experience of training with the first team.

“It’s a nice mixture and it’s nice to get them on the pitch and I think we ended up with a sixteen-year-old goalkeeper. We had a seventeen-year-old in the back four and I think the other three were 18 year-olds and scattered around the pitch we probably had Ryan Hayes as the most experienced player out there with Nathan Collier (and Jacob Erskine) and the rest were lads out of the youth team so it’s good for the club.

“We want to be in a position where we can bring the youngsters’ through and we know it’s hard and it’s not easy to do. You’ve got to bring the youngsters’ through but it’s not easy to put them in there. You’ve got to gradually five them that experience and we want to do that.”

McMahon also finished the game with a young line-up.

He said: “We had six nineteen-year-old’s out there as well in the last 35 minutes.  We had a little bit of a different shape about us with pace.  A bit of poor finishing really we might have got us a goal.  A few tired legs. We were very mix-and-matched as well.”

Hayes played fellow substitute Eugene Worifah in behind the Thamesmead defence but the striker lost composure and his poorly executed chip was comfortably caught by substitute keeper Ade Niyai, who was at Welling United last season.

Thamesmead should have scored a deserved consolation when Quinten Conteh’s pacy run saw him play the ball inside to fellow substitute Emmanuel Osie, but he leaned back and skied his left-footed 20-yard shot over Ollie Gibson’s crossbar.

The Darts called Niyai into late action when the keeper stuck out his left leg to turn Worifah’s shot around his near post after Sayo Ogunbayo played his team-mate in behind the Thamesmead defence.

Dartford defender Tom Hammond also had a late goal ruled out for offside.

McMahon was delighted and took plenty of plusses out of matching a side who are three levels higher.

He said: “Dartford are a Conference side. There’s a lot of quality but I thought we showed we can pass the ball.  A lot of the new lads’ settled in well.  Apart from the last fifteen minutes, I was disappointed with, but I thought we showed we’ve got a little bit of pace about us this year.

“I thought the squad that I’ve put together will be strong and it showed. Dartford put a strong side out and so did we and we held our own for a while so the fitness was the main thing.  Keeping our shape against the quality of Dartford, who were passing the ball and moving it around the way they do was good.

“It was good for the lads to go out to have some actual minutes under their belt.”

McMahon added: “Dartford are a great club. A big club, got some fantastic footballers so I was just pleased with the first hour.

“I think we competed really, really well and we showed there wasn’t a huge gap. We gave them a good game anyway. They came here and got a good run-out in pre-season.  I think they got something out of it and I’m pleased with that. Hopefully they’ll come back again.”

Thamesmead Town: Rob Budd (Ade Niyai 66), Saleem Masari (Oliver Poole 46), Ashley Probets, Danny Kerrigan (Tony Myama 66), Lewis Tozer, James Donovan, Ross Lover, Lea Dawson (Josh Ukuart 58), Danny Penny (Quinten Conteh 58), Rikki Cable (Chuck Duru 53), Rob Carter (Emmanuel Osie 66)

Dartford: John Whitehouse (Ollie Gibson 68), Lee Burns (Henry Muggeridge 56), Adam Green (Jay Porter 75), Tom Bonner (Tom Hammond 75), Tom Champion (Ryan Sawyer 83), Anthony Church (Nathan Collier 46), Lee Noble (Sayo Ogunbayo 59), James Rogers (Ryan Hayes 46), Donovan Simmonds (George Monger 68), Elliot Bradbrook (Eugene Woriah 75), Ross Treleavan (Jacob Erskine 46).

Goals: Donovan Simmonds 36, James Rogers 38

Attendance: 115
Referee: Mr Paul Kelly (Walderslade)
Assistants: Mr Kevin Welsh (Sittingbourne) & Mr Elad Amir (Maidstone)