Tonbridge Angels 1-0 Havant & Waterlooville - Everyone's put in a shift tonight, says Tommy Warrilow

The Angels’ first victory over Havant & Waterlooville resulted in them climbing up four places in the table after striker Frannie Collin ended his eleven game goal drought by securing the victory with a first half penalty for his eleventh goal of the season.

Tonbridge Angels have now collected 29 points from 22 games with this victory and leapfrogged over their Hampshire opponents and are now only four points adrift of fifth-placed Chelmsford City, who have four games in hand.

Despite winning fifteen corners, Havant & Waterlooville failed to break a tight defensive line and 28-year-old goalkeeper Lee Worgan made some fine saves to keep his third clean sheet of the season.

Warrilow, who guided the club to a ninth-placed finish in their first season in this league last season, was pleased that his side bounced back from their disappointing 2-0 away defeat to Weston-super-Mare at the weekend to record their third home league win of the season.

“Everyone’s put in a shift tonight and if they do that you won’t hear no complaints from me,” said Warrilow.

“On Saturday we weren’t organised without the ball, especially in the first half.   Havant are a good team. Look at their team, on paper they’ve got some experienced players and for us to even be involved in these fixtures is fantastic.  We’ve jumped up into Conference South and I just feel we lose a game of football people get over critical at times.  We’ve got no divine right to win any game at this level.

“We’ve put in a good performance.  The lads’ have a clean sheet and we’ve got a massive three points, which has taken up to ninth.

“Everyone who knows me, my cup’s always half full. It’s never half empty, but if we lose the next game I’m sure there will be an overkill on how bad we are again.

“I’ve always said can we at least try and enjoy it?  I was speaking to the chairman (Steve Churcher) the other day and we were laughing and joking about if we did make the play-offs.  He said at least we’d go up there and enjoy it and I said to the chairman ‘but will we?’  Because we don’t seem to be enjoying this!

“I can’t fault the lads. I think they’ve done fantastic.  We have a very, very good side but I keep saying it so have the other teams we’re playing and that’s the difference this year.

“We can’t get too despondent because today’s win has shot us up but if you do get too carried away with it, it can shoot you in the foot and you could fly back down the table.

“To be two points of the bottom four before the game, to win one game of football and go ninth is proof to show you can’t be too despondent after a loss because a couple of wins just changes the picture completely.”  

Havant & Waterlooville created the first chance after seventeen minutes when Tonbridge Angels’ central defender Ollie Schulz was booked for bringing down impressive left-winger Chris Arthur.

But Perry Ryan’s resulting free-kick from 35-yards drew a comfortable low save from Worgan, low to his right.

Arthur’s speculative left-footed angled drive from a tight angle produced a flying save from Worgan, who flung himself to his right to turn the ball behind for a corner.

But Havant & Waterlooville squandered an excellent chance to open the scoring after 20 minutes.

A ball over the top by left-back Paul Hinshelwood released Arthur, who whipped in an excellent cross to find Eddie Hutchinson at the far post but the central midfielder blasted his right-footed volley high over the bar.

But Tonbridge Angels scored the winner in the 23^rd minute from a corner kick which should have been awarded a a goal kick to the pink shirted visitors.

Debutant Nathan Green swung in a high hanging corner in from the right and Havant & Waterlooville central defender Ed Harris inexplicably stuck out his arm high above his head and the officials spotted his deliberate handball as the ball dropped down from the night sky.

Warrilow said: “I saw it. Handball! Penalty!  I was appealing for it so I’ve got no qualms about it whatsoever.”

Collin stepped up and punished the sloppy mistake by the former Dover Athletic defender by steering his right-footed penalty past the diving Masters into the back of the net.

Warrilow added: “You could see by Frannie’s reaction, he’s just pleased to get a goal again.  He’s been on a bit of a dry run.  A couple of games I’ve asked him to play in a wide area without the ball.

“Tonight’s he’s worked his socks off. I was pleased with him and Mark Lovell up there. I thought they played well.

“Hopefully now Frannie will relax a little bit more and the goals will start coming again.”

Warrilow explained why he left five-goal striker George Purcell warming the bench tonight.

He said: “I just felt things weren’t happening for George and one thing with George is he gives you 100%.  I just felt it might do him good to give him a rest tonight and see how we go.”

Tonbridge Angels turned defence into a quick attack and Collin had a chance to double his side’s lead just before the half-hour mark.

Ryan’s corner from the left was poor and was swept away by Lee Browning at the near post and the pass found Tom Davis, who played the ball inside to Collin, whose right-footed drive from 30-yards crashed against the stand roof.

Arthur’s pace was causing Tonbridge right-back Sonny Miles problems during the first half and the winger’s low centre was flicked towards goal at the near post by Hutchinson, which was gathered by Worgan.

Worgan excelled towards the end of the half when he stuck out his right-hand to tip over Harris’ bullet header, following Arthur’s whipped in cross, and then flung to his right to keep out Ollie Palmer’s hooked drive after Christian Nanetti found him with a ball in across the penalty area.

An alert Worgan smothered the ball at Sahr Kabba’s feet after the Havant & Waterlooville striker latched onto Ryan’s header forward, which wasn’t dealt with by the Angels defence inside the opening three minutes of the second half.

Despite scoring fourteen goals this season, Havant & Waterlooville striker Ollie Palmer endured a frustrating night as he was snuffed out by an excellent defensive performance between Schulz and Gary Elphick.

Warrilow said: “That (partnership) is unfortunately why Judgey (Ben Judge) really had to be released. We needed to free the money up to bring in David Ijaha and Nathan Green. Nathan Korenteng has gone out (on loan to Kingstonian) and Judgey’s obviously had to make way. We’ve got Sonny (Miles) who can play there as well.  I just couldn’t really gage with four centre halves. I haven’t got that sort of money to do that.”

Worgan was called into action again ten minutes into the half when he dived low to his right to push Arthur’s low left-footed angled drive around his near post after the winger cut into the penalty area following Hutchinson’s run and pass.

However, there was danger for Tonbridge when Hutchinson’s pass was latched onto by Palmer, who danced his way into the box but the ball got stuck underneath his feet and Sonny Miles was able to make a penalty box block.

Arthur clipped in the resulting 12^th corner from the right and Hutchinson sent his overhead kick sailing over Worgan’s bar from eight-yards.

However, Warrilow felt his side should have grabbed a second goal, halfway through the second half.

Davis was fouled and Collin was faced with a four-man wall, but the striker curled his right-footed free-kick well wide of the left-hand post from 30-yards.

Warrilow added: “We’ve got to start hitting the target with free-kicks.”

Havant & Waterlooville manager Lee Bradbury made a double substitution in a bid to get the equaliser and it should have arrived in the final thirteen minutes.

A rare mistake from skipper Elphick gave Palmer a sniff at goal and the striker stroked a right-footed drive towards the far corner from 15-yards, but Worgan dived to his right to push the ball away.

The Angels were denied a second goal with nine minutes remaining when an offside flag was raised immediately after Mark Lovell’s header (following Green’s left-footed free-kick from the right flank) sailed into the far corner.  The blue shirted players celebrated the goal but referee Adam Crysell dampened those celebrations and awarded the visitors’ a free-kick after consulting his assistant.

Warrilow was pleased with former Bromley left-back Green, who has arrived at the club from Blue Square Bet South rivals Billericay Town.

“I thought he done well,” said the Angels boss.  “He’s turned up tonight and met his players for the first time. We need to work on him regarding our shape but he’s a raw talent that wants to play and he’s hungry.

“I think with him and David Ijaha coming in, who I thought was outstanding tonight in midfield, theres two players that will freshen the changing room up, but give us that little bit of steel and rawness especially in Nathan’s case where he’s not had a lot of football. 

“I’m pleased with Nathan. He’s been on loan at Kingstonian (in the Ryman Premier League), he’s had a few games there so I knew he was match fit and I put him in tonight and I thought he done well.  I thought we didn’t find him enough but that’s something that we can work on.”

When asked about the offside decision, Warrilow admitted his side aren’t getting the rub of the green.

“We had a perfectly good goal chalked off. Lovers has got the flick on and the flag’s gone up but Lovers couldn’t have been offside so I don’t know why he’s flagged?!

“On Saturday we had a decision like that for us when we sored the linesman didn’t flag and all the (Weston-super-Mare) players get around the referee and he’s changed his mind.  That’s two big decisions that haven’t gone our way.  We don’t seem to be getting big decisions at the moment but 2-0 would have made it a little more comfortable but we knew they were going to come on strong in the last five minutes.”