Tonbridge Angels 1-1 Eastbourne Borough - The most important thing was to stay up - Tommy Warrilow

TONBRIDGE ANGELS 1-1 EASTBOURNE BOROUGH
Blue Square Bet South
Tuesday 23^rd April 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Longmead Stadium

TONBRIDGE ANGELS boss Tommy Warrilow says he is not happy with a bottom-four finish after his side maintained their Conference South status in their penultimate game.

The Angels needed to claim a point either tonight against fifteenth-placed Eastbourne Borough – or against basement side Truro City on Saturday – to ensure that Conference South football would be played at Longmead Stadium for a third season.

After a flat first half, Eastbourne Borough grabbed the lead when Jamie Smith scored from 25-yards, before they had central defender Ollie Rowe sent-off for an alleged off-the-ball push on Ollie Schulz inside the Eastbourne Borough penalty box.

Tonbridge Angels held their nerve and they equalised with fifteen minutes left when midfielder David Ijaha scored his fifth-goal for the club to secure the club’s 45^th point of the season.

The draw confirmed relegation for AFC Hornchurch, who were relegated after one season back at this level on 41 points – and they dropped through the trap door along with their Essex rivals Billericay Town, who celebrated winning the Ryman Premier League title only 12 months ago.

Warrilow said: “Thank god the season’s done. Thank god we’ve got the point that’s the most important thing, the Conference South status and now we’ve got to learn from this season.

“I’ve got to have a few chats and go from here.   For me I’m not celebrating because of the season that we’ve had, but obviously to stay in the league.  I’m not the sort of manager that goes around celebrating fourth-from-bottom, but the most important thing is the Conference South football and we’ll take that. 

“I’m far from happy finishing fourth-from-bottom. It’s a personal thing, that’s all from my point of view. I think we’re better than that, but we are what we are. There’s lots of things to build on and learn from. We just have to make sure we can learn from them and can build on them.”

Warrilow’s side finished in ninth-place in their first campaign last season but stayed up with one game to spare this time around, which can be classed as an achievement considering the club’s budget compared to their rivals.

“We need more help down here,” he said.  “I’m saying it now. We’ve struggled this year.  We need everyone to help us a little bit more down here to get the funding to try to strengthen the squad because we’ve worked hard to get here and we’ve worked hard to maintain our status. The two teams that come up last year have both gone down so it shows you how well we’ve done.  Listen, I always try for play-offs and push people all the way.  We’ve got to have a realistic view on things down here.  I hate the saying all year that we should be beating lesser sides. Who are we to turn around and say there’s a lesser team at this level – we are one of them!

“It’s been a hard season. Now I can go home and have a look at things and what people are saying and view it all and have a real good look at it. 

“This year has not been enjoyable.  I’ve not enjoyed it, even the wins haven’t been enjoyable because we’ve been digging ourselves out of a hole and I’m a little bit disappointed that we’ve not kicked on from last year but at the same time I know the reasons why.”

Tonbridge Angels were desperately unlucky not to break the stalemate inside the opening nine minutes.

Nathan Green swung in a left-footed free-kick towards the far post and Schulz’s downward header clipped the near post from ten-yards.

“I felt our set-pieces tonight, our throws, our free-kicks in, our corners, we’re all quality deliveries,” said Warrilow.

“I felt first half with our set-pieces etc we should’ve gone in front and all the time you don’t do that, they’ve come out and got at us a little bit.”

The Barmy Army gave the home side excellent vocal support throughout the game and this support helped their side claim the point that they needed.

Warrilow appreciated the support from the home fans within the crowd of 624.

He said: “Brilliant! I wish it was like that every week.  I’m not going to knock the majority of people that come here every week. They’ve been through the mill as well but when you get 624 like tonight and they make that noise, it makes a hell of a difference!”

Eastbourne Borough created the best chance of a drab first half on the half-hour mark.

Jamie Smith swung in a corner from the right and Rowe made space for himself at the near post and sent his towering header sailing across goal and narrowly wide of the far post.

Tonbridge Angels missed an excellent chance to score themselves when 19-goal striker Frannie Collin swung in a free-kick from the left which was dropped by Eastbourne keeper Danny Potter and Mark Lovell curled a right-footed shot around the far post from eight-yards.

Eastbourne Borough created a couple of late first half chances, but both sides’s product in the final third was woeful.

Gary Hart, Elliot Charles and Darren Lok combined through the middle and winger Frankie Raymond was given time and space to float over a cross from the left for striker Charles to send his header looping over the crossbar.

Then a run from the lively Jamie Smith should have produced a better finish from Lok, who took a touch before sweeping a poor left-footed shot harmlessly wide of the right-hand post.

Reflecting on the nervy performance from both teams, Warrilow said: “For them, I don’t know why? They’re safe! For us, yes.  They’re in a no-win situation.

“I said to OB (Alex O’Brien), I bet they go three up front. It doesn’t matter.”

Eastbourne Borough brought alarm and fear amongst the home faithful when they took a 52^nd minute lead.

Charles clipped the ball forward and Jamie Smith cut the ball onto his right-foot before cracking a drive from 25-yards, which looped past Lee Worgan in to the top left-hand corner.

“It summed the season up really,” said Warrilow.  “It’s a great strike, whether it’s handball or not leading up to it, but we’ve dug in.”

When asked how he was feeling at the time, Warrilow replied, “Nothing! There’s plenty of time left to try and calm everyone down and try to get everyone in our pattern and try to use the wide boys. 

“I thought the wide boys first half got some great deliveries in and what I didn’t want to do was keep knocking long balls up into Mikel so I wanted to calm down a little bit. The lads had persevered.  We deserved a point at least tonight.”

Worgan pumped a free-kick from the halfway line into the Eastbourne box and Schulz sent an over-head kick looping over the crossbar, before Eastbourne were reduced to ten-men in the 62^nd minute.

Schulz appeared to be pushed by Eastbourne skipper Rowe in an ugly off-the-ball incident inside the Eastbourne penalty area and after much consultation referee Mr Paul Harris showed a straight red card for Rowe and booked Lovell.

When asked his thoughts on the flashpoint, the Angels boss said: “I didn’t see it at all. I just turned round and Ollie was on the floor. He’s (Rowe) pushed him in the face! What do you expect?  I don’t know what they want us to do about it. They were all moaning.  It was the only thing the ref gave us all night!

“If he’s pushed him in the face then he’s got to go.  I don’t know what the moaning’s all about. I didn’t’ see what the build-up was or whatever.

“I thought it would be a penalty as well to be honest. That would be double punishment.”

Visiting keeper Danny Potter dived low to his right to thwart Mikel Suarez, who stabbed a left-footed shot towards the bottom left-hand corner in the 66^th minute.

Warrilow praised Suarez’s contribution tonight when he competed well in the air against Eastbourne defender Adam Watts – and praised the target-man after coming back from days in intensive care after clashing heads with team-mate Lee Browning in a game at Farnborough on 13 October 2012.

Warrilow said: “He’s done brilliant since he’s come back. I don’t know what’s happened to him while he was asleep (intensive care).  It’s been a long slog for him considering what he’s been though.

“I left him out one game but he’s come back, he’s had a few wars as well, especially with the Eastleigh boys here.

“Mikel’s finished the season brilliantly for us and he’s a big player for us.  Hopefully if we can keep him for the whole of next season, instead of having breaks for however long it was, it does make a difference having a big man up top.”

Eastbourne Borough squandered an excellent chance to condemn their near-neighbours to a last-day relegation dog-fight with Hornchurch when they missed a sitter.

Eastbourne hit Tonbridge on the break and substitute Jonte Smith played the ball outside to Lok, who slid the ball through in behind the last defender to set up Smith for a certain goal.  But the footballing gods were favouring the Angels at this moment because Smith stroked his right-footed shot narrowly past the foot of the left-hand post when he only had Worgan to beat.

Warrilow complained about the poor defending and said: “That’s what I say about saying it was a long time to go.  We done it a couple of times. We pushed forward and left ourselves two-on-two and when there’s 25 minutes to go you can’t do that and that’s what I’m saying about panic setting in.  People have got jobs to stay back but we’re all so anxious to score when you go forward and that’s what can happen.”

Lovell cracked a half-volley over the bar after the ball dropped to him after Worgan launched a long free-kick into the opposing penalty area.

But Tonbridge Angels eased their relegation worries when they equalised in the final fifteen minutes.

Green hurled a throw into the penalty which was knocked on and Ijaha was lurking unmarked on the edge of the box.  The former St Albans City midfielder mis-hit his right-footed shot, but the Angels’ fans didn’t care because the ball bounced into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.

It will go down as one of the most important goals ever scored by a Tonbridge Angels player.

“He done it against Billericay,” added Warrilow.  “To be fair to David Ijaha, he’s like Mark Lovell. If you tell him to put a cone on his head and sit in the corner flag he’ll go and do it. He does his job.

“He’s cashed in a lot this season in keeping his position for second balls. He done it against Billericay and he’s done it again tonight and if we had everyone else doing that I think we’d get more goals tonight.”

Warrilow added: “Prior to the goal we was going to take Lovers (Mark Lovell) off and put Pipes (Chris Piper) on to push Browno (Lee Browning) around the front two a bit more because we needed a goal but once the goal went in I thought we’d see it out in the last few minutes and we went back to a 4-4-2 so there was nothing hit down the channels.”

Potter made a fine diving save to deny man-of-the-match Henry Muggeridge scoring with a fine right-footed angled drive, before Eastbourne Borough could have snatched victory late on.

Tonbridge had plenty of blue shirts back protecting their goal when Raymond swung in a free-kick from the left by-line. Substitute Anwar Uddin knocked the ball back across goal and Lok looped his header over from six-yards.

The final whistle brought a huge sigh of relief for Warrilow and supporters’ alike and the team can cap of their season off by beating Ebbsfleet United at Stonebridge Road on Thursday night in the Kent Senior Cup (Sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com) Semi-Final.

There will be no pressure on the Truro City game on Saturday, before a possible Kent Senior Cup Final against Charlton Athletic, who needed extra-time to beat Thamesmead Town 3-2 in the other semi-final tonight.

Warrilow admitted he doesn’t want to go through another season like this again.

“We’ve got to stick together as a club, but it’s very, very hard because it’s an unforgiving league, as I’ve said all year,” he said.

“Tonight nearly showed it again because I thought we had more than enough opportunities to score and we go 1-0 down and obviously there’s a lot on tonight, a lot on.

“The most important thing was to get the point but the over-view of the season is to be looked at.

“I have to speak to a few of the boys now that we know we’re safe. A few of them wanted to stay at this level but I’ve got to speak to a few and analyse everything because I don’t want another season like this!

“Don’t get me wrong, even though I don’t look it, I am happy I’ve got the point but it’s just the season finishing fourth-from-bottom. It’s something that I’m not going to be jumping up and down about!

“They’ve given me their all.  There’s been some positives out of the season but when you finish fourth-from-bottom from my point of view I’m not happy with that at all.

“I am relieved and happy. The most important thing was I didn’t want a relegation on my CV.  It’s been really hard work this season. I’ve learnt a lot from myself and a lot of people really. You find out a lot about people when things aren’t going well and this season has been one of them. It makes you stronger and it makes you more determined not to be put in this situation again.”

When asked about his plans for next season, Warrilow replied, “I don’t know until I speak to the board and see what’s what. We’ve got to do more if we want to push on and that’s what we’ve got to find out.

“If they gave me 100 grand a week, I’d want 101!  It’s human nature but we have to sit down and see where we are going because we’re in this fantastic league and when you go to other clubs and see what they’ve got. We’ve got to be patient but we’ve got to improve and I feel this year we’ve stood still.”

Tonbridge Angels:  Lee Worgan, Henry Muggeridge, Nathan Green, Lee Browning, Gary Elphick, Ollie Schulz, Sonny Miles, David Ijaha, Mikel Suarez, Frannie Collin, Mark Lovell (Chris Piper 90).
Subs: Danny Walder, Aaron Gayle, Tom Davis, Scott Chalmers-Stevens

Goal:  David Ijaha 75

Booked:  Mark Lovell 62, Mikel Suarez 90

Eastbourne Borough: Danny Potter, Ben Adeisbury, Sam Cole (Jonte Smith 46), Gary Hart, Ollie Rowe, Adam Watts, Jamie Smith (Anwar Uddin 63), Matt Aldred, Elliott Charles, Darren Lok, Frankie Raymond.
Subs: Georges Chui, Bryan Fenwick, Charlie Gorman

Goal:  Jamie Smith 52

Booked:  Matt Aldred 83

Sent Off:  Ollie Rowe 62

Attendance: 624
Referee:  Mr Paul Harris (Maidstone)
Assistants: Mr Jeff Lenthorn (New Eltham, London SE9) & Mr Adrian Waters (Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire)