VCD Athletic 9-2 Lordswood - Someone was going to take a hiding sooner or later, says Ray Powell

Second-placed VCD Athletic moved to within two points of leaders Erith & Belvedere (who were held to a 1-1 draw by Corinthian at Gay Dawn Farm tonight), with six games remaining.

Stay-away manager Jason Lillis decided to make eleven changes to the side that started and defeated Canterbury City 1-0 at the weekend and in doing so ensured VCD Athletic racked up a 9-2 victory to pile on the pressure on Micky Collins’ leaders.

It was later explained on Wednesday morning that Lillis has a mounting injury crisis at the club and decided the best option was to rest those players ahead of their Kent Senior Trophy Final against Tunbridge Wells on Sunday.

Hilden said: “Well first thing really, the club itself has got its first Kent Senior Trophy Final on Sunday.  You know as well as I do that Jason (Lillis) has got other things on his mind, hence the reason why we’ve given more of a squad a run tonight.

“I’ll be reporting back.  We had a very young side tonight.  Credit to VCD they kept going, kept plugging away. 

“I felt we gifted them a couple of goals but all in all the scoreline doesn’t lie.  I’ll be reporting back to Jason and reporting back from there really.”
 
Hilden added: “Obviously the club, Lordswood Football Club have got other things to target this year.  As far as the league’s concerned we’re still going to perservere and try and continue to finish as high as we can in the league.

“This week is very important to us. It’s not the best preparation but we’ll move on to play Tunbridge Wells on Sunday.”

VCD Athletic assistant-manager Ray Powell said: “What can you say? It’s like a hockey score for me,” said Powell.  “Alright, they’ve got a big game on Sunday. I can understand where they’re coming from, putting a side out like that.  Good luck to them on Sunday. We’ll be there supporting whoever.

“It felt like a pre-season friendly. I ain’t going to lie to you!  It did feel like that a bit but you’ve got to take your chances, which we did tonight. It could’ve been double figures, but 9-2. You’d take that all day long!”

VCD Athletic romped into a 4-0 lead at half-time, courtesy of an early Sherwin Stanley penalty, a strike from James Duckworth, before Stanley volleyed in his second, before man-of-the-match Uche Ibemere scored.

Lordswood pulled a goal back ten minutes into the second half when winger Samuel Hallett scored the first of his two well taken goals, before Vickers went goal crazy in the second half.

Substitute Jamie Humphris scored a ten-minute hat-trick, before Dean Carpenter and Ibemere scored.

Ibemere’s power and pace gave Lordswood right-back Matthew Mills a nightmare and the youngster was breathless halfway through the first half after he failed to contain Vickers’ left-sided attacker.

Hilden said: “He’s (Ibemere) obviously an experienced player at this level. We’ve brought in Matt, who kept plugging away. There’s things that need to be addressed in training for players to progress.  This is stuff that we need to pick up and teach in training for players to develop further in their career.”

Ibemere raced from the half-way line to leave Mills in his wake before being clipped to the ground by Steven Read and referee Alexis Stacchini had no option but to point to the spot.

Stanley took one step and stroked his right-footed penalty into the right-hand corner to give the home side the lead with only two minutes and 45 seconds on the clock.

Powell said: “Uche has been doing that all season to be fair to him. Great player. Any right back playing against Uche you’re going to be terrified about him when he’s running at you at pace.  Uche has still got a lot to learn.  We’re glad that he’s on my side and not the opponents.”

Another run from Ibemere was ended when his shot was blocked by Ryan Royston in the face and Stanley picked up the loose ball before playing the ball outside to Mo Conteh, but the former Cray Valley striker drove his angled shot past the far post.

VCD Athletic doubled their lead after fourteen minutes and once again Ibemere was the architect.

This time he burst past Luke Dewsdale and cut inside before cutting the ball back to Stanley, who set up Duckworth to curl his right-footed shot towards the far corner from 12-yards, the ball slipping through the diving keeper’s fingers.

When asked about the goal, Powell said: “You’ve lost me on the goals, but I’ll take your word on that one!”

But he added: “Duckers, as well, has been really working hard.  Our forwards, front four, have been working really hard since we got here.

“We’ve been working on a few things and you can see someone was going to take a hiding sooner or later.  Sadly it was Lordswood but good luck to them on Sunday.”

Ibemere was released through on goal again, this time Lordswood keeper Richard Mannering made a fine block and Conteh’s follow up shot deflected over.

Karl Dent joined in on the act by drilling a shot narrowly wide of the right-hand post from 25-yards, before Mannering made a fine save in the 20^th minute.

Dean Carpenter’s throw caused mayhem inside the Lordswood penalty box and Nick Reeves stroked a right-footed drive towards the far corner and Mannering stuck out his arm to turn the ball around the post and out for a corner.

A fine diagonal pass out of defence from Reeves found Ibemere, who cut inside the hapless Mills, but Mannering was relieved when the shot was straight at him.

Duckworth then danced his way through the heart of the Lordswood defence before his left-footed shot was beaten away by the busy goalkeeper.

VCD Athletic should have eased their way into a three-goal lead on the half-hour mark but Stanley planted his header wide from six-yards after Duckworth swung in a corner from the left.

However, the third goal duly arrived in the 39^th minute when Stanley scored his seventeenth-goal of the season for the Crayford based club, cracking in a sublime left-footed volley on the turn that gave Mannering no chance.

Powell said: “We all know where Sherwin should be playing. He shouldn’t be playing at this level.  Tony’s (Russell) got him down here. The old pals act really. That’s all I can say on that one.”

Hilden added: “From a defensive point of view, I don’t think we cleared the box.  The guy’s obviously had a bit too much time and to fair it was a good finish.”

And Vickers romped into a 4-0 lead on the stroke of half-time when Stanley released Ibemere down the left and once again he cut inside Mills before drilling a right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner from 20-yards.

Hilden added: “I said before the game VCD are going to come out with all guns blazing and obviously they did.  Credit to them.

“In my opinion we could’ve dealt with the first two or three goals with better defending.  I think the second goal could’ve been addressed further up the field.”

When asked about Vickers’ fourth, Hilden replied, “Are you going to go through all these? Because I can’t remember them all!”

It was to be the same thing for Powell, who added: “You talk goals to me, one, two, three, they’re all counting, so what can you say about that?”

When asked what was said during the half-time interval, Hilden replied: “I just said to the lads’ just do the basics.  I didn’t feel we were doing the basics right.  I gave them a bit of a rocket at half-time then we came out addressed it for 10-15 minutes then just went back into their ways again, but I can only take that back and report back to Jason and we look to move onto Sunday’s game.”

Powell added: “I said to them don’t concede silly goals.”

Lordswood restored an inch of pride when they pulled a goal back ten minutes into the second half.

Left-back Stephen Sage played an accurate defence splitting pass in behind the Vickers defence for Hallet to latch on to and he took the ball around goalkeeper Nick Blue and from what appeared to be an impossible tight angle, steered a low left-footed shot into the bottom far corner.

“Sam is a product from the youth team as such,” explained Hilden.  “He’s obviously got a lot to learn but give credit where it’s due. He took his two chances well and from a Lordswood perspective we want to keep hold of our youth policy.  Credit to Sam he did really well with the two finishes.”

But any signs of recovery were soon blown away when Vickers boss Tony Russell brought on Jamie Humphris, who went on to score a ten-minute hat-trick.

Vickers’ fifth-goal arrived in the 68^th minute, following their tenth corner of the game.

Duckworth whipped in a corner from the right, which Lordswood failed to clear and the ball fell nicely to Humphris at the far post, and the former Cray Wanderers striker drilled in a right-footed shot, which beat Mannering at his near post.

A shot from Dent screamed wide of the far post before VCD Athletic scored their sixth-goal in the 75^th minute.

Duckworth drilled a low ball into the middle and the ball got struck underneath Gabriel Luckhurst’s feet inside the penalty area and Humphris stole the ball before cutting the ball onto his other foot and slotting the ball into the back of the net.

Lordswood pulled a second goal back just 88 seconds later after striker Thomas Box laid the ball out to Hallett who produced a fine finish, cracking an angled drive, which Blue got his fingertips to it but failed to prevent the ball nestling into the bottom far corner of the net.

Powell added: “I don’t mind conceding goals, but silly ones, stupid ones, which we’ve conceded.  I had a go at them in our little huddle (after the game because) we’ve conceded two silly goals as far as I’m concerned.

“Credit to the players, we carried on and it told.”

But VCD Athletic continued with their scoring spree and Humphris’ hat-trick arrived in the 75^th minute when he met Ibemere’s cross from the left with a right-footed stabbed volley, which sailed past the stranded Mannering into the corner.

“The little rat.  We call him the little rat because he gets under people’s feet all the time and to be fair to him he’s banging on the door for a start,” said Powell of his hat-trick hero."

But relentless Vickers’ scored their eighth goal with five minutes left when Ibemere burst down the left cutting the ball along the box for Carpenter to sweep home with his left-foot.

Powell added: “Uche’s ruined the right-back. It will be surprising if he’s going to start again for them but to be fair to their right-back he’s a young, inexperienced player and he will learn from that.

“It’s about time he (Carpenter) got on the scoresheet. He’s been playing really well for us.”

The rampant hosts created further chances to rack up a double figures but Duckworth’s angled drive flashed across Mannering and past the far post.

Vickers’ goalkeeper Blue was called into action when Box’s right-footed drive from 30-yards bounced into the keeper’s gloves.

The last goal of the game arrived inside injury time when Ibemere was rewarded for his impressive performance by stroking his right-footed shot across Mannering to find the far corner after Duckworth and Carpenter linked up well.

Powell added: “Bored now!  Uche deserves his goal with the night he’s had so what more can you say.  Man-of-the-match Uche!”

A ball over the top of the Lordswood defence from substitute Ben Gorham released Duckworth through on goal and he was denied by a brilliant save from Mannering, who dived high to his right and stuck out his arm to turn the ball over the bar.

Hilden said the Lordswood players will reflect on their performance tonight.
 
“All in all from an all-round team performance we need to learn a lot more to address the issues that we’ve learnt tonight.

“Players have learnt tonight that this is the sort of standard that they’ve got to get used to playing week in week out.  When you’ve got youngsters sometimes they’re a bit inconsistent really.  We’ve got to move on and look to develop them as players.

“Three points is how we see it.  It’s another game for us and it’s three points, that’s the way we see it,” said Powell.

“I can understand the supporters come in and they want to see a big game to but they got value tonight seeing eleven goals in total, but whoevers in front of you, whether it’s a training game, a pre-season game or a cup game, you have to go out with the right frame of mind, to go out and score goals and that’s what we did tonight.”

Vickers will travel to eighth-placed Beckenham Town on Saturday.

“It’s always a tough game against Jason Huntley sides,” warned Powell. “I know him personally, he’s a good lad and we always have banter between the two management sides so we’ll be looking forward to meeting up with him.”

When asked about the title race, Powell replied, “We’re not involved in the title race at all.  As we see it we came here to stabilise the club and that’s what we’ve done.  Alright we’ve brought ourselves in the title race, but we take it game by game. We’re not going to get drawn into any title race.  We know we’re in a title race but we’re not going to get drawn into anything like that.

“All we can do is just carry on winning. You never know where it’s going to take us come the end of the season.  Like we said to the boys we take it game by game and the next game on the list is on Saturday against Beckenham, so we’ll come in Thursday and we’ll work on things for Beckenham and that’s all we’ve been doing.”

AN APOLOGY:
I (Stephen McCartney) would like to sincerely apologise to Lordswood Football Club and to Mr Jason Lillis for the comments in the original match report, which upon reflection were unacceptable.

VCD Athletic: Nick Blue, Peter Smith (Jack Asbury 63), Lee Craig, Nick Reeves, Billy Manners, Karl Dent, Dean Carpenter, James Duckworth, Sherwin Stanley, Mo Conteh (Jamie Humphris 63), Uche Ibemere.
Subs: Ray Powell, Bradley McNamara

Goals:  Sherwin Stanley 3 (pen), 39, James Duckworth 14, Uche Ibemere 45, 90 Jamie Humphris 68, 75, 78, Dean Carpenter 85

Lordswood: Richard Mannering, Matthew Mills, Stephen Sage, Beau Taylor, Steven Read (Gabriel Luckhurst 24), Ryan Royston, Luke Fewsdale, Ellis Trutwen (Myles Keizer-Burren 72), Thomas Box, Richard Styles (Grant McIlheron 69), Samuel Hallett.
Sub: Ben Hilden

Goals: Samuel Hallett 55, 76

Booked:  Grant McIlheron 90

Attendance: 57
Referee: Mr Alexis Stacchini (Orpington)
Assistants: Mr Mehdi Golchehreh (Sittingbourne) & Mr Nick Goodhew (Sittingbourne)