Last Updated on: 18th februar 2022, 11:50 am
FA-Cup 2nd Qualifier, 03.10.98: Billericay Town – Tonbridge Angels 4-0 (0-0)
1-0 54 min. David Adekola
2-0 58 min. John Ridout
3-0 60 min. Paul Battram
4-0 85 min. Paul Battram
Match report: Paul Bakewell
Att.: Approx. 600
Mom: Battram 8/10 – Return of the living dead – no, a good double strike put him a shade ahead of Root
Match verdict: 8/10 – I almost feel sorry for Tonbridge – what went wrong?
Teams:
BTFC: Root, Goldstone, Davidson, Moore, Waters, St. Hilaire (Sub Hooker 65), Ridout (58 Brewer 80) Parratt, Adekola (54), Battram (60, 85), Payne (Blaney 62), White, Hudson.
Tonbridge : Radford, Walker, Ward (Brenton 57), Tutton, Mortley, Le Moine M, Bourne, Freeman, Lovell, Kearns (Gooding 63), Balmer, Le Moine A, Mills, Cole.
Ref.: K Reynolds, Ass Refs: – A Porter, J Greenwood.
So a breather away from the league and a chance to view some new talent in the form of Dr.Martens league south’s Tonbridge Angels (12th) – ‘avenging’ they were not, but the forecast result, given first half form could not have been further away.
Indeed, the twin-towers of ‘wemberlee’ looked distinctly hazy as Town had been well under the cosh in the first half by what then appeared a very capable side. We can thank Dave Root for keeping us intact at half-time with some excellent saves.with the exception of a fine ‘one-move’ turn and shot from Adekola on 10, Town were clearly fortunate to go in ‘evens’ at half-time.
I, probably like most other ‘Townies’ were worried about Battsy replacing Leon (hamstring) but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. I hate to use it, but yet again (second week running) this was most definitely a proverbial ‘game of two halves’!
Made even sweeter while a travelling away fan was extolling the virtues of how fine a team Tonbridge were, against the run, that man Adekola beat the offside trap to run thru and around the hapless keeper to break the deadlock. Sucker-Punch, or what !? The same fan and his crew watched in disbelief as Town punctured their punch-drunk defence a further three times!
Next up on 58 was a fine shot to top right from Ridout, followed by a double-strike from Battsy on 60 and the ‘killer-blow’ on 83, when he burst thru the defence to blast home. Prior to this Hooker livened things up on the left when he was at long last brought on as sub for the Saint – this was pretty suprising as he’d played ok – again, Payne though ineffective, stayed on till a hamstring forced him off for Blaney on 62.
A satisfying performance, though I’m still amazed at the scoreline – Tonbridge caved in, big-time!
