Suburban League Premier Division,
Short Lane Stadium
17th October 2009

Ashford finally got back to winning ways but questions must again be asked about the finishing in yet another game where if the chances were taken , the Ash Trees could have had a cricket score. Although the end result was a perfect response to Tuesdays defeat at Sutton, the game was overshadowed by the sad news that centre back Ike Chuckwudum’s father had passed away just hours before the match. Ike decided that he still wanted to play the game, a decision that the management reluctantly agreed to but as many have stated before, football seems to provide comfort in such tragic circumstances. With regulars Oliver Blackman, Ben Jones and captain Danny Byron all carrying knocks, Youth team starlets Rob Curtis, Mark Bitmead and Lee Elliott deputised.

Within the first two minutes The Tangerines opened up the Three Bridges backline with ease which allowed George Baldock to have a shot which the keeper could only palm into the path of Munir Dar and when he pulled it back to Baldock the keeper did even better to push a point blank effort away for a corner. Two clear one on ones with the keeper for Dar and Baldock followed with both efforts ending with the same result, glaring misses by the two frontmen. With last weeks result still fresh in the mind of the players it seemed a formality that after all of our pressure, Three Bridges would create one chance that would result in a goal, that chance came from a counter attack but luckily for Ashford it also missed the target.

The management were getting irate with Ashford’s lack of killer instinct in front of goal when after another flowing football move full back Nick Hardy cut inside the opposing full back and hit a low shot that the keeper could only push into the corner of the net. More chances followed but again the finishing left a lot to be desired until the dependable Bitmead hit an unstoppable left foot volley into the top left hand corner to make it two nil.

The second half didn’t start as well as the first and suddenly  Three Bridges started to impose themselves with more pressure being placed on the Ash Trees defence that lost Curtis early in the second half through injury. However the pressure was eased when after a corner from William Joseph, Chuckwudum rose over everyone to head the ball past the helpless keeper. It seemed like the much anticipated flurry of goals from Ashford were now about to come however, after a break on the left, a cross was swung into the path of the Three Bridges forward whose header crept past the hands of Elliott. A two goal advantage is never a comfortable one so there was a collective sigh of relief when after Dar broke through towards goal, his cross fell to Teddy Kimpamboudi who scored his first goal since his return to the club.

The man of the match was undoubtedly Chuckwudum and not on sentiment. His performance was immense from start to finish and was one that his late father would be proud of.