Saturday 9 April 2011. Ryman League, Division One South.
Sittingbourne 0 Walton & Hersham 3.
This battling win, coupled with Burgess Hill Town dramatically losing at home to Merstham in stoppage-time, has well and truly reignited Swans’ fading play-off hopes. The result was particularly satisfying as their selection possibilities were limited to just sixteen available players, with two of those being untried teenagers, 18 year-old Sean Bradley, on dual-registration from Woking, and 17-year old youth team captain Steven Betancourt. The bad news that confirmed both Liam Collins and broken-nose victim Richard Taylor will join Josh Webb and Phil Williams as players who will definitely miss the rest of the season, was added to by Ashley Quashie becoming the third player in recent weeks to be injured in the pre-match warm-up, Jean Michel-Sigere, himself not fully-fit, was brought into the starting eleven to replace Quashie, and he ended up having a fine match. Some good news was that Reis Stanislaus’s rib injury picked up a week earlier was not as bad as first thought, and he was able to start. Sittingbourne fielded a side containing several young players, but one that had won five of their previous seven matches and still had an outside chance of a play-off spot themselves.
On a sunny spring afternoon, but with a chill wind blowing, the opening exchanges were scrappy, with neither side managing to put much in the way of constructive moves together. The home side had the first hint of an opening after ten minutes when a ball into the box from the right was not cleared away, and Jack Hooper drove a shot over the bar. Hooper then drove in a shot from the right that Gareth Williams, restored in Swans’ goal, did well to beat away at his near-post. Swans struggled to build up any moves through midfield, and found it difficult to provide service for Sigere and Stanislaus up front. It was half an hour before Sigere was given something to feed on, James Nicholls’ pass getting him into the right of the box, but after he did well to get to the byline and pull the ball back across goal, there was no-one forward enough to capitalise. Collins’ playmaking is not surprisingly being badly missed in Swans’ midfield, and when they took the lead after 38 minutes it came from a set-piece. Chris Wales took a superb corner-kick from the left, swinging the ball in under the bar and forcing home keeper Matt Reed back to his far-post. Reed found himself blocked off, and Nicholls just got the ball over the line before it was scrambled away and then put in for a second time to make sure.
There was little basis in the keeper’s heated protests that he had been unfairly treated, and he ended up with his name in the referee’s notebook. Having created little, Swans would have been happy to have got a lead, but two minutes later they went close to doubling it. A pass through the middle got Kieran Knight clear to the edge of the six-yard, but the ball sat up, and Reed did well to block it away as the Swans’ player got his foot to it. Straight after the resumption Sittingbourne’s Hicham Akhazzan threatened to get through on the left, but Nicholls did well to get across to make the tackle. Swans soon went close to adding to their lead as Bradley got the ball in from the right to Stanislaus, who laid it back to Sigere in the right of the box, and he struck a fine shot that flew just wide of the near-post. Knight was soon creating a chance for Stanislaus, whose snap-shot was taken by keeper Reed. Swans were building-up play much better since the break and a good ball forward got Shaun Elliott into the left of the box. The left-back laid the ball back to Knight on the edge of the box, and he struck a good, low shot just wide. The home side had a chance when the ball came to Nick Reeves in space on the right, but he drove his shot just over, and just before the hour Swans made it 2-0.
Wales’s free-kick found Stanislaus inside the left of the box, and he hooked the ball over to pick out Knight on the edge of the area. Knight volleyed the ball into the pitch and into the left-corner of the goal with Reed well beaten as he was unable to get across. Straight after the restart Sigere held the ball up well in the box with his back to goal, and was clearly pulled down from behind, but no penalty was forthcoming. But after 63 minutes the French player made the game safe with a deserved goal. Wales’s fine pass sent Sigere racing clear, and he made no mistake, driving the ball unerringly past Reed and into the far-corner from the right edge of the box. A bad tackle on Bradley gave Swans a free-kick 22 yards out, but although Wales got the ball through the wall, Reed was well positioned to save. Bakary Bojang came on for Stanislaus and the home side made a double substitution to try to change things, but Swans continued to look comfortable. Sittingbourne did win a free-kick out on the left, but Williams took the ball at his near-post as Reeves drove it in. Bojang could well have made it 4-0 for Swans as a ball down the left got him into the box, but he was just denied by Luke Medlen’s last-ditch tackle. The home side’s attempts to get a goal back posed little threat, although Ryan Golding did get a dangerous ball in from the left for Williams to make a fine take, and Swans were able to bring on the youngster Betancourt for the final ten minutes to give him a first taste of senior football. Sittingbourne’s last chance came deep into stoppage-time when they were fortunate to be awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box, but Reeves drove the ball low and wide of the left-post.
Swans’ Team: Gareth Williams, Ryan Adams, Shaun Elliott, Chris Wales, James Nicholls, Damian Matthews, Jean-Michel Sigere (Steven Betancourt 81’), Victor Kiri, Kieran Knight, Reis Stanislaus (Bakary Bojang 68’), Sean Bradley (Bernard Asante 74’). Subs. not used: Ashley Quashie, Sheikh Ceesay. Scorers: Nicholls (38’), Knight (58’), Sigere (63’). Cautions: Adams, foul (62’), Wales, dissent (85’).
Sittingbourne Team: Reed, Cooper (Harris 82’), Palfrey, Reeves, Medlen, Hooper, Palmer (Girt 68’), Semakula, Golding, Akhazzan (Coyne 68’), Charles. Subs. not used: Brady, Burt. Cautions: Reed, dissent (38’), Golding, foul (71’).
