First Team Vs Sutton Athletic

22 April 2019

Erith and Belvedere          3          Mpungi 65, Pope-Campbell 68, Obasa 78

Sutton Athletic                    1          Sutherland 29

A CENTURY OF DERES GOALS AS THE HEAT STAYS ON

It looked dodgy for a while, but the Deres continued to do their bit in the penultimate game of the season.  This win over 5th-placed Sutton Athletic kept the pressure on Welling Town, who had a comfortable 4-0 win against bottom club Meridian VP, and burned off Bridon Ropes, whose title challenge died with a second Easter weekend defeat, 2-0 at home to Holmesdale. 

So barring an 11-goal swing in Kennington’s favour on the last day, Deres are guaranteed only the seventh top-two finish in their history.  Both title contenders are away in their last game, Deres to 15th-placed Snodland Town, Welling to 12th-placed Lydd Town.  As ever, all they can do is win and see what happens.

But the winning bit looked a little dodgy for much of this Easter Monday game.  After a quiet start both sides had chances midway through the first half, Kameiko Pope-Campbell shooting across the face of goal from the left and then working hard to find an angle but having his shot held easily.  At the other end James Sutherland squared the ball for Callum Flynn who leant back and shot well over.  But it was Sutton who drew first blood, Flynn and Dan Gunner combining well to set up Sutherland for a simple opener on 29 minutes.

Arlie Desanges, Deres’ top scorer in 2017-18 who scored a hat-trick for Welling Town on his previous return to PVR, came on as sub for Sutton and Deres struggled to make much headway until half-time.  With Owen Jones’ half-time talk ringing in their ears (not to mention those of people in the stand) they picked up the pressure in the second half with Guy Mpungi and Pope-Campbell going close.

But the breakthrough didn’t come until midway through the second half, when top scorer Harry Harding turned provider and set up Mpungi for a well-taken 65th-minute equaliser.  Just three minutes later Pope-Campbell again did well to find a gap for a shot and found the bottom corner.  With such a swift turnaround in fortunes, Sutton offered little by way of comeback until Harding got another assist, supplying Fred Obasa for his first Deres goal on 78 minutes.  Not only that, it was the Deres’ 100th league goal of the season, only the second time they’ve reached that landmark.

At the end of the last home game of the season, the Deres took the applause for a number of statistical landmarks, but of course nothing had been won yet…

DERES: Teeley; Hill, Barrett, Dobson (Obasa 60), Curtis, G Jones, J Wade (Holley 86), Quan, Pope-Campbell (Ogunbiyi 71), Harding, Mpungi.

SUTTON: Bishop; Francis (Desanges 41), Menditta, Bryan (Roomes 83), Page, Wheeler, McGinty (Murray 75), Sutherland, Flynn, Evans, Gunner.