First Team Vs Snodland Town

27 April 2019

Snodland Town                  0

Erith and Belvedere          3          Harding 18, Quan 30, Isichei 83

SO NEAR BUT SO FAR AS DERES MISS OUT BY A POINT

So in the end the Deres did all they could.  They won the last five league matches of the season either side of winning the London Senior Trophy.  They kept the long-time leaders Welling Town on their toes until the final game.  But their chances were really sunk by the three away defeats to the rest of the top four in the space of six games – and perhaps specifically the two goals conceded in five minutes when they led Welling 3-2 with 18 minutes to go on 13 March.

Going into this last league game of the season, the maths was simple – a point behind with superior goal difference, Deres just needed to better Welling’s result at Lydd Town.  However on a bumpy pitch on a windy day, Deres had to work to make their class count and very nearly fell behind in the second minute, when top scorer Dave Sherwood forced Dan Teeley into a diving save.

The Deres got into their stride and began to dominate.  Ramell Lake’s header and Guy Mpungi’s shot were well held by Sam Ribbens around the ten-minute mark before Harry Harding glanced Ramell Lake’s cross just wide.  The breakthrough came on 18 minutes when Kameiko Pope-Campbell worked an opening and Harding turned sharply to roll the ball into the corner of the net, taking his goal-a-game season’s record to 45 in 45.

On the half-hour the Deres went further ahead when Chan Quan’s persistence was rewarded and he forced the ball home.  Three minutes later a defensive lapse by Brad Marshall let in Pope-Campbell, needing a desperate kicked clearance by Ribbens.  At half-time the Deres led 2-0, and word came through that Welling were drawing 1-1 at Lydd – so the unlikely mission was halfway there.

With Snodland offering little up front, the Deres just had to stay calm in the second half, which they did with early chances falling to George Jones (a scuffed shot) and Ramell Lake (who hit it wide).  But at that point news came through of two quickfire Welling goals at Lydd, which sounded the death knell to Deres’ title hopes.  Captain Harding gleaned the news from spectators as the Welling score stretched to 5-1, and late in the game he set the seal on the league campaign by feeding Osita Isichei, the club’s most recent signing whose first Deres goal was the 103rd and last of the league season.

The disappointment of finishing second – only the 7th top two finish in the Deres’ history, it should be said – was tempered by the achievement of a very fine season.  It all finishes with the Hospitals Charity Cup final against Sutton Athletic at Park View Road on 13 May – a minor competition but a chance to end the season on a high.

SNODLAND: Ribbens (Brown 83); Butler, Sharp, Muncey, Marshall (Chapman 66), Belcher (Bradford 83), Freeman, Wilkins, Rice, Austin, Sherwood

DERES: Teeley; Hill, Barrett, Lake (Dobson 79), Curtis, G Jones, J Wade, Quan (Obasa 52), Pope-Campbell (Isichei 55), Harding, Mpungi.