First Team Vs FC Elmstead

6 April 2019

Erith and Belvedere          3          Harding 21, 86, Quan 24

FC Elmstead                        0

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS AS THE FINAL LAP BEGINS

So everybody’s level on games played again.  For months the Deres have been looking at games in hand on the leaders, and with this win their final game in hand has been played, and the top three are separated by a single point – Deres on 65, one behind Bridon Ropes and Welling Town.  Bridon have a goal difference one better than Deres with Welling a distance behind.  And all three have four games to go.  Hold on to your hats.

On a chilly Tuesday night Deres faced FC Elmstead, mid-table but unbeaten in five, and set about them with a will from the first whistle, Guy Mpungi shooting straight at keeper Alex Hyde after a swift attack with barely 45 seconds gone.  Jerome Wade shot high and wide in the fourth minute as the hosts looked very lively.  Yet Elmstead posed a threat, as witness the break by their leading scorer Alvin Turyatemba on 16 minutes.  Dan Teeley advanced to narrow the angle and succeeded in forcing the shot wide.

Chan Quan, newly crowned player of the month for March, nearly caught out the keeper with a lob from near the touchline when a corner came his way on 20 minutes, but soon afterwards Deres took the lead.  Guy Mpungi, who looked dangerous all evening, cut in from the left and drilled in a low shot – the ball rebounded off Hyde only to be poached by Harry Harding, his first goal in 5 games.

Deres didn’t take long to increase their advantage, and it came from a superb incisive move.  In the 24th minute a Teeley trademark pinpoint punt upfield found Jerome Wade, who turned and played a great ball through to Quan, who buried the chance in the far corner for one of Deres’ goals of the season.

Harding could have made it three on 35 minutes when he caught the defence napping and pounced before firing in a shot which Hyde fingertipped past the post.  But Deres had a fairly comfortable half-time lead.

Apart from a 47th-minute chance for Kameiko Pope-Campbell which Hyde held at the second attempt, the second half was just a little too frenetic, with little being created by either side.  After an exchange of substitutes, Fred Obasa was released through the middle on 82 minutes but shot wide.   Then with four minutes to go, Obasa turned provider setting up Harding, whose assured finish made the game safe at 3‑0.  With that the Deres’ marksman, who’d been becalmed in scoring terms in recent weeks, reached 40 for the season, only the third time this has been done for Deres after Colin Johnson (43 goals in 1965-66) and Alfie May (41 in 2014-15).

DERES: Teeley; Hill, Barrett, Lake (Holley 84), Curtis, G Jones, J Wade, Quan (Kitondo 87), Pope-Campbell (Obasa 75), Harding. Mpungi.

ELMSTEAD: Hyde; Carter-Thompson, Lockett (Palmer 55), Sarpong (Weston 75), Howell, Prescott, Turyatemba, Axell, Karkari, Deen, Gonnella.