Erith & Belvedere               7          Burchell 10, 61, 70, Smith 18, Kissi 29, 45, 58 (p)

Greenwich Borough          1          Hurley 90

Kent League, 30 April 2013

 

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, another Kent League title decider.

 

It’s a strange coincidence that on the two occasions when Deres have been in a Kent League title shake-up at the end of the season, both contenders have played away to the same club in the last week.In 1982 both our and Sittingbourne’s last games were away to Deal Town, and Sittingbourne’s 1-1 draw let us in to snatch the title with a 3-2 win.In 2013 we and VCD both visited Lordswood.

 

We had matched each other win for win in the run-in with Deres two points ahead, but our goalless draw at Lordswood on the Saturday, with Orlando Smith heartbroken at missing a penalty, seemed to have let VCD in – they went ahead on goal difference, and since Deres themselves were the only team to take so much as a point off them since Christmas, they were supremely confident. In the last games on the Tuesday night – us home to Greenwich, VCD away to Lordswood – we had to get a result five goals better than VCD’s.

 

But over the next few days the thought set in that if we could have hand-picked opposition for both clubs in that scenario, we couldn’t have done better than Lordswood – capable of defending like tigers and looking for their best ever Kent League finish – and Greenwich – on the crest of a slump at the bottom of the table.The Tuesday night, when it came, was epic.

 

DERES’ DELIGHT – AND NOW FOR THE DOUBLE

 

ERITH AND BELVEDERE clinched the Kent League championship in style last Tuesday, crushing Greenwich Borough 7-1 while VCD Athletic were being held at Lordswood.

 

In so doing they completed a rare double, with both groundsharing clubs at Park View Road taking their league titles, Welling United having picked up the Blue Square South trophy just three days earlier.

 

The Deres had had a scare before the last match of the season, having lost the leadership to VCD on goal difference after a 0-0 draw at Lordswood. It meant that going into the last pair of games the Deres had to assume that they would have to beat Greenwich by five goals more than VCD beat Lordswood. It was surely too much to hope that VCD would fail to win, as the Crayford side had won 17 and drawn 1 in the league since Christmas.

 

So a big win was essential, as was an early goal, and Adam Burchell provided the ideal start with a goal on 10 minutes. Orlando Smith made it two on 18 minutes, and Richmond Kissi, with his 20th goal of the season, added a third on the half-hour. Another Kissi goal just before half-time made it 4-0 at the break, right on course, as news came through that VCD’s match at Lordswood was still goalless.

 

As it happened, the Deres match had kicked off some 10 minutes after VCD’s owing to an assistant referee having been delayed by traffic following an accident on the A2. So Deres fans watching the game with one eye on Twitter feeds were able to follow progress at Lordswood, where Sherwin Stanley missed a penalty for VCD, and know that it was still 0-0, with time running out, while Deres made it 5-0 (a Kissi penalty for his hat-trick on 58 minutes), 6-0 (Burchell three minutes later) and 7-0 (Burchell’s hat-trick on 70).

 

By now the Deres knew that even if VCD won they would still need a three-goal swing – but shortly afterwards news came through that the game had ended in a draw, leading to bizarre scenes as Deres players celebrated before remembering they had a corner to take!

 

Greenwich scored a late consolation, a Hurley free-kick in the last minute, but as the final whistle blew jubilant players joined the supporters behind the goal for celebrations of a kind the club hadn’t seen since their previous Kent League title win in 1982.

 

Half an hour later the League chair Denise Richmond arrived with the trophy – which had been taken to VCD’s match at the start of the evening! – and the party could really get started.

 

Deres had had a superb season, scoring 113 goals in 32 league games – an average of just over 3½ goals a game, which is the best average in the Kent League since the war. The 0-0 at Lordswood was the first time they’d been “shut out” in a league game for over two years after 68 consecutive scoring games, but that just made their last match more interesting!

 

Erith and Belvedere: Jack Bradshaw; Drew Crush, George Benner (John Wilfort), Jamie Wood, Richie Davies, Paul Springett (Sean Johnson), Orlando Smith, Adam Burchell, Andy Constable, Richmond Kissi, Kieron McCann (Sam Hasler).