Erith & Belvedere   7          Billenness 21, M Vercesi 42, R Vercesi 51, 82, 87, Davy 72, J Vercesi 78

Spalding United      0                     

Southern League Eastern Division, 22 March 2003

 

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, our record Southern League win and a red-letter day for our Cornish brotherhood.

 

2002-03 was a step back for Mike Acland, the first time we’d finished a season under him in a lower position than the previous one.  Darren Adams with 25 goals was only three short of his tally from the previous season, but around him nobody else got double figures and Steve Portway had one of the more barren spells of his career.  But despite finishing 18th out of 22, we did have one terrific afternoon to look back on.

 

BROTHERS MAKE IT GRIM FOR SPALDING                         

 

The Deres roared to their record Southern League victory on Saturday - and all three Vercesi brothers got on the scoresheet.  Not since three players scored hat-tricks in a 10-0 Kent League stroll at Ramsgate in January 1981 had the Deres enjoyed such a margin in a league game.  And you would have got long odds against Erith winning by this scoreline with neither leading scorer Darren Adams nor goal machine Steve Portway adding to their tally.  Instead five goals were shared by the Cornish brothers, with the eldest Vercesi, Richard, contributing a second-half hat-trick of headers.

 

Spalding United are now eight points adrift of safety, playing under their fifth manager of the season and with a rookie teenage goalkeeper.  Their confidence is at rock-bottom, and with this defeat they have conceded 22 goals in their last three away matches.  Yet it has to be said that Deres took a while to click, and came close to going in level at half-time.  Indeed in the third minute Barry Gibson had to be alert to save Luke Morrish’s blushes after the defender headed back past Clark Hunt towards his own goal.

 

Erith looked leaden-footed until Richard Vercesi’s sparky run produced a layoff to Adams, only for the latter, back from suspension, to hit the side netting.  On 21 minutes Richard Vercesi was again at the heart of a move, involving Portway and Adams, which was finished off by Glenn Billenness to open the scoring. 

 

Erith failed to follow this up, beyond a casual lob by Billenness easily held by debutant goalkeeper Shambaz Hussain.  Four minutes from half-time Spalding should have equalised when Ben Naylor showed admirable persistence to rob Scott Saunders and Liam Harrold failed to convert Naylor’s centre from two yards out.  A minute later a loose ball came to Mark Vercesi, who found the top corner with a graceful shot to give Erith a two-goal cushion.

 

The second half landslide began with Richard Vercesi’s close range header from a superb Saunders cross on 51 minutes to make it 3-0.  Five minutes later Hussain brought down Saunders in the box, and following a short dispute with Adams, Portway took the penalty and blazed it over the bar.  Both out-of-sorts strikers were substituted soon afterwards.  Their replacements, Steve White and Jason Davy, soon contrived to miss a golden chance when Mark Vercesi’s cross dropped off the bar.

 

White made amends on 72 minutes, cutting in from the left and laying a fourth goal on a plate for Davy.  The remaining goals all came from Vercesi headers: James meeting Ryan Briggs’ corner from the right on 78 minutes (5-0), Richard heading in Mark’s corner from the left four minutes later (6-0) and Richard finishing off a spell of head tennis three minutes from time for his hat-trick (7-0).  It had been a straightforward victory against a demoralised side, but Deres will have to be sharper for their biggest game of the season, next Tuesday’s Kent Senior Cup semi-final at Park View Road against Margate.

 

ERITH: Clark Hunt, Barry Gibson, Scott Saunders, Luke Morrish (Darren Gowler ht), James Vercesi, Glenn Billenness, Mark Vercesi, Richard Vercesi, Darren Adams (Steve White 65), Steve Portway (Jason Davy 65), Ryan Briggs.

SPALDING: Hussain; Taylor, Huggins, Sowerby, England, Naylor, Waiton, Goodhand, Harrold (Stewart ht), Davies, Elding.

 

 

That Kent Senior Cup semi-final was a classic “if only” – we took Margate to extra time only to lose 3-0, but reserve Allen Gobbett had headed wide of an open goal five minutes from the end of normal time.

 

Three brothers scoring in the same game must be at least a rarity at this level or above – the only other case of three brothers on the pitch at the same time for Deres was Alfie, Luke and Sam May, for just eight minutes in August 2015.  James, Mark and Richard Vercesi took three of the top five positions in our appearances list that season, ending with 38, 76 and 140 appearances for Deres respectively.  Last I heard, Mark and Richard were still playing – and Richard is 45 this year.

 

Steve Portway returned to Deres in March, scored a brace in his first game – at which point he had a goal-a-game scoring rate for us – but then went 14 without a goal, probably his longest barren spell ever.  He scored our last goal of the season at Stamford in our last match, which was also his last before retirement.  (Or so we thought – his last comeback while managing Redbridge came 10 years later when he was well into his 40s!)

 

Spalding finished second bottom, with only St Leonards below them, kicking off a turbulent period, but are now in the Northern Premier League second tier.