Erith & Belvedere   8          Smith pen 5, Davies 13, J Wood 30, Hanson 36,

                                                          Burchell 42, 81, Constable 83, Cornell 90

Woodstock Sports 5          McDonald 7, 50, 60, Baverstock 14, Rodgers 89          

Kent League, 29 September 2012

 

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, a postwar record-breaking scoreline as we began to think that this season might just be extraordinary.

 

We’d had a good start to 2012-13, neck-and-neck with early pacesetters Erith Town, but in the space of eight days in late September the season went to another level.  We’d suffered our first league defeat, at home to Whyteleafe, but in the next game we won 6-0 away at Beckenham.  In midweek Cray Valley PM came away from PVR with a 4-4 draw after a 90th-minute equaliser.  Then on the Saturday…

 

DERES MAKE HISTORY IN GOAL FEST                                             

 

Even with 14 goals in the Deres’ previous two games, the events on Saturday at Park View Road were astonishing.  It sent the club statto rummaging through the archives to find that it was the highest aggregate in a Deres match since the war, and the third highest ever in peacetime.  The total of 13 goals has only been exceeded by the club’s record win (14-2 v the Royal Marines in 1933) and its record defeat (0-15 v Ashford in 1937) and matched by a 12-1 defeat at Margate in 1928.

 

The fun began in the 5th minute when Adam Burchell burst into the box to be felled by a rash challenge close to the by-line, and Orlando Smith converted the penalty.  Woodstock responded two minutes later as Lewis Rivett’s shot was parried by Scott Chalmers-Stevens and James McDonald was on hand to pick up the loose ball and score.  On 12 minutes Richie Davies headed home from Jamie Wood’s corner, only for Ashley Baverstock to take advantage of a defensive lapse to level at 2-2.

 

There was a period of relative calm until Deres took the lead again on the half-hour: Jamie Wood’s shot was blocked but Orlando Smith retrieved the ball and crossed low for Wood to slam home from six yards.  Six minutes later the Deres had another penalty, which Orlando Smith tried to place in the opposite corner.  Chris Smith in the Woodstock goal saved the penalty and pushed Andy Constable’s follow-up effort around the post, but the resulting corner kick pinballed around the box before falling to Steve Hanson, who volleyed home at the far post for his 4th goal in two games.

 

Three minutes before the break Constable beat the Woodstock offside trap and crossed low into the area where Adam Burchell was in acres of space to slot the ball home and give the Deres a half-time lead of 5-2.

 

Four minutes into the second half Woodstock pulled one back when Michael Green played a through ball to McDonald and what seemed an attempted cross deceived Chalmers-Stevens to nestle in the far corner of the net.  And on 59 minutes it was 5‑4 as the Deres were exposed at the back and McDonald exploited the space to fire past Chalmers-Stevens for his hat-trick.

 

Another fallow 20 minutes followed until the events that took the match from epic to historic.  Ten minutes from time Burchell broke away, rounded the keeper and slotted home to make it 6-4 – then was given a second yellow card for jumping into the crowd to celebrate with his dad!  Three minutes later Andy Constable hit the Deres’ seventh, collecting Wood’s through ball and rolling a shot into the corner of the goal.  Frazer Rogers pulled it back to 7-5 in the 89th minute, only for Carl Cornell, who had come on for Constable seven minutes earlier, to collect a long ball from defence and restore the three-goal advantage in the last minute, becoming Deres’ 7th different scorer on the day.  Emmerson got a second yellow for disputing the goal.

 

DERES: Scott Chalmers-Stevens; Richie Davies, Karl Knight, Paul Springett, John Wilfort, Steve Hanson, Kieron McCann (Sean Johnson 68), Jamie Wood, Andy Constable (Carl Cornell 82), Adam Burchell, Orlando Smith.

SPORTS: Smith; Emmerson, L Taylor, Rogers, Clark (B Taylor 75), Rivett, King, Green, McDonald, Baverstock, Lumby (Jeffrey 52).

 

 

Infuriatingly I missed this game and had to learn of the result from a text from Ben Dryland, who sent it Grandstand videprinter style: Deres 8 (EIGHT) Woodstock 5 (FIVE).

 

The result meant we ended September top of the Kent League, one point ahead of Erith Town, but one of the numerous remarkable stats of that season was that we only played one league game in each of the next four months!