Erith & Belvedere   1          Nougher 53

Beckenham Town  1          Nougher og 61

Kent League, 22 April 2006

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, an epic last-day encounter that left both teams devastated.

2005-06 was our first season back in the Kent League following relegation from the Southern.  We had an OK start under the partnership of Mike Acland and Wayne Baldacchino, but they were relieved of their duties in January and replaced by player/manager Wayne Brown, formerly with Fisher and Welling as well as Deres.  The oddity was that Acland had won his last two games as manager, and we went on to equal the then club record 13 games unbeaten and make a push for promotion (since three promotion places were available that season due to pyramid restructuring).

The 13-game run came to an end with a 2-1 home defeat to Herne Bay in the penultimate game of the season, which set up a tasty encounter with Beckenham.  Earlier in the season Beckenham had beaten us 2-1 at Eden Park Avenue and looked outstanding, playing the nearest thing the Kent League has seen to tiki-taka under future Dulwich Hamlet manager Gavin Rose.  Now Beckenham were lying 2nd, knowing that if they won and leaders Maidstone didn’t, they’d snatch the title.  Deres, in 4th, knew that if we won and third-placed Thamesmead lost, we’d snatch the third promotion place. So a lot was at stake.

The Deres started positively in front of a lively crowd of 167 at Park View Road and were literally inches away from taking an early lead when Tobi Ositola’s lob bounced off the base of the post for a goal-kick.

The home side continued to pressure and were rewarded with a penalty after 23 minutes when Ositola was hacked down just inside the 18-yard box. With a player in the Erith half of the pitch down injured, Leon Braithwaite was delayed by three minutes in taking the penalty.  Maybe this delay unsettled him, but his penalty was a tame effort and in the end Rob Tolfrey made a comfortable save and the ball was scrambled away to safety.

The missed opportunity gave Beckenham the belief that this was going to be the day that they clinched their first ever Kent Premier League title and they began to take charge of the game towards the end of the opening period.  However, Becks couldn’t break down the resilient Erith & Belvedere defence and the sides went in level at half-time.

Seven minutes into the second half came the goal that ultimately ended Beckenham’s championship dream and gave the Deres fans hope of a return to Step 4 of the Non-League pyramid.  Braithwaite laid the ball back to Mark Nougher, who fired the ball past Tolfrey and into the top corner of the net to provoke ecstatic scenes.  Little did most Deres fans know that already by this time it was all in vain.

On the hour mark, Beckenham got their equaliser, when Gavin Rose’s shot took a deflection off Nougher, which left Deres shot-stopper Ricky Hall with absolutely no chance of making a save.  It had to go down as an own goal, so Nougher had scored at both ends.

Beckenham continued to rally valiantly for the elusive goal that would guarantee them the Championship, but they couldn’t find a way past the solid Erith backline and the match ended in the inevitable stalemate.  By the end of the game Beckenham knew that Maidstone had won 4-0 at Sevenoaks to take the title, and Deres knew that Thamesmead had beaten Hythe 3-0, their goal difference meaning that even a win wouldn’t have been enough for Deres to claim third place.

Two devastated sets of players slumped to the turf – think Bayern Munich after Manchester United snatched the European Cup, only both sides were on the ground!  In the bar afterwards a Beckenham fan insisted to me that nobody had “battered” Beckenham like we had that afternoon.  He looked the type who’d batter you himself if you disagreed, so I just nodded…

Erith & Belvedere: Ricky Hall, Harrison Tague, Darren Spinks, Tony Dakin, Wayne Brown, Mitch Crawley, Austin Berkley, Tommy Martin (Anton Innocent 70), Leon Braithwaite, Tobi Ositola (Steve White 80), Mark Nougher.

Beckenham Town: Rob Tolfrey, Asher Hudson, Jake Daniels, Tony Sinclair, Errison Ahwan, Junior Kadi, Gavin Rose, Ellis Green, Peter Adeniyi, Paul Vines, Ryan Martin.