Much against the grain of recent Kentish weather, it was in glorious sunshine and near-heatwave temperatures that Burnt Ash 4s welcomed Sutton Valence 2nd XI to the rather sluggish yet bobbling fortress Dartford Technical College.

It’s without question fair to say that SV didn’t apply quite enough deep heat during their usual gentle warm up, as a near-inexplicably soft goal was conceded in the first 120 seconds or so, with Ash passing smartly around the static SV team to slot far (far) too easily into the net.

Thankfully, the indignation of conceding this soft goal did spark an immediate fightback from the visitors, who began applying repeated waves of pressure to the Ash rearguard. Within 10 minutes this consistent pressure told, with crisp passing through the SV midfield and a rather lovely carry bringing Tom Wilson into the D in a position to lift smartly into the top left of the helpless Ash Keeper’s net. 1-1 and game on.

From here, Sutton Valence’s recently burgeoning quality began to tell, with waves of attack being thrown at Ash, particularly down the SV right. Shortly before half time Alex Hodges was able to slither definitively past his marker and smash a cross-shot across the face of goal that was, somewhat unluckily from the Ash perspective, deflected into the goal by their own defence. Not how you’d ideally like to score of course, but very much in keeping with the run of play at that point, and in fairness several SV forwards were lurking to slot home had the ball broken free.

Shortly thereafter the whistle blew for half time and the visitors retreated to their dugout, generally feeling pretty positive about the first half.

To their great credit, BA4’s emerged into the second half surprisingly rejuvenated, and after a fairly even first 10 minutes began to repeatedly apply worrying levels of pressure on the Sutton Valence back line. Thankfully however the SV defence was ultimately resolute and dealt well with the consecutive waves of pressure. Whilst SV left it inarguably late to finish off the contest it was in this author’s opinion very much in keeping with the general state of play when a smart move through the SV middle delivered the ball, 25 yards or so out, to the deft stick of centre-midfield maestro Tom Wilson who, with plenty still to do beat several Ash defenders to dart diagonally into the D and finish smartly into the top right-hand corner.

Overall it was a very well contested match, played overwhelmingly in good spirits, and provided further pleasing signs of SV 2’s second half of season progress.
Report by: Alastair Robinson

Team:
Stewart Young
Adrian Gander
Steve Parker
Charlie Tucker
Zak Blanchard
Alex Hodges
Alastair Robinson
Ben Tragett
James Abrahams
Tom Willson
Chris Stile
Chris Sheldon
Duncan Wills (c)

Goals : Willson (2), OG

Next Match: Holcombe Hawks (H) 14:00