On paper it promised so much as two Play off chasers met head on – the sad reality was that if Jose Mourinho thought West Ham had “parked their bus” at Stamford Bridge in midweek, he should have seen the double decker that Weston parked at Stonebridge Road!

You couldn’t really blame the visitors following their six goal home mauling by the Fleet in October, but for long periods the Fleet really struggled to find a way through as over the course of a ninety minutes that won’t live long in the mind, neither keeper made a save of any note with his hands.

“It’s a plus that we got a point” admitted Ebbsfleet boss Steve Brown after the game.

“A loss would have been catastrophic – we’ve now taken four points out of six off of Weston Super Mare who were remember a few people’s dark horses at the start.”

“They do things the right way in terms of football playing some lovely stuff at times and have the ability as we’ve seen – they beat second placed Eastleigh in the week – and they can beat you on any day.”

“And so in that respects a point is OK, I think with the chances that we had, we should have taken at least one of them and so I have to say that I see today as two points dropped but it’s far from disastrous – we’ve not lost at home and we’ve kept the gap between the two sides at five points.”

The Fleet manager was quite right as it was only when they went behind that the visitors offered anything going forward as the Fleet controlled most of the game but failed to test Lloyd Irish in the Weston goal anywhere near as much as Brown would have liked.

We should have known that it was going to be a tough afternoon as in the half hour before kick off we were greeted to yet more torrential rain, a glorious rainbow, brilliant almost blinding sunshine and a freezing gale force wind blowing straight down the middle of the Stonebridge Road pitch.

The home side started brightly and in the opening ten minutes Billy Bricknell fired over when well placed and Ben May was left hanging his head after a great run from Alex Osborn saw the pinpoint cross headed well wide from inside the six yard box.

Weston’s first chance arrived midway through the half as a driven free kick from the left was agonisingly just too far in front of the stretching Nady Diallo.

The half wore on and the temperature continued to fall as both sides struggled with the conditions, and it was little surprise that chances were few and far between.

Indeed what proved to be the best chance of the half arrived just before the break as an Anthony Cook free kick beat Irish’s dive and bounced off the post yet despite the keeper appearing to be poorly positioned for the original kick, he was very fortunate when the ball rebounded straight into his arms.

Irish was relieved again just after half time, and again Cook was involved. He raced away down the left and drilled a cross over. Just before it got to the keeper, the ball seemed to take a wicked bounce deflecting off of the prone Weston keeper and almost apologetically looped onto the roof of the net.

The goal that finally got the game going arrived on 56 minutes and what a strike it was that poor Irish didn’t see Bricknell’s pile driver from around 25 yards that flew into the top corner with the poor keeper completely motionless.

Ten minutes later Bricknell should have doubled the lead but this time full praise and credit to Irish as the Weston keeper raced to meet the charging Bricknell at the very edge of the box and just managed to get a toe on the ball as Bricknell tried to touch the ball past him.

Michael Thalassitis was then introduced by Brown as the home side looked for the killer second and it almost worked instantly.

Cook again profited down the left and his teasing cross this time flashing across the face of goal with the lunging sub centimetres away from scoring.

Yet all the time the Fleet were only one in front there was always the danger from one error or one mistake that Weston could level… and it happened 10 minutes from time.

Chris Sessengnon and Weston striker Chaz Hemmings clashed in the corner with Weston being awarded a throw. The Fleet full back came out of the challenge clearly in some discomfort and was struggling.

Before he could pick up his man the ball had fallen to Ashley Kingston – who had been comfortably Weston’s best player – and he made himself just enough room to fire via the inside of Preston Edwards’ right post and into the net.

The Fleet boss after the game refused to blame his full back and said, “How can I have a go at a kid for playing the game fairly? He was struggling and instead of going down for treatment, he tried to carry on.” Grinning Brown added, “He won’t get up next time!”

EBBSFLEET UNITED – Preston Edwards, Chris Sessegnon, Aiden Palmer, Daryl McMahon, Paul Lorraine, Osei Sankofa, Alex Osborn, Dean Rance, Ben May (Michael Thalassitis 70), Billy Bricknell, Anthony Cook.

Subs not used – Joe Howe, Brandon Hall, Michael Corcoran, Michael West.

WESTON SUPER MARE – Lloyd Irish, Naby Diallo, Martin Slocombe, Jordan Walker (Kane Ingram 70), Jamie Laird, Dan Gregson, Dayle Grubb, Ollie Knowles, Chaz Hemmings, Ashley Kingston, Alec Fiddes.

Subs not used – Callum Laird, Syd Camper, Bradley Ash, Cameron Brown.

Referee – Paul Harris
Assistants – Leigh Crowhurst & Matthew Goldsmith