Sadly though for the exuberant home following and for the game as a contest in truth, the early sending off of Phoenix’s own centre half Jack Barry turned a significant challenge for the side -currently riding high in their latest rise up the Ryman ranks- into a near impossible task; having to play 75 minutes with a man short.
It had all started so much brighter for the homesters when after barely five minutes, left back Ashley Probets’ pin-pointed delivery of a free kick was steered just wide with the head from the diving Jack Hopkins.
There was little time though to savour the prospect of more moments like that, when on 15 minutes the former Zurich and Standard Liege player Texiera met a deep cross sweetly with a powerful goal-bound volley which struck Phoenix’s Barry (an unfortunate handball victim for a second game running) somewhere between his protective upper arm and his arm-pit.
It was at relatively close range and there seemed to be two covering defenders protecting the goal line – which made the red card brandished by the official after his assistant had called it a deliberate handball, more than a bit severe as a judgement. Of the many dissenting voices on the pitch Aaron Sekhon incurred the wrath of the referee; though it was best Mr. Bonneywell turned an apparent deaf ear to the home side’s bench, where boss Steve O’Boyle was incandescent with fury over the harshest of decisions.
Undeterred, Charlton’s 19 year old Karlan Ahearne-Grant, who has England caps at all three teenaged international levels, stepped up confidently and dispatched the spot kick into the top of the net. The excellence of the penalty was to be further emphasised by the beginning, after this, of a virtuoso performance by the home keeper Steve Phillips, who made save after save in surely one of the best performances of the stopper’s career.
It was a demoralising moment though but rather than adopting a stance of sackcloth and ashes, Phoenix rose to the challenge quickly – pulling level just six minutes later. Charlton had a corner but the ball broke the defending side’s way and a looping clearance found Charlton’s number 8, Chris Millar in the centre circle – under little pressure, the midfielder turned the ball back to his keeper but skewered the pass awfully setting the host’s Christie Pattison clear. The onrushing Charlton custodian Jordan Beeney forced Pattison wide, but he was coolness personified and the Phoenix wide man made the resultant tight angle look easy as he slotted the ball into the far corner to claim a fifth goal of the season.
The home crowd (dominated by a large number of youngsters on a family night out which resembled more like a Firework Display audience than a normal non league football gathering) had themselves only a few minutes to savour the unexpected equality – as the Football League big boys regained the lead on the half hour mark.
Anfernee Dijkoteel who was strong throughout in the middle of the pitch for the Addicks, stormed characteristically into the area and though the ball broke away from him it landed at the feet of Ahearne-Grant and the Greenwich-born striker who has over 20 Football League appearances under his belt for his local club made no mistake from a few yards out.
A first half hat trick seemed Ahearne-Grant’s destiny but now Phillips was holding onto everything coming his way as great saves from two other players with FL appearances on their CV, Josh Umerah and former Arsenal trainee Regan Charles-Cook also demonstrated.
It was though to be fundamentally backs to the wall time throughout the second stanza, with Euell clearly having instructed his men to put Phoenix to the sword. Phillips was the hero with a string of excellent stops – the pick of which being a gravity-defying leap to the top right of his goal to keep out Ahearne-Grant’s nailed on hat trick effort from a free kick.
Sadly though even such one man heroics couldn’t keep the floodgates closed indefinitely and on 63 minutes it was 3-1: Millar playing the ball back from the by-line to Umerah to stroke the ball home.
Eventually it was to be four, but not until the unlucky hosts were down to nine men – the ailing cramp-victim Pattison having to be helped from the field after all three subs had been used. Northern Ireland Under 21 international and Charlton skipper for the night, Mikhail Kennedy (booked early in the proceedings for a foul on the Phoenix goal scorer) played his side’s late sub, the floridly named Reeco Hackett-Fairchild, through and the teenager celebrated a first senior goal for the South Londoners.
And there was still time for the evening’s two main protagonists to meet in direct combat again –the extremely busy Phillips diving to deny Ahearne-Grant that ultimately elusive hat trick.
The crowd then filed off into the smoky November darkness; hopefully to recall in the future the day a suburban north-west Kent evening was lit up by the magic of the Kent Senior Cup – and maybe to bemoan how an overzealous referee may just have slightly ruined the night.
Teams:
Phoenix Sports: Steve Phillips, Jordan Campbell, Ashley Probets, Russell Bedford (Ryan Andrews 46), Jack Barry, Aaron Sekhon, Dajon Golding (Jason Goodchild 46), Jack Hopkins (Alistair Gordon 70), Ben Hunt, Danny Phillips, Christie Pattison.
Unused subs: Zak Bryon, Calvin Poku
Charlton Athletic: Jordan Beeney, Aaron Barnes, Joe Aribo, Anfernee Dijkoteel, Jorge Texiera (Louis-Michael Yamfam 66), Dan Bowry, Regan Charles-Cook, Chris Millar (Reeco Hackett-Fairchild 71), Karlan Ahearne-Grant, Mikhail Kennedy, Josh Umerah.
Unused subs: Archie Edwards, Dimitar Miton, George Lapslie
Goals:
Phoenix Sports 1 (Pattison 22)
Charlton Athletic 4 (Ahearne-Grant 15(pen), 31; Umerah 63; Hackett-Fairchild 85)
Officials:
Referee: Daniel Bonneywell; Assistants: Christopher Myatt & Samuel Jackson
Attendance: 347