Sittingbourne succumbed to their second defeat in succession caused by a goal in time added on, but the game will be remembered for a performance from Faversham that smacked of desperation where they niggled and carried through challenges with an incidence of stamping on Gil Carvalho’s head.

What swung the game was the referee ignored all of  this, much to the fury of the Brickies fans,  which only encouraged Faversham even more. In another day Faversham would have finished with 9 men. There was only one footballing team on show…and it wasn’t Faversham.

Sittingbourne made 5 changes from the team that lost to Phoenix Sports, Daren Hawkes, Ollie Brown, Jide Okimeji, Miles Cornwell and Gil Carvalho replacing Harry Brooks, Tyrone Guthrie, David Smith, Kane Phillip and Bola Dawodu. Chris Elliott continued his three match suspension.

This was another case of missed chances from the Brickies, starting on 4 minutes when Kane Rowland’s cross was handled in the Faversham area, Rowland took the spot kick himself but ex Brickie Simon Overland made an easy save.

Faversham played some football in the early stages and Luke Griffith’s header from a free kick went just wide of Daren Hawkes goal. For Sittingbourne Jide Okimeji and Tom Loynes swopped passes before Loynes shot forced an Overland save.

Faversham lost the ball in midfield leading to a shot from Rowland that bounced off a defender for a corner. Gil Carvalho, the liveliest player on show, had a shot go just wide.

Faversham finished the first half well and with a minute to go to half time, from a corner the ball was cleared off the line by John Coker but Griffith’s was on hand to fire the loose ball home to give Faversham the lead.

Faversham set the stool out for the second half with their bully boy tactics, with the officials taking no notice. The tactics though were working as they were breaking up any rhythm the game might have had. Carvalho was a constant threat on the left for the Brickies so Faversham had three men on him but still couldn’t stop him from finding space, but the final ball was usually wayward.

Faversham by now were being penned back and were no sort of a threat at all, and so with three minutes to go it was no surprise when Rowlands header found the back of the net. That should have been it but, as against Phoenix Sports, Sittingbourne went all out for the winner instead of perhaps consolidating what they had, and from a breakaway Faversham won a corner in the dying minutes after Hawkes had made a good save, and from the corner Griffiths fired the ball in to give Faversham an unlikely double over the Brickies.

At the end there were disgraceful scenes from some of the Faversham players who were goading the crowd, but again no action from the referee.

 

Officials:

Referee:  Jack Fagg

Assistants: Stuart Marriott, Harry Phillips

 

Sittingbourne: Daren Hawkes, Chris Webber, Laurence Ball, Ollie Brown (Yellow), (Bola Dawodu 68 mins), Ben Gorham (C), John Coker, Tom Loynes (David Smith 75 mins), Jide Okimeji, Kane Rowland, Miles Cornwell (Kane Phillip 66 mins), Gil Carvalho.

Subs not used: Lex Allan, Tyrone Guthrie

 

Faversham Town: Simon Overland, Ryan Cheek, Daniel Carrington, Danny Walder (Yellow), Matthew Bourne, Oliver Lee (C), Luke Griffiths, Chris Barnard, Carl Rook (Jake Lovell 90 mins), Mark Lovell , Ernest Okoh (Oliver Wells 82)

Subs not used: George Monger, D’Quame Copeland