A lot of hard work and some occasional flashes of real inspiration. It’s not rocket science this football, and Sittingbourne stayed joint
top of Bostik League South East by making it two wins out of two this season.
top of Bostik League South East by making it two wins out of two this season.
Greenwich often played the prettier football but Sittingbourne’s game was more effective, and their finishing was in a different class.
This wasn’t quite as comprehensively good as the win at Horsham on the opening day of the season, but you can’t complain about four goals and what turned out to be a decisive and deserved victory.
This wasn’t quite as comprehensively good as the win at Horsham on the opening day of the season, but you can’t complain about four goals and what turned out to be a decisive and deserved victory.
Their next opponents in the league, Cray Wanderers, will be a whole lot tougher to overcome, but you can only beat what’s in front of you and Sittingbourne successfully did just that.
Hardly surprisingly, they named an unchanged team – and subs – from the Horsham game, and were led out onto the pitch by birthday boy mascot Paul Gambell, arguably the best singer of them all behind the goal and certainly one of the club’s loyalist ever supporters.
It was a cagey first 20 minutes with Greenwich enjoying the majority of the possession, but Sittingbourne showed them how to turn chances into goals. Tom Fagg neatly set up Dan Parkinson as the midfielder burst forward into space to cleverly score inside the near post. He wears probably highly fashionable boots, one mostly white and the other black, and for the record he scored with the white one.
Greenwich had hardly had a shot on goal but they equalised after 42 minutes when a long, deep cross from the left was spilled by keeper Pat Lee, and Toluwanile touched it over the line.
Within two minutes Sittingbourne were back in front when Parkinson turned provider, hitting a beautiful pass through for Ira Jackson. The impressive winger still had plenty to do, but he cut in, beat one defender, and scored for the second successive week with a confident left-foot shot past one-time Sittingbourne keeper Jordan Carey.
Sittingbourne’s worst moment of the game came straight from the second half kick-off when they were caught cold with Greenwich’s Walters dribbling into the area and drawing the foul from Josh Dorling. Taiwo sent the keeper the wrong way to equalise from the resulting penalty. Twice in front and twice pulled back, but Sittingbourne went 3-2 up on the hour. A long throw by Lewis Chambers, his first of the game, caused mayhem in the Greenwich defence. The ball was half-cleared but Parkinson headed it back in, Lex Allan rose highest to head it across goal and Tom Loynes – just like last week – was anticipating just the right place to be in to score from close range.
Sittingbourne controlled the last half-hour well, with captain Chris Webber outstanding in defence, and sealed the win with a cracker by Jackson on 79 minutes. He hit a magnificent free-kick from well outside the box powerfully and with great accuracy into the top corner. His celebration was great stuff too, ending with a sprint and somersault back in his own half – not to mention a yellow card for taking his shirt off. Bit of a contrast from his free-kick in the first half from a similar position which Jackson hit out of the ground.
A 4-2 win over a Greenwich team, albeit a vastly different Greenwich team, who did the double over them last season will do very nicely. If Sittingbourne continue to work as hard as this, and score goals as good as this, then there’s plenty to look forward to.
Sittingbourne: Patrick Lee, Rob Lofting, Josh Dorling, Dan Parkinson (Izzy Adebayo, 82 min), Lex Allan, Chris Webber (Yellow card), Ira
Jackson (Yellow card), Lewis Chambers, Bola Dawodu (Johan Caney-Bryan, 86 min), Tom Fagg (Yellow card), Tom Loynes (Khalil McFarlane, 81 min).
Jackson (Yellow card), Lewis Chambers, Bola Dawodu (Johan Caney-Bryan, 86 min), Tom Fagg (Yellow card), Tom Loynes (Khalil McFarlane, 81 min).
Subs not used: Harrison Hatfull, Harry Brooks.
Greenwich Borough: Jordan Carey, Malakai Field, Connor Peters, Soloman Taiwo (Yellow card), Cameron Reardon, Simba Kubiwa, Kayne Roberts, Amadh Waritay (Xavier Vidal, 72 min), Timileyin Tolwanile (De Juane Taylor-Crossdale, 72 min, Yellow card), Laurent Mendy (Yellow card), Tushuan-Tyreese Walters (Yellow card).
Subs not used: Andrew Samuels, Philipp Brown-Bampoe, Stelies Elia.
Referee: Isaac Searle.
Assistants: Richard Joss, Nick Dunn.
Attendance 148
TAGS: Sittingbourne FC