Hawkenbury 0-0 Ashton Prime

Saturday 1st November 2014, Hawkenbury Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells

The Numbers travelled to Hawkenbury play the side that beat AFC Valour last week. Sykes only made one change to the starting line up with Buckland coming in at right back for Taylor, pushing Henshall into a more advanced role on the right side leaving Seb Abraham and a hobbling Goldsmith on the bench.

Hakwenbury won the toss and chose to kick down the hill, with the wind. Prime goalkeeper Reece Overy needed a cap, to keep the low autumn sun out of his eyes and was assured in mopping up the long balls of the Hawkenbury centre halves to the fast Hawkenbury striker leaving the back four of Prime with little to do but ensure the ball rolled through to The Numbers keeper.

Chances were few and far between throughout the game however the best ‘chance’ of the first half fell to Prime who after a melée in the box saw captain Abu attempt an overhead kick which was dealt with by the home team's defence. Overall the first half was close and chances were hard to come by. A long shot from Westcott was the only other real chance of note after Prime were caught offside on a number of occasions including the marauding Buckland.

Buckland, Cary and Barnham all made crucial tackles during the first half including a crunching tackle from the perma-tan man, leaving the Prime squad shell shocked that he hadn’t Buckered the Hawkenbury left winger.

That tackle obviously left an impression as at half time Hawkenbury made a change to test the impressive right back but he dealt with the new player who Goldsmith had touted as a ‘danger man’.

Half time was positive - Prime were pleased to holding their own with a side who had beaten a team that had demolished Prime a couple of weeks earlier.

The second half followed a very similar pattern to the first half with Prime now kicking down the hill they created more chances firstly through a long speculative shot from Westcott which went harmlessly wide and a chance for Jarek Siekanka which he created after a good run and his left footed drive just drifted the wrong side of the upright.

Hawkenbury also had their chances, their left winger evaded a number of soft tackles from Prime and fired across the box only for no-one in yellow to be on the end of it, leaving Prime lucky to not be punished for not putting a foot through the ball.

Sykes launched a number of trade mark long free kicks hoping for Cary, Ferguson or a Prime player to get a touch on one of them, and were unfortunate a number of occasions when the ball slid through for a goal kick.

The closest any team came to getting a winner was Hawkenbury whose right back reacted first to smash a 25 yard thunderbolt which looked destined to hit the back of the net until Overy got a crucial finger to tip it onto the bar and Buckland was able to clear the danger.

Despite pressure from both teams the game played out to a rare 0-0 draw in the Tonbridge League, leaving Prime still in the top half of the league.