FC Revolution 4-2 Ashton Prime

Saturday 3rd January 2015, Hayesbrook School 3G pitch, Tonbridge

2015 started with Ashton Prime playing on Hayesbrook School 3G pitch in the re-arranged fixture against FC Revolution. The home side were feeling aggrieved with the previous fixture being abandoned after 50 minutes with them leading 3-0 and had a strong squad to pick from - naming 5 substitutes compared to Prime's 2 of Seb and the enigma that is John Santos.

Prime welcomed back striker Carl Barker after he was given permission to play and was named in the middle of a front 3 with Ferguson and Siekanka.

Skipper Abu lost the toss and Revolution got the game underway. Prime hassled and harried and the midfield three of Henshall, Taylor and Abu helped to shield the defence from attacks. Revolution made the better of the first 10 minutes creating a couple of chances. Sykes was looking shaky between the sticks when he let one squirm through him Taibi style, luckily it hit his heel and went out for a corner.

Shortly after that Prime started to gain more influence in the game after the holiday grogginess had worn off. A neat bit of play between the Prime strikers, was knocked out to Taylor who used his massive left toe to punt it into the bottom corner, maybe against the run of play but a well-crafted goal.

The standard shouts of keep your focus lads from the skipper rang out and if the Prime defenders had been listening the game could have stayed 0-1 for a while long but Revolution responded quickly when The Numbers failed to clear and a cross split Goldsmith and Cary and the header looped over Sykes, making it 1-1.

Revolution pushed on and created more chances and without the blocks of Goldsmith and the head of Cary they could have had more chances and goals. Sykes made a couple of saves tipping the ball around the post.

Prime continued to push during the first half and the ball fell to Siekanka twice on the right hand side and with more match sharpness could have been expected to finish one of them. Unfortunately he skewed them both wide and the match remained unchanged till half time.

Sykes gave another rousing team talk of ‘Well done, Keep it up!’ and Prime got the second half underway with some neat passing and created a chance immediately. However it was a chance that was few and far between in the second half and the aging, booze laden legs of Prime were showing and the tempo that had served them so well during the first half had slowed.

Taylor was getting cramp and Barnham was getting swamped down the left hand side with the repeated cross field ball of Revolution. Revolution eventually made their pressure tell when a handful of mistakes from Prime left their striker one-on-one and despite a good hand from Sykes, Revolution found themselves 2-1 up.

A short while later Revolution's striker took a snap shot volley which had Sykes beaten all ends up which rattled the bar and went over for a goal kick.

Sykes took this chance to make changes, swapping Ferguson and Taylor whilst changing to a 4-4-2 formation. Santos made a couple of good runs down the right side and showed some neat touches however he was powerless to stop the 5 minute horror show that was Primes undoing.

With Goldsmith sent forward searching for the equaliser, Prime were found short at the back and a run from Revolution's winger went unchallenged fully and when The Numbers failed to clear, the winger finished well to make it 3-1 and only 2 minutes later Abu slid in with Sykes advancing - playing it around the keeper and leaving the striker with an open goal.

With a clearly frustrated and tired Ashton Prime team Revolution's goalkeeper thought he was Lloris and after being a douche with the ball and getting away with it once, he then made a clanger as he charged down a loose ball which Siekanka got to first turned inside and finished neatly from 40 yards with a clean curled pass.

Overall a tough game on the large 3G pitch at Hayesbrook but Prime will have plenty to be positive about in 2015 and the cup Semi-final they will play on the same pitch.