Wells hang on in fantastic advert for football

Most midweek nights for me are a Tuesday when the majority tend to play but having scoured the Non-League Paper on Sunday for where to go it was either teams I’d already seen and in some cases the away side too and others I just didn’t fancy.

Holmesdale vs Tunbridge Wells allowed me a few things on Wednesday night, namely a different evening to take in a game, get to meet up with Eddie Mackintosh and Rob Shirley two Bromley fans I chat to quite often on Twitter and a chance to catch up with the Wells management team of Rich Styles and Dan Morrin after we were thwarted a couple of weeks ago.

It was also a first visit to Holmesdale near Bromley and with both sides comfortably in mid-table with neither troubling the top nor the bottom three points

In front of a reasonable sized crowd on a decent playing surface, early indications were we were in for a fast paced moving game and it wasn’t a long wait for the first goal either.

Less than five minutes on the clock and the opening goal arrived for the home side, James Shields slotting home after one of his fellow strikers had crashed the ball against the bar with the rebounding landing right in front of him.

Dale were playing neat football with some deft touches and wanting to run at the Wells defence but couldn’t add to their tally whilst Wells were finding it hard to keep the ball at the right end of the pitch. They did however get a lifeline on 21 minutes, Fjord Rogers netting with a well taken penalty from the spot to level the scores.

Back came Holmesdale again and just before the half hour mark they re-took the lead, the ball falling to James Rawsthorne whose calm finish was beyond Aaron Lee-Wharton.

Once again the visitors probed away starting to play the better football and out of nowhere they equalised two minutes before half time, Kyron Lightfoot from all of 25 to 30 yards out let fly and his shot sailed over the head of the despairing Nathan Edwards in the Dale goal as the sides went into the interval all square.

Styles either had a few words to say at half time or tweaked the formation slightly as Wells pressed from the off and Dale finding they were unable to get out of their own half but good chances created were at a premium.

Just after the hour mark the visitors were in front for the first time with another fantastic strike, Robbie Bissett was allowed to stroll forwards and his fierce shot beat Edwards, hit the post and rested in the back of the net.

Eight minutes later Matt Gething had an easy tap in at the far post after good work from Rogers down the right hand side and at that point Wells were seemingly in control of the game and good value for the three points.

From there with twenty minutes to play the game opened up as Dale pushed on again to get a way back into the game and Wells countered to the same effect to add more goals.

The home side were back in the game twelve minutes from time as Owen Punselie capitalised on some pinball in the area to reduce the arrears and set up a nervy end to the game.

There were one or two chances for both sides to score, before the home side had the chance in the final minute of stoppage time to snatch a deserved draw but a rush of blood to the head saw the effort spooned high over the bar, the referee’s whistle bringing an end to a pulsating game of football.

I don’t think the words above give the game enough justice to be honest, an absolute brilliant advert for the Southern Counties East Premier Division with three brilliant goals, a penalty and a couple of tap in’s, it had the lot!

As always great to catch up with Rich and Dan, I said to Dan afterwards there wasn’t much time to catch your breath during that 90 minutes, hopefully there’s time left to visit the Culverden Stadium before the season’s out.

Company of Eddie and Rob was top drawer, the two Bromley fans I’ve been speaking to on Twitter for a long while and it was great to finally meet at long last, wonderful guys I hope to see again and whilst we watched the game having a great chat with a groundhopping Southend Utd fan, bit of a National League love in!       

Had a brief chat with Dale boss Lee Roots afterwards on the way out with Eddie and Rob, not a bad little side he has there and with a comfortable placing this year they could be well set to kick on next year with a few more additions.