Billericay 1 Tonbridge 1

[richards]

An excellent match for the spectators and probably after our sending off we would be happy with a draw playing for 75 mins or so with 10 men.

 

Our discipline was poor today although we played very well. The tackle by Manuella was diabolical, 2 footed and very high. Most supporters in the stand on far side were pretty ashamed that a Billericay player should make such a tackle, very unecessary - should be a big fine or even get rid of him. But our goalie was stupid to get booked after a couple of warnings for time wasting, Cousins was booked after a really wild challenge which fortunately missed and Russell Pond was lucky not to get booked for retaliation. After recent seasons we needed to be a bit more physical but some of our play was a bit cynical today.

 

On to the positives, a great performance and wonder goal from Lawrence Yiga and Flackie ran and ran.

 

We were on balance at the end a bit unlucky not to win. The officials were reasonably good today but what a stupid decision for the penalty, clearly ball to hand after bouncing up off the foot, no way was that a penalty.

 

I must admit with only seconds to go it was crazy that when we won a corner we decided to keep it in the corner rather than taking it properly and perhaps nicking a goal, I was standing by some Tonbridge supporters who were biting their finger nails thinking we might score and then mocking us for being so negative.

 

A good game memorable for that goal and soured by that bloody awful tackle.

[PAUL B]

Fair assessment, tho as a ref I thought the pen was right & a stupid gift at that............

[JoeV93]

But they were falling angels today not even joking there.LOL Impressed by the support of the fans today. Shoe army going to reform its place within the fans' favourites soon perhaps?

[finisterre]

You do get the impression that their players are told to go down and stay down wherever possible.

 

Can't complain with the draw having played for 70 mins with 10.

[Adam.S]

I think a lot of people would have settled for a point with 11v11 players on the field, so to draw with 10v11 is an excellent point! Also good to see that Tonbridge havn't changed their diving tactics!

 

I think Fiston deserved to go after the challenge, the Angels player was probably lucky not to have received a broken ankle because of it!! Apart from that I thought we done well to gain a point, I thought we deserved it, eventho Angels had most of the posession, they didn't do much up-front.

 

Great goal from Yiga, he saw the opening, and made the most of it, I thought he done well considering he hasn't played a lot!

 

Not sure about their penalty... Was it a penalty? From where I was, it sure didn't look like it, didn't think the officials had a good game anyway.

[extaffyjim]

"I think a lot of people would have settled for a point with 11v11 players on the field"

 

Would they? Personally i wouldnt settle for a point at home against any team in our league. I agree that having played for 70 minutes with 10 men a point is a very good result though. Strangely i still left feeling a bit disappointed at not winning, maybe because we had several good chances in the opening 20 minutes before the sending off.

 

Wasnt in a position to make any definitive judgments on either controversial incident, but Fistons tackle certainly looked and sounded horrible from where i was.

 

Aside from that it was a very good performance. From the 4 games ive seen we have enough talent and spirit to compete for a play off place.

 

MOM for me was Yiga, very good performance, topped with a quality goal.

[Blue Dawg]

I thought the ref was awful. I stand behind the goal so will take your words for it that Fiston should have gone, but aside from that the decisions were atrocious. The penalty call lost us 3 points and the officials did nothing about the diving antics at all. Virtually every decision went their way. There is no doubt in my mind that the only reason we did not come away with all three points was the ref. They never looked like breaking us down in the second half and they were gifted a joke of a penalty. Shocking.

All of our players did well, but just for some sublime bits of skill and a great finish my man of the match goes to Yiga.

[GazzaBTFC]

I realised that I didn't post anything concerning this game and whilst I was scathing about our Boreham performance, I should balance with praise for the Tonbridge game.

 

Despite going down to 10 men 20 minutes into the game, I thought we were the better team. Again a dodgy decision (IMO) made sure that the spoils were shared but these these this even themselves out over the season and the linesman was better placed to see the "hand ball".

 

There have been times when we have been down to 10 men in previous seasons and it was always a metter of holding on for long enough with fingers, toes and any other bodily apendages crossed. Inevitably we usually colapsed and got beat. Last Saturday the players on the pitch were diciplined, kept their concentration and played better than our opponents. We reduced Tonbridge to playing sdie ways and we certainly took any advantage to attack them on the break and looked as if we could've won the game. A difference from some of our performances over the past couple of seasons when in that situation.

 

Well done to the players