Phoenix Sports

Saturday 9th December 2017
Bostik League Division One South
Herne Bay 1 – 5 Phoenix Sports
Att: 154
(Goals: Jack Steventon)

Herne Bay: Ben Hunter, Jack Steventon, Mohamed Kamara, Bradley Schafer, Jono Richardson, Danny Leonard, Connor Wilkins, Tom Carlton, Jake Embery, Junior Aikhionbare, Nassim Dukali
Subs Used: Josh Wisson (Leonard 57) Teddy Deverson (Embery 88)
Subs not used: Ryan Catmull, Tyler Myers
Man of the Match: Nassim Dukali

Playing in front of our lowest crowd of the season, we assume a mixture of very cold weather and Christmas shopping, Herne Bay fell to their heaviest home defeat of the Season as Phoenix Sports produced a really powerful second half performance which simply blew Bay away.
Substitute, Ogboe Onoriode scored two fine goals inside the last quarter of an hour to finish off the game as a contest, giving the visitors a very comprehensive victory.

It all looked very different at the start of the game with Bay pushing forward and dominating the opening 20 minutes; only some very good goal keeping from the Phoenix captain Steven Phillips, goal mouth scrambling, frantic defending and some very near misses prevented Bay from scoring a hatful of goals. As Phoenix started to get more into the game they should have taken the lead when Christie Patterson raced clear with Ben Hunter to beat but Ben saved with his boot, clearing the danger. Then with 4 minutes in the half left to play a fast counter attack down the right saw Patterson drive the ball into the box allowing Gil Cavalho to smash home. Fortunately the lead only lasted 3 minutes as Jack Steventon rose above the defence to head Tom Carlton’s corner into the top of the net.

Right at the start of the second half Junior Aikhionbare had his powerful shot well saved by Phillips who quickly fed the ball up the field to Cavalho. Hunter could only parry his shot which fell straight to the feet of Patterson who made no mistake from close range.
The speed of Patterson was causing all sorts of problems to Bays defence and it came as no surprise when he pulled the ball back from the byeline . Jeff Duah-Kessie was first to react meeting the ball and hitting past Hunter at the near post. Phoenix were now rampant and were looking like scoring at will. Then with 20 minutes left in the game Onoriode put the game out of reach with a fine strike from the edge of the area.
Bay had one chance to reduce the deficit when Jake Embery went clear through, hitting his shot through Phillips legs. The ball rolled towards the line and with Embery ready to celebrate watched Ashley Probets clear the ball off the line.
Onoriode put the icing on the cake, scoring Phoenix fifth with another fine strike.