Tony Rickson previews Sittingbourne v Cray Valley
PM, Tuesday 20th August 2019
Four new teams joined Sittingbourne’s league this season
and one of them, Cray Valley Paper Mills, are the visitors for the first league
match of the season at Woodstock, on Tuesday evening.
And Cray Valley arrive with an impressive record, having
won the South East Counties League last season as well as reaching the final of
the FA Vase at Wembley, and after making an unbeaten start to this season.
Sittingbourne, too, are unbeaten but their BetVictor
Isthmian League South East Division season started a week later, kicking off
with a 1-1 draw in the Kent derby at Whitstable Town on Saturday.
It was a valiant effort by the Brickies as they played
more than half the match with 10 men after on-loan striker Roman Campbell was
sent off for his second booking.
Campbell, who had put Sittingbourne ahead from the
penalty spot after Chris Barnard was fouled, took full responsibility for his
actions, said manager Chris Lynch, though he was clearly provoked.
The Gillingham youngster had only signed for a month back
at Sittingbourne that morning, but he was on familiar territory after playing
for the Brickies at the end of last season.
Had it stayed 11 v 11 at Whitstable, Sittingbourne,
fielding a mixture of last season’s team supplemented by four new signings,
would surely have fancied going on to win.
As it was, an error by goalkeeper Tom Benham in an
otherwise assured debut allowed Whitstable to equalise midway through the second
half. And Benham was also quick to apologise for his mistake in a Twitter
posting.
Both Lewis West and Cory Walters-Wright slotted
comfortably into defence in their first competitive starts for the club, captain
Chris Webber moved to the midfield role he’s been playing in pre-season, while
Tommie Fagg provided a constant challenge to the Whitstable defenders.
While Sittingbourne were drawing their opening game, Cray
Valley PM were also drawing, 0-0 at home against highly-fancied Hastings United.
It was their second Saturday of the season, as the
previous week they’d beaten Chatham Town 2-1 in the extra preliminary round of
the FA Cup, earning themselves a home tie this coming Saturday against
Whyteleafe.
Founded exactly 100 years ago, it’s taken Cray that long
to reach this level of football but they’re clearly ambitious to continue the
progress made in recent years.
The match kicks off at Woodstock at 7.45pm on Tuesday
evening and fans are reminded it’s now £10 for adults to get in (still £5
concessions).
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