Lewisham lose out in London Cup
Wednesday September 19, 2007
Lewisham Borough 0 Thamesmead Town 3
By Mead reporter Stewart Erridge
Last year Thamesmead town reached the quarter finals on The London cup, and on a cold and rainy night at Ladywell Arena, Catford, they advanced into the next round of this years competition with a 3 -0 victory over a resilient Lewisham Borough side.
After a delayed kick off neither team was really able to stamp any authority over the opening 45 minutes. Lewisham went closest early on forcing a fine save from mead keeper Chris Conneally. Thamesmead’s James Brown went close with header and Richard Dimmock was unlucky not to open the scoring when he placed a good shot under the out stretched body of the Borough keeper only to see his effort cleared off the line and turned round for a corner.
Thamesmead were unfortunate not to go ahead when a Peter Deadman corner was headed against the underside of the bar by a Lewisham defender, Rikki Cable, Pedro Knight and also new signing Soloman Charm all went close to opening the scoring but Thamesmead couldn’t find that killer touch on the sub standard playing surface and the game looked to be heading into the break with the scores at 0-0.
All that changed as the Mead found the break through they had been looking for just before the half time whistle. A fine run by Soloman Charm saw him put a high ball into the box, Pedro Knight out jumped a static Lewisham defence and nodded the ball down to the feet of a waiting Richard Dimmock who hit a thunderous first time shot into the bottom left hand corner to give the Mead a 1-0 lead.
The second half was also delayed by five minutes as Thamesmead found themselves locked out of the away dressing room. When the action on the pitch did eventually start again Thamesmead were the quicker of the two teams off the mark with Soloman Charm putting Richard Dimmock clean through on goal only for Dimmock to blast his effort high and wide.
Lewisham controlled the next twenty five minutes of the game without ever really looking like finding an equaliser, only getting close to the Mead goal a couple of occasions.
Thamesmead Manager Keith McMahon made three substitutions with fifteen minutes to go bringing on Scott Mulholland, Dean Kearley and Curtis Williams in place of James Brown, Danny Chapman and the excellent Soloman Charm.
The changes brought a new dimension to the side, and Thamesmead soon found themselves back on top of their opponents with Rikki Cable going close at the far post having been put through by a Curtis Williams cross, and Robbie Tarrant firing a header just over the bar from a Peter Deadman corner.
Thamesmead doubled there lead late in the game when Rikki Cable played a ball up the line from within his own half to Scott Mulholland, believing the ball had gone out of play the Lewisham defence stood still but the referees assistant and the spectators on the touch line could see this wasn’t the case, this allowed Mulholland to make an unchallenged run into the box where he unselfishly squared the ball to fellow sub Curtis Williams who slotted the ball home to make the score 2-0 to Thamesmead.
Still reeling from the linesmans decision, Lewisham found themselves 3-0 down only minutes later when from deep inside his own half Scott Mullholland again linked up with Curtis Williams this time playing a long ball for Williams to run onto. Williams then expertly rounded the Borough Keeper and fired a shot into the empty net to make sure of victory for the mead.
Lewisham withdrew argueably their biggest threat ,Jordan Erskine, from the game shortly before full time but still enjoyed some late pressure going close on two occasions to finding that elusive consolation goal.
In the end Thamesmead ran out worthy winners and now have an away trip to Kent league rivals Beckenham Town to look forward to in the next round
Thamesmead Line-up (with ratings out of 10)
Conneally 7, Chapman 7 (Kearley 6), Watts 6, Coburn 6, Deadman 7, Brown 5 (Mulholland 6), Tarrant 6, Knight 6, Charm 7 (Williams 7), Cable 5, Dimmock 7
Subs not used : Kemp