On This Day – 17th March
On This Day – 17th March – 2014
SCEFL Premier Division
Canterbury City 1 – 1 Holmesdale
Seven years ago today Canterbury City drew 1-1 with Holmesdale at Winch’s Field.
Holmesdale would finish the season in 10th position with City 2 places below them in 12th
On This Day – 17th March – 2015
SCEFL Premier Division
Ashford United 2 – 1 Erith & Belvedere
Corinthian 0 – 4 Phoenix Sports
Deal Town 4 – 1 Canterbury City
Erith Town 1 – 5 Greenwich Borough
Holmesdale 1 – 2 Crowborough Athletic
Lingfield 6 – 1 Lordswood
SCEFL Challenge Cup
Tunbridge Wells 2-0 Beckenham Town
Phoenix Sports would finish top of the table at the end of this season, helped by today’s 4-0 win at Corinthian.
Louis Valencia, Andy Constable, Michael Jenner and Chris Hill got the goals for Phoenix who would only lose 1 game throughout this successful campaign.
Runners-up Ashford United beat Erith & Belvedere 2-1, with Gary Clarke and Liam Whiting scoring and Crowborough Athletic also won 2-1 with Michael Death and Jason Barton getting the goals at Holmesdale.
Ryan Philpott got his second hat-trick of the week, as his Deal Town side beat Canterbury City 4-1 and Greenwich Borough were also impressive winners, hitting Erith Town for five. Paul Vines and Mo Eisa both scored doubles for Borough.
Lingfield were the biggest winners of the day as Chris Shanny and Charlie Goodlake were among the goals in a 6-1 win at home to Lordswood.
Tunbridge Wells turned around a 3-2 to deficit to reach the Challenge Cup Final after a 2-0 semi-final second leg win over Beckenham Town.
Lee Radford and Paul Booth got the goals for Wells, who would play against Greenwich Borough in the final.
On This Day – 17th March – 2018
SCEFL Premier Division
Sevenoaks Town 4 – 1 Hollands & Blair
Sheppey United 2 – 1 Cray Valley PM
SCEFL First Division
Bridon Ropes 2-1 FC Elmstead
Sevenoaks Town collected a 4-1 win at home to Hollands & Blair on their way to winning the title.
A Kenny Pogue double plus strikes from Brett Ince and Harrison Carnegie won the game for the hosts with Kushal Campbell scoring the the consolation effort for Blair.
In the only other game on this rain-soaked day Sheppey United beat Cray Valley 2-1 with Hicham Akhazzan and Timmy Babbington getting the goals for the Ites.
Only Bridon Ropes v FC Elmstead survived the bad weather on this day in the First Division with the game going the way of hosts. Substitutes Adam Smith and Nathan Simpson got the goals for Ropes, who would finish the campaign in an impressive 5th place.
On This Day – 17th March – 2019
FA Vase Semi Final
Cray Valley PM 1-0 Canterbury City
Cray Valley have the narrowest advantage to take into their second leg of their FA Vase semi-final against Canterbury City next Saturday after edging out their visitors 1-0 in today’s first leg.
Ryan Flack got the only goal of the game in the 55th minute in front of a record crowd for Cray Valley of 663.
The match got off to a strange start when Cray Valley keeper Andy Walker went down injured inside his penalty area in the first 30 seconds. Walker received treatment and was clearly struggling when play restarted, holding his hamstring and needing defenders to help with his goal kicks throughout the game.
Adam Woolcott shot from distance but there was clearly nothing wrong with Walkers handling.
The weather dictated proceedings throughout the rest of the first half as we witnessed torrential rain, hailstones and strong winds aswell as calm skies and sunshine.
Going into the break City will feel that they had the better of possesion despite failing to create any concrete chances.
Although the pitch conditioning was worsening the weather improved and with it so did the action and excitement of the game in the second half.
The first goal came in the 55th minute and was a great solo effort from Cray right-winger Ryan Flack. He was allowed to cut in from the byline and while the defenders marked his fellow attackers he shot left-footed into the bottom corner, giving Jack Delo little chance in the City goal.
Soon after, Ashley Sains saw his header saved before Canterbury should have levelled the game. Dean Grant got in behind the Millers defence before cutting the ball back from the byline. Bola Dawodu looked certain to score as he arrived in the six-yard box but he slipped and couldn’t connect sweetly with the ball, which ended up in Walker’s gloves.
Cray then had a great double chance to extend their lead. First Gavin Tomlin saw his efforts blocked before he turned provider, only to see his cross skyed by Anthony Edgar, who should have done better.
For the rest of the game, Canterbury dominated and came close to scoring on a few occassions. Grant just could not beat Walker, even though he had multiple opportunites, and Ryan Cooper and Dan Lawrence also had efforts cleared.
The full time whistle merely signalled the half-time stage of this tie. It is well poised, Cray Valley have the lead but back on home soil Canterbury City will be an even tougher prospect than today.
Faversham is the place to be next Saturday where by 5pm we will have confirmed the name of the SCEFL side that will be taking that walk along Wembley Way with the support of our League behind them.
As we now all know very well now, Cray Valley made that walk after the second leg of this semi-final finished all square.