Sittingbourne’s incredibly up and down season struck again at Bayliss Avenue on Tuesday night, as even after being to the point of a beating for most of the evening, but for a late moment of brilliance from home keeper Henry Molyneux, Jordan Greenidge would have nicked arguably one of the most undeserved points ever for the Brickies.
For the first hour, Erith Town were magnificent, creating chance after chance after chance, with the Brickies shell shocked and only a combination of some wayward finishing and an outstanding debut display of goalkeeping from on-loan keeper Carter Sullivan, meant that the Dockers only had goals from Deven Reid-Solanki and Jefferson Aibangbee to show at the break and into the second half. When Bagasan Graham angled home a header with ten minutes left, the doubt that had crept more and more into the home play in the closing stages increased dramatically. And so, when the ball fell to Jordan Greenidge deep into stoppage, Molyneux’s heroics saved the Dockers the points.
Aaron Jeffrey’s side roared out of the gates and took the game to their visitors from the off. Striker Harry Taylor was to have “one of those nights” and was the first to test Sullivan with a fierce drive that the keeper stood up to superbly. However, from the resulting corner, Erith took the lead as Reid-Solanki slotted home.
The Dockers were on fire – Sullivan denied Reid-Solanki with his legs; Taylor skied from six yards after a brilliant run from Ross Craig. The Brickies finally had a shot on Molyneux’s goal on nineteen minutes when Darren Foxley’s effort was too high with eighteen minutes on the clock.
The lead was doubled on twenty minutes when Taylor’s expert lay off was drilled beyond a hopelessly exposed Sullivan by Aibangbee.
Quite how it was still only 2-0 at the break is a mystery as Aibangbee was denied twice by good blocks; Michael Arthey’s ball across the box was inches away from Taylor; Sullivan then pulled off a miraculous save to deny Taylor twice from point blank range after the perfect centre from AJ Dyche; Reid-Solanki had a shot well saved, before Aibangbee’s follow up was cleared off the line and on the stroke of half time, the same player headed against a post.
Within all of that, the visitors did put the ball into the net – Jordan Greenidge did actually net but was deemed to have handled – and made a couple of changes mid-half but there was nothing Sittingbourne could do except start again and all the time it was only 2-0, there was hope – maybe!
And for a while the second period was much tighter and the contest as close as had been originally expected but as the minutes started to tick away, those gaps started re appearing in the Brickies back line.
Joe Boachie almost put the Brickies back in it with a pile driver that beat Molyneux all ends up but crashed off the bar. Reid-Solanki was denied by Sullivan as Erith got back on top – Arthury ski-ing the rebound before the Brickies keeper denied Bethel Groda and Taylor (for a fourth time on the night) in quick succession.
Then the whole game changed as Graham, angled a lovely header well away from Molyneux and into the side netting with eight minutes left. For the first time, the Dockers were rocking at the back as the game went end-to-end. Home sub-James Dyer hit the bar twice once with a deflected shot and once from a free kick before Sullivan gave the Brickies one last hope with another excellent save from Groda…
And all that took us a minute into stoppage time and a ball that played behind the home defence for Jordan Greenidge, but the save of the night from Molyneux saved the points for the home side and there could have been few if any in the crowd that would have denied Jeffreys side the spoils.
ERITH TOWN – Molyneux, Dythe, Goodwin, Holland, Arthey (Valler), Taylor (Petkenicius), Miles (Dyer), Aibangbee (Anderson), Jayaguru, Craig, Reid-Solanki.
SITTINGBOURNE – Sullivan, Rees (Mongoy), Graham, Chang-Brown (Salmon), Hoyte, Reiss Greenidge, Foxley (Agbebi), Boachie, Jordan Greenidge, Smith Williams.
Subs not used – Dua, Rope.
REFEREE – Mr Browne