Kent County League
Division 3 West Cup
Group A
Thursday 4th April 2024
Kick Off 18.15 Actual 18.26
Agenda 3 A.F.C. Lewisham 2, attendance 14
8’ 1-0
32’ 2-0
46’ 2-1
63’ 2-2
80’ 3-2
@ The Memorial Ground
Belvedere Sports Club
101a Woolwich Road
Belvedere
London
SE2 0DY
No Admission or Programme.
Belvedere Sports Club has two pitches, running widthways when looking from the clubhouse building, separated by a cricket square. Tonight’s game was on the further of the two, roped along the near side and railed on the other, where there are two brick built dugouts, both without a roof, (although they were leaning up against the back of each) and a quite substantial sloping pitch dropping away to the left.
I’d had a very quick reply via text message from the home club that the game was going ahead okay and arrived just over an hour before kick off to see the corner flags being put out and nets start to be up. The person doing the job was wearing a top with a Belvedere F.C. badge on (they are the main club here, with Agenda being the tenants) and I was very surprised to find out a little later that he was also the Referee!
The players didn’t start arriving until around 17.30 and it soon became evident that there was no chance of kicking off at the advertised time of 18.15. We finally got underway at 18.26, with the Referee very sensibly opting to play 2 x 40 minute halves. Lewisham only had ten players when we kicked off, with an outfield player taking over in goal temporarily, whilst the proper ‘keeper was getting changed by the dugout, as he was one of the last players to arrive.
The stand in pulled off a superb save early on, but even though Lewisham were up to full strength about five minutes in, it only took Agenda eight minutes to open the scoring. The first twenty minutes was one way traffic, but once Lewisham settled down, it became a really good contest and was much more the type of game you’d expect from two teams who are currently second and third in this division. They’ve already played each other twice in the league (2-1 here and 2-2 at Lewisham) whilst Agenda won 3-1 (AET) when they met in the West Kent Challenge Shield Semi-Final a couple of weeks ago.
It was 2-0 after 32 minutes and Agenda looked to be cruising. Six minutes into the second half Lewisham got back in it, with a 20 yarder into the bottom corner and just after the hour mark they drew level, with a 25 yarder looping over the ‘keeper into the top corner. Both sides went all out for a winner, with Agenda nicking it right on eighty minutes, finishing clinically from the edge of the box after being played through on goal. Three minutes of stoppage time were played and it was very dark when the final whistle went at 19.55.
