Kent County League
Les Leckie Cup Eastern Section
Semi Final
Saturday 12th March 2022
Kick Off 14.15 On Time !
Cinque Ports 0 Hildenborough Athletic 1, attendance 48
47’ 0-1
@ Marke Wood Recreation Ground
Dover Road
Walmer
CT14 7JG
No Admission
£1 Programme, 40 pages.
It was a fair slog from Sevenoaks down to Walmer, just south of Deal, on the east coast of Kent. In fact, I only arrived twelve minutes before kick off and was pleased to see the game was going ahead. Neither club had bothered to reply on Twitter as to whether the game was definitely on and a text message to the home club secretary was also ignored. I suppose this can be expected at this level (Step 9), but it is still a poor reflection on both clubs.
The cup tie pitted two teams from Division 2 Central & East, as 7th hosted 1st in the league table. Hildenborough were well on top from the off and Cinque Ports rode their luck as they faced a constant wave of attack from the visitors. Despite being outplayed, Cinque Ports should have scored twice in the first half, a lob over the ’keeper hit a post and an unmarked header should really have been put away. As it was, it remained goalless at halftime.
Two minutes into the second half Hildenborough broke the deadlock, when a through ball was finished with a lob over the on rushing ’keeper. They went close to doubling their lead, but an effort came back off the post and Cinque Ports then saw a block tackle result in the ball spinning up onto the crossbar, as they pushed for an equaliser. It felt like the Referee had forgotten to restart his watch at some point, as despite a couple of stoppages, there were nowhere near the amount he added on. Eleven minutes had been added, when the hosts were awarded a penalty for a handball, but a poor spot kick was easily saved by the visitor’s ’keeper. Two more minutes passed, before a corner on the right for Cinque Ports was headed towards the far corner of the net, but the ‘keeper somehow got a hand to it, sending it wide of the post and seconds later the final whistle blew.
