Dover Athletic 0 Tonbridge Angels 1
Tonbridge Angels, blue, try
to pressurise the Dover defence. Picture: Tony
Flashman
by Alex Hoad
Tonbridge Angels completed a festive double
over Dover Athletic after a stoppage-time winner secured a
1-0 victory at Crabble in Blue Square Bet South on New Year’s
Day.
Impressive debutant David Ijaha slid in the
winner for the visitors in the 92nd minute to
silence the majority of the segregated 1,102 crowd – the biggest of
the season at Crabble – and make it two wins in six days for Angels
over the Whites.
Dover created plenty of chances but found Angels keeper Lee
Worgan in fine form and his defence in committed mood as they
secured their first clean sheet in 20 games.
Whites' Ian Simpemba almost got on the end of
an inswinging Barry Cogan free-kick in the ninth minute, but Angels
thought they had gone ahead on 22 when Mark Lovell tapped in a
loose ball.
However the linesman's flag denied the
former Dover forward after keeper Mitch Walker had tamely
parried a Frannie Collin shot from a low cross from the right by
Sonny Miles.
At the other end, Dean Rance and Billy
Bricknell saw shots saved by Worgan, while Angels' Lee Browning
fizzed a 25-yard volley past Walker’s post on the half-hour.
Four minutes later Simpemba headed one of a
plethora of set-pieces in the Angels half towards goal, but Worgan
somehow tipped his downward header on to a post, with Miles
then beating Simpemba to the rebound to hack the ball off the
line.
Moses Ademola should have done better on his
first Dover start when he fired over unmarked from a Cogan
free-kick on 36 minutes, but after the break Angels grew in stature
with Ijaha, newly acquired from St Albans, increasingly influential
in midfield.
He stung the palms of Walker from 25 yards on
52 minutes while, at the other end, Ademola beat the offside trap
on the hour and attempted to round Worgan, only for Ben May to
take the ball off his toes with a shot which was blocked by a
defender on the line. May then rattled the upright with
the follow-up, before Cogan’s third shot in the space of as many
seconds was blocked on the line before being scrambled away.
Calum Willock was introduced by Dover boss
Nicky Forster soon after, but he lashed his only
chance wide from 18 yards while former Whites striker George
Purcell was twice denied by Walker at the other end.
The only goal arrived midway through five
minutes of stoppage-time when lively Angels sub Aaron Gayle kept
the ball alive down the right and the ball was eventually swung in
for Ijaha to turn low past Walker off the inside of a post
from 12 yards.
There was still time for Daryl McMahon to clip
the bar with a curling free-kick as Dover desperately sought a
breakthrough, but the final whistle made it back-to-back defeats
for the title-chasers, who had won their previous six games.
Third-placed Dover lost ground on leaders
Salisbury and second-placed Welling, who both won, while Tommy
Warrilow's Angels climbed to 10th with the win.
How much damage do you think Tonbridge have done to
Dover's title chances? Have your say below.
01/01/13
- Click here for more news from across the county...