Afewee Urban 6  Tonbridge Invicta Hurricanes 1       Sunday 4^th November 2007

Some neat passing moves, good heading and close ball control; all was going well for the Hurricanes…and then the match started!

Five minutes gone and Tonbridge were 2-0 down.  This didn’t look good.  The Afewee forwards looked fast and purposeful and their defenders were huge!  The Hurricanes’ defence had their work cut out for them but the full backs, Henry Partridge at left and Luke Bohanan at right, began to close down the dangerous breaks with some well-timed tackles.  From a goal kick a Ryan Hine header put Kane Joseph through for the first Hurricanes attack of the match but the keeper saved comfortably.  Elliot Checkley was beginning to find his form at left midfield and, following a neat lay off from George Jones,  battled his way down to the by-line before cutting back a neat cross which almost found George  in the middle.  The clearance fell to Sam Greehy whose shot went just wide.  A break on the right wing saw Afewee score again shortly after this but Hurricanes were soon back on the attack.  This time Will Clark sent a fine through ball to Elliot on the left wing; his cross found Kane who controlled and got in a useful shot which the keeper saved.

An Afewee goal either side of half time put the match beyond the Hurricanes, but their second half performance was a very good one.  The Greehy, Hine, Joseph route was unsettling the Afewee defence and from one such combination, the ball ended up uncontrolled in the Afewee area, with Kane’s pressure panicking the Afewee defender into misclearing the ball high up and over his keeper and into the net.  A deserved goal for Hurricanes.  Luke Bohanan was defending well at right back, not just dispossessing opponents but beginning to thread measured passes up the right wing to Kane who was leading the Afewee left back a merry dance, and proving a real threat.  One of Kane’s bursts up the wing led to a cross which found Gabriel Russell on the edge of the box; his left foot shot had the keeper scrambling to turn the ball round the post.  Minutes later Gabe went even closer, six yards out, thundering the ball over the bar…Our bar!  Good defending though!  There were more Hurricane attacks as the half wore on:  a Sam free-kick led to a Kane shot going just wide; a Ryan flick-on led to a Tom Mair strike, which was blocked; and Harry Hine joined Luke in tackling well on the right and supplying some excellent through balls to Kane.

In between these attacks the back four were having to work very hard.  The Afewee forwards were strong and lively but superb tackles from all the defenders were, for the most part, keeping them at bay.  And when they got through?... Stanley Hill.  Stanley was at his very best in the second half, reading the game well to race from his line and smother the danger at times and standing his ground well to make some fantastic reflex saves at others.  Having scored early in the half, Afewee only got one more and were a touch fortunate with that one, a rebound from the post falling kindly to a forward following up.  For much of the second half the Hurricanes therefore had held their own against a very strong Afewee side and they should take pride in that hard-fought and determined performance.

Man of the Match, as voted by the supporters:  for an inspired second-half performance, which included some spectacular saves:  Stanley Hill