Tonbridge Invicta Hurricanes 5    Selsdon Rangers 2   Sunday 26^th January 2008

In the away fixture earlier in the season, Hurricanes had come away with a hard earned win and a rare clean sheet.  With seventy seconds gone and the ball in the back of the Hurricanes’ net it was clearly going to be a different story!

In fact Selsdon only held their lead for six minutes.  Despite the early goal, Hurricanes looked the stronger of the two sides in the early exchanges and Ryan Hine soon created an opening and shot low into the corner of the goal to bring the two sides level.  Five minutes later, Hurricanes took the lead.  Matt Gibbs latched onto a through ball and fired in a fine goal from the edge of the area.  The Hurricanes defence was looking very solid and grew in strength as the game went on – fine clearing headers from Will Clark, Sam Greehy and Ryan were keeping Seldon well away from the goal.  Luke Bohanan was having a fine game at right back, tackling fiercely and winning plenty of possession.  In the centre of the park there was still a tendency to watch the high balls drop before reacting but as the game progressed Kane Joseph, Matt and Lewis Floyd were all beginning to get something on the high balls through, often creating dangerous openings as a result.  On the left wing Elliot Checkley was having a great game, making a number of dangerous runs into the area and keeping the Selsdon defence very busy.  Hurricanes continued to have the edge but no more goals came.  2-1 at half time.

The second half began as badly as the first!  An early Selsdon corner caused confusion.  Hurricanes were slow to react and the ball was headed into the back of the net.  2-2.  But in fact that was just about the last serious Selsdon attack of the game.  The back four were working very well together and Harry Hine had a great game at left back, letting nothing through and setting up some good attacks on the left wing with high balls forward.  The one dangerous break Selsdon did have saw Stanley Hill half-parry the shot and as it rolled goalward Luke raced back in time to clear the danger.  In contrast Hurricanes were  threatening all the time.  Vinny Macky was having a good game in midfield, winning a lot of the ball and  supporting the attack well.  George Jones was now partnering Kane up front and a typically determined charge into the box by Kane resulted in the ball flashing across the goalmouth for George to stab neatly home.  3-2 Hurricanes.  There was no way back for Selsdon from this point.  A good shout for a penalty handball was ruled accidental and then, shortly after this legs, arms, boots, elbows, everything! was trying to score the fourth in a fine melee on the Selsdon goal line. Somehow their defence managed to keep the ball out of the goal and eventually off for a corner. But Hurricanes were not to be stopped.  Ryan produced some midfield magic to take the ball past three players before laying the ball into the path of Kane who rifled home from just inside the area.  Five minutes later Will produced some defender-suddenly-finding-himself-in-attack magic to put in Matt who coolly shot into the corner of the net from a similar distance.  5-2 at the end. A terrific performance.

Man of the Match, as voted by the supporters:  excellent tackling, so speedy he seemed to be everywhere:  Luke Bohanan