Bears stun title favourites
Southern Counties East BROWNING HAPPY AS K SPORTS MAKE AMENDS IN STYLE
Bearsted have their first win of the season after upsetting Southern Counties East League Premier Division title favourites Ashford United.
Sam Flisher finished an 82nd-minute corner to give Bears a much-needed 1-0 away victory on Tuesday night.
They travelled to Homelands with three draws and four defeats from their opening seven games.
Manager Kevin Stevens, whose side are up to 15th, said: “Ashford are favourites for the title. They’ve got a big budget at this level so to go there without two recognised centre-backs and win was fantastic.
“We’ve actually been really unfortunate this season. When we went to Deal last Tuesday they were the first team who’ve played better than us.
“We’ve been in every other game and could easily have won them all.
“It’s easy to say it but confidence was still high but, as anyone knows, if you keep not getting results it can drain you.
“We rode our luck but then we haven’t had the rub of the green in other matches.
“There’s real quality in this squad. We’ve got a mix of youth and experience and we think we can beat anyone.”
Victory at Ashford followed a 1-0 home defeat by Pagham in the club’s first FA Vase tie last Saturday.
Pagham settled quickly and it needed a point-blank save from keeper Scott Andrews to keep Bears level, followed by a goalline clearance by Andy Foster.
The winner came on 20 minutes when Ryan Morey crossed for Scott Murfin.
A reshuffle helped Bearsted, who went close through Andy Irvine and Bradley Webb, while Keelan Mooney had the ball in the net in the last minute but the linesman’s flag was up for offside.
Stevens said: “The guys said the goal at the end was a yard onside but Pagham probably deserved to nick it.” K Sports bounced back from their Rusthall humiliation by winning 4- 0 at Phoenix Sports Reserves on Saturday. Kris Browning’s side acted quickly to get the 6-1 defeat out of their system, with goals from Rob Norman and Caine Smith giving them a 2- 0 lead inside 13 minutes. Smith scored again on the hour, with Norman adding his second in the last minute to send Sports 11th in Southern Counties East Division 1. Browning, who gave a debut to new signing Ashley Cooper, said: “It was a good response after Rusthall. “I was a bit raw and said some things I probably shouldn’t have. I was surprised the team turned up on Saturday after what I said but they were all there.” There was a minute’s silence before the game in memory of former APM chairman Brian Reynolds, who died last week. Sports visit Holmesdale in the Kent Senior Trophy preliminary round tomorrow (Saturday).