Kentish Express Ashford & District
United left to rue missed chances
It’s now back-to-back defeats for Ashford United after they were beaten by Phoenix Sports at Homelands on Saturday.
First-half goals from Jeff DuahKessie and Zak Bryon dropped the Nuts & Bolts to fifth in Bostik South East and meant they lost further ground in the race for automatic promotion.
Phoenix’s opener came courtesy of an error from Lee Hook. He rushed out of his goal only to be beaten to the ball by Duah-Kessie, who nodded the ball over the stranded goalkeeper before finishing smartly into an empty net.
The away side doubled their lead three minutes before halftime; a fantastic back-heel by Duah-Kessie put midfielder Bryon through on goal and he confidently finished into the bottom corner.
A much-improved United display then followed after the break as the hosts dominated possession and created a host of chances against a resolute Phoenix defence.
But near misses from Jerald Aboagye and a disallowed header from Danny Parish were the closest the hosts came to halving the deficit, as they were ultimately left to pay for some poor finishing.
Boss Tommy Warrilow said: “We didn’t play brilliantly but these things happen in football.
“We saw two poor goals defensively, and we saw in the second-half quite a few chances that we should have taken.
“We’ve defended poorly for two goals because we didn’t really come out of the blocks in the first half. It was all sort of 50-60% and very lethargic.The second-half though was only looking one way for the whole 45 minutes. We had four or five good opportunities and didn’t take one of them.
“If we scored one goal it would have made a lot of difference but we didn’t get it, and in the end we’ve just given ourselves too much to do from the first half.
“But we’ve still got 10 games left and we’re in control of our own destiny.”
Ashford United: Hook, Aboagye, Carlse, Anidugbe, Coker, Kamara, Corne, Ajala (Williams 72mins), May, Fairweather-Johnson (Parish 46mins), Hasler. Subs not used: Wisson, Woodcock, Wealands. Attendance: 341.
‘We didn’t play brilliantly but these things happen in football’