ANGELS’ DELIGHT AS FLEET ARE HELD
TONBRIDGE ANGELS boss Jay Saunders was happy to see his side battle back to draw and close in on the top seven.
Scott Wagstaff’s goal five minutes from time cancelled out Josh Wright’s opener for the leaders.
Saunders told The NLP: “I’m happy with a point, it puts us one point from the play-offs.”
His Ebbsfleet counterpart Dennis Kutrieb was less thrilled. “I’m not so happy because we needed to score a second in the game and we had plenty of chances to do so,” he said.
Ebbsfleet arrived at Longmead unbeaten in 14 matches as they continue their almost inevitable progress towards the title.
Angels keeper Jonny Henly was called into action after ten minutes, dealing with an Omari Sterling-James effort. On 26 minutes, Fleet skipper Rakish Bingham was through but was caught offside.
A minute later, perhaps the best moment in the half for Angels came when Hinds had a shot towards Fleet keeper Mark Cousins’s near post but he was alive to the danger, pushing the ball round the post for a corner.
The 34th minute saw Henly go down to cut out a cross colliding at the same time with an Ebbsfleet player and needing treatment.
The goal that Ebbsfleet deserved came in the 42nd minute with a breakaway and although Angels initially appeared to clear the ball, it subsequently fell to the unmarked Josh Wright whose effort found the left hand corner.
The second half saw Angels play a much more assertive role in the game and the 1,770 crowd were treated to a more open affair. Immediately Tonbridge sub Devonte Aransibia was causing problems for the Fleet defence but at the other end Greg Cundle for the visitors forced a decent save from Henly and that was followed by Ebbsfleet’s Dom Poleon who created a good chance.
Jack Wood for the hosts was always a threat on the right with the danger man for Ebbsfleet, Poleon, again creating a good chance. But Tonbridge were enjoying good possession and playing most of their football in the Fleet half although Wood fired over when well placed.
Ten minutes later the hosts equalised when Fleet failed to deal with a corner and the loose ball fell to Scott Wagstaff who hammered home.
Both teams went for the winner with chances for Domi for Ebbsfleet and Wood for the Angels, but in the end a draw was probably a fair result.
Scott Wagstaff ★★★★★