Friars edged on the road

Canterbury men’s Friars lost 2-1 away to K Sports 3rds in South East Division 8 Invicta on Saturday.

The first half saw K Sport’s younger legs and wellorganised midfield mount constant pressure.

This forced a supreme effort from the Friars’ backline, who were outstanding, with goalline clearances being made by Mike Barton and Jamie Harris, while there was a good performance from Pete Bowell and good covering from Brian Hurlow.

K Sports scored two good goals, including a strike Canterbury’s 1sts would have been proud of. Newcomer Thomas Newell impressed down Canterbury’s right wing with pace and skill, but the second half mainly belonged to K Sports. Nevertheless, in the closing stages, the Friars did score a consolation goal through a first-time strike from Bowell. Canterbury named goalkeeper Paul Donovan as their player-of-the-match. The men’s 2nds lost 3-2 to Sevenoaks in Division 1 South despite goals from Alex Laslett and Josh Pebble. Their player-of-the-match was Luke Kennedy.

The 5ths built on their 4-0 success the previous week, winning by the same scoreline against Ashford 2nds.

The first league meeting between the teams before Christmas ended in disappointment for Canterbury after they conceded a last-minute goal in a 3-2 defeat.

But this time, they got off to a fine start as returning James Rollins struck with a well-taken drag flick. Canterbury doubled their advantage when Simon Buckingham deflected a cross goalwards. Chances were being created by both sides and playerof-the-match Brad Lea Brown pulled off a couple of excellent saves to keep Canterbury’s two-goal advantage at the half-time break.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with Ashford having the majority of possession but with the 5ths looking the more likely of the two sides to score.

This is indeed what happened as Simon Downes found the target and, with five minutes to go, Ethan Aitken scored a goal-of-theseason contender after an excellent counter-attack and a defence-splitting pass to round off the win.