Having travelled quite a bit to watch games in recent weeks, I decided to return to the local excitement of the Southern Counties East Football League for today’s game. I came to Cobdown Stadium, home of Division 1 side K Sports, to watch them in their fixture with Meridian VP.

K Sports came into the game in eleventh place, but only seven points behind Staplehurst Monarchs who occupy the final play off position, although having played two games more. Managers Ian and George Batten have seen their side score goals from across the team this season with Alfie Bates (3 goals), Joe Skinner (3 goals) and Brad Adkins (3 goals) tying for an unlikely top scorer of the season award. A win today, on the back of a heavy defeat to Staplehurst Monarchs in the last match, would have really ignited K Sports’ season.

Meridian VP sit in thirteenth place, with theee wins and two draws from the opening 12 games. Goals have been relatively easy to score, with Christian Ibitoye (5 goals) and Zach Jacubowski (6 goals) leading the way. Meridian VP’s weakness has been the frequency of goals conceded with 42 goals being given away in the 12 games. Manager Dwinder Tamna would have been hoping that his defence could show some resilience and lock down their goal, in order to give Meridian VP a fighting chance today.

The game was predictably tightly fought throughout the first 30 minutes. Most of the play was focused around the midfield with occasional chances for both sides. Frustratingly the final pass or cross was often misplaced, denying any clear scoring opportunities.

In the 34rd minute Meridian VP’s Zach Jacubowski broke free on the left hand side of the K Sports six yard box, finding enough space to flick the ball past Adam Lovell, the home side’s goalkeeper, to put the away side 0-1 ahead.

The remainder of the first half saw K Sports pressing hard, driven by George Batten’s passing and the pace of Ben Bayoko, as they battled to find an equaliser. As the half time whistle blew, it was however Meridian VP who took the 0-1 lead into the break.

The second half was just as tightly fought with some strong defending and some nervy form in front of goal, from both teams. As the match moved into the last quarter both managers made substitutions, with Ian Batten trying to inspire a goal, whilst Dwinder Tamna was hoping to close out the match.

Just when it looked as if the game would end up going in the away side’s favour, and as the match went into its 80th minute, substitute Todd Brand dribbled the ball to the edge of the Meridian VP penalty area, before firing the ball home to level the scores at 1-1.

Meridian VP came back sharply, inspired by the pain of losing the lead, but their goal scorer Zach Jacubowski, missed a chance to put the visitors back in the lead. Then, with just six minutes of normal time left, K Sports were ahead when Brand again was able to fire the ball home, after another strong run into the opposition area.

The final minutes saw Meridian throw everything into trying to salvage a point from the game, having led for so much of the match. Unfortunately for them, there was no joy to be had today and as the final whistle blew it was K Sports who took the three points after a very tough challenge.

Meridian VP will know they threw this away, having led 0-1 with just ten minutes to play. However there was much in their play to admire today and they will now need to learn how to close out a result. For Ian and George Batten there is the pride in a hard earned three points and finally a belief that their young side might be able to push for a promotion play off spot.