Ashton Prime 4-1 Pembury Reserves

Saturday 18th October 2014, Cadogan Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells

Prime returned to the fortress Cadogan against another team that has been established in Division 1 for a number of seasons. Sykes had the rare luxury of selecting a full squad until a late withdrawal from Rich Davis left the manager with 13 to select from.

Sykes once again tampered with the formation selecting a 3-5-2 formation after Goldsmith passed a late fitness test to line up alongside Cary and Barnham. Flamank made a rare appearance at right wingback with Sykes on the other side. After last week’s midfield no-show Sykes gave Taylor, Westcott and Abu a further chance to gel and Ferguson was joined upfront by Siekanka who was chomping at the bit of getting stuck into Pembury.

Despite a slow start Prime were creating chances down the wings through Flamank and Sykes and their pace was causing issues for the Pembury defence, unfortunately for The Numbers neither could find a telling final ball to release the front two to get a meaningful shot on target.

Sander making his second appearance of the season made an early appearance after Goldsmiths hamstring gave in, not before the entire team got a typical Goldsmith dressing down to ‘kick the ball out!’. Sander came on and Sykes moved himself to the left centre back and Barnham switched to an unfamiliar right centre back role.

Prime and Pembury played out the first half with The Numbers midfield getting frustrated with one another and Pembury still keeping the ball tidily.

With it all square at half time the manager was happy with the side's performance and talked about keeping the ball wide and getting the ball into the strikers early. Abu was still disgruntled with Westcott, and they got their handbags out to settle their little cat fight.

After the break Pembury came at Prime, but the hosts exploited the gaps at the back on the break expertly and went ahead with goals from Tim Flamank who bundled home a messy goal after good work from the team. The Prime defence were unsure if it went in off his face, arm or shoulder!

Siekanka then put Prime further ahead after an uncharacteristic quick free kick was floated into his path from Cary, then Siekanka buried it passed the Pembury keeper and he celebrated like a pro.

Prime had further chances to put the game to bed with a free kick from Westcott which was blazed over the bar, and goal scorer Siekanka hitting the bar from 25 yards after a fine lob looked to have deceived the Pembury defence and goalkeeper.

After Overy took a battering from both Pembury players and his own captain he was eventually beaten when Pembury hit the post. Pembury then pulled one back after sloppy play from Prime at the back who were adjusting to a 4-4-2 formation but Prime sub Jan Nowak restored Prime's 2-goal lead after fine work from Ferguson who rattled the ball into Nowak's chest before he fooled the keeper with his eyes and finished down the middle.

There was still time for Ben Taylor to round off the win with the 4th goal after he was left with lots of space inside the box and slotted home.

Sykes nearly compounded the misery for the visitors after his free kick narrowly went over the bar much to the relief of his team mates!!

Another good result moves Prime up to 3rd in the league. A much stronger test comes away at Tonbridge Athletic next week.