Tunbridge Wells M1s Vs Holcombe Mens 2s

An away game Vs Holcombe 2s who finished 2nd last year, one place above us.

The game started with Tunbridge Wells coming out the blocks early, winning a couple of corners early on, putting pressure on the hosts. First goal came from Connor Poulain, flicking the ball between the goalies legs from a short corner.

Holcombe worked themselves into the game, maintaining possession for longer periods, but with the strong defensive press from T wells, only managed to break through on a couple of occasions. It seemed their more threatening players were playing in deeper lines, giving confidence to the T wells defensive line. The second goal came from a mistrapped ball from a corner, but with some lovely work between Sam George and Connor, Connor put in the rebound off his initial shot.

Shortly afterwards, a flair piece of counter-attacking work saw T wells score the 3rd from Sam Headey at the back post assisted by Sam George. A couple of more chances from Huntley, Dom and Bailey were unfortunately snuffed out by the Holcombe goal keeper and even a couple of shots were saved off the line by a Holcombe defender.

A slightly cagey end to the first half with some top quality defending from Harry, Kyle, Aaron, Charlie Cable and Sam Houldsworth saw us going into the break with 3 up.

Holcombe controlled the first part of the second half and really put pressure on the T wells defence, but with strong defending and quality keeping from Matt, they failed to break through. Several counter attacking moves saw T wells nearly finding a 4th multiple occasions, Connor was even wiped out by their goal keeper but wasn't received a card.

A change from the Holcombe press towards the end of the second half saw T wells under immense defensive pressure, conceding a few shorts and even a couple of cards. With Tunbridge Wells at 9 men, we struggled to break out of a high Holcombe press. Matt in goal, nullified anything that came his way, making saves left, right and centre. After a long 5 minutes of defending, T wells were back to 11 and with some silky hands from Sam George, splitting the Holcombe defence sideways, hit a reverse into the bottom corner in the dying minutes of the game. Holcombe becoming increasingly frustrated ended the game with 10 men.

Another clean sheet to the good, and with a +11 goal difference, Tunbridge Wells sits top of the league with 3 wins out of 3.

Next week's derby match against local rivals, Marden will be a great occasion for the club. Tunbridge Wells is looking to push on to make it 4 wins from 4.