A great result for Lordswood who won 2-1 in front of a large crowd including Faversham’s 1st team manager. It was a great night for all involved, and Manager Andy Slade commented: “I am proud of the boys achievements lately and how it’s all come together, and to have outsiders seeing it and telling me can only be good. We now have to face a very punishing finale with 4 games in 8 days, and we still have to finalise Margate away as well.”

Lords started brightly and took the game to Faversham, having the better of the opening 20 minutes and creating several chances. Govans was lively up front and hit a good shot on the turn which went straight at the keeper, whilst Prescott, who put his body on the line and won a lot of tackles, clipped a hot just a little too high and wide after turning into a good position in the area.

Dodge, in the Lords goal, had made one good save at the other end and the game was proving to be pretty well balanced although it was fair to say that Lordswood arguably looked more likely to score, until Faversham started attacking with more regularity and stringing a few passes together to create opportunities.

Faversham scored on 25 minutes, the ball falling to the feet of one of their strikers following a scramble from a corner. The Lordswood players were not quick enough to close the player down and the shot was hit hard and high into the roof of the net from 10 yards.

This goal seemed to hit Lordswood hard, and they looked to start falling apart with a couple of players looking visibly dejected and the ball being given away cheaply. Snelling got injured shortly after the goal, aggravating an old injury, and Willden came on to replace him to support Slade in the centre of midfield. Lordswood looked to not be trying hard enough up front at times following a bright start, the midfield was not linking up enough with the attack and the ball was being given away too much. Half time came and it was 1-0 to Faversham.

“The game was far from over,” said Slade. “It never is until the 90th minute and the players were all reminded of that. Salter’s Lane is such a big pitch that if you keep possession and support each other to keep the ball and relax when you have more time then we could take charge of this game and win it. We reminded the boys that we had come here in the cup 2-0 down at half-time and won.”

Another enforced change was made, with Prescott making way for Royall. Royall, with fresh legs and everything to prove cut Faversham open several times. Govans was looking more of a physical threat to the Faversham defence who had only conceded 10 goals in the league prior to this game, and Eddie Morant was becoming a strong attacking threat as well and was now getting on the ball with much more freedom to play. He started to beat their defence with cunning and worked his way into shooting positions a couple of times. Willden was playing with discipline and was winning balls in important areas whilst Slade won almost everything in the air and with Willden and Welch was bossing the midfield. Rye had been beaten cleanly a few times in the first half but raised his game and helped to shut Faversham out and got time on the ball to push forward and support attacks. Le Mar had a few concentration lapses but recovered and cleared his lines when he needed to and played good balls forward to start attacks. Keen and Dampier were confronting the Faversham attack and snuffing out promising moves keeping their discipline most of the time.

Faversham had been warned several times by the Lordswood attack, before Royall sliced through their defence again and hit a great strike into the corner beating the Faversham keeper. No less than was deserved on 70 minutes. Faversham replied with a few dangerous attacks of their own – a mix up between Dodge and Keen saw the Faversham attacker have a chance but he was pushed wide and failed to capitalise.

Then came the winner, on 80 minutes Govans was taken out close to goal just as he was about to shoot. He dusted himself down and took the resulting penalty himself, slotting past the keeper. 2-1.

“Faversham were going to come at us,” said Manager Slade. “We knew that but were braced for it and set up accordingly. We instructed the midfield to sit and win back and retain possession, with the strikers asked to help support that by giving an outlet to pass to. As much as Faversham pressed, we managed to break their attacks up and looked likely to get a 3rd on the break. The midfield showed great energy levels and we imposed ourselves all over this game.”

Faversham had a 100% home league record to protect and weren’t looking to give it up without a fight. One last chance in the last 5 minutes was well smothered by Dodge.

“It was a well fought victory which we deserved on the 2nd half alone, maybe we felt we were good enough to be level at half time but we weren’t and we had to respond to that situation. We got the plaudits and a few names were noted amongst the team effort that had won this. We have the ability and balance in this team to play more than one way and if they all keep their focus on what I demand as a standard I know they are very capable. It was a very pleasing night, our football did the talking and we got others talking about us,” said Slade. “Congratulations to all connected with this Lordswood team and performance tonight – parents, supporters and everybody. We won like a very good team against another very good team tonight.”