Tamworth are Lambs to the slaughter at Ebbsfleet (From News Shopper)

Ebbsfleet United 3-0 Tamworth

1:40pm Wednesday 25th January 2012 in News and Reports By Charlie Sewell

EBBSFLEET United outplayed and outclassed mid-table rivals Tamworth at Stonebridge Road yesterday evening.

The game began scrappily, with the ball spending more time in the air than on the ground.

Michael West had the first opportunity but pulled his 11th minute shot wide from eight yards.

West then had another chance 10 minutes later, this time forcing a good save from Lambs keeper Jonathan Hedge.

Despite dominating the opening half an hour, the Fleet nearly found themselves trailing after the away side were awarded a penalty.

Kyle Patterson beat Yado Mambo down the left wing before a reckless tackle by captain Paul Lorraine was penalised, but the resulting spot kick taken by Patterson was superbly saved by Preston Edwards after 39 minutes.

The visitors then came close to taking the lead immediately after the restart.

Luke Hubbins picked up possession in his own half and made a darting run at Ebbsfleet’s back line, avoiding several challenges but lacking the final product when pulling his effort wide from the edge of the box.

The home side then turned defence into attack with one swift move after 54 minutes.

Tamworth saw their corner cleared and the ball fell to Nathaniel Pinney’s feet, who drove into the away side’s half and cut the defence open with a perfectly weighted pass that was latched onto by Liam Enver-Marum, who slotted home from the edge of the box.

Seven minutes later, the same thing happened again but this time it was Pinney who finished the job.

After another cleared corner, Pinney again drove at Tamworth but went on his own and after reaching the penalty area, fired past Hedge to reflect the home side’s dominance.

The rest of the half was controlled by Ebbsfleet, who were never really threatened.

Pinney grabbed his second of the game with two minutes remaining when his deflected shot box found the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Lanre Azeez had a golden opportunity to extend Ebbsfleet’s lead deep into stoppage time but could only find the wrong side of the post from eight yards.

This result sees Ebbsfleet continue to head in the right direction bringing their goal difference to zero ahead of Saturday’s home game with Mansfield.

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