Nine-man Vickers win on final day (From News Shopper)

Nine-man Vickers win on final day

9:18pm Monday 26th April 2010 in Non-League By Jeff Perkins

THE Vickers finished their superb season off with yet another away win to continue their excellent form on their travels that has seen them go unbeaten in eight games stretching back to January.

In fact the only game lost in the final nine games of the campaign either at home or away was to the runaway champions Lowestoft in March.

Without the services of Aaron Firth (knee injury), Jason Dolby (working), George Mitchell (representing Kent Schools in County Final), Kane Rice (holiday) the Vickers were also without their manager Paul Foley who had been laid low with a virus.

The Vickers were quickly into their stride with Uche Ibemere and Danny Penny causing problems immediately with their strength and pace against their more diminutive opponents and the home side struggled to find any rhythm to their game.

With Nick Hegley, Ibemere and Penny pushing the home side onto the back foot it seemed inevitable that the Hoops would open the scoring and sure enough the goal came on 20 minutes.

With a fine flowing move the ball reached Ibemere who held the ball up before laying off to Kevin Winchcombe who crossed into the box where Hegley drifted in from the left and headed home like a centre forward past Ricky Wiseman to take his season’s tally to 13.

The Vickers continued to press forward in search of more and a succession of corners were forced with Hegley and Winchcombe performing with their usual dead-ball accuracy to apply more pressure to the home side.

Not for the first time this season one of these well drilled corners produced a goal and from a Winchcombe corner Jason Barton headed the ball goalwards and captain Penny applied the finishing touch on 35 minutes to make the score 2-0.

The Vickers finished the half strongly still looking to press home the advantage whilst at the other end James Tedder had little to do behind the strong defence of Watson, Cook, Hunt and Barton.

In the second half the game took a series of twists as 3 red cards were dispatched by the man in the middle and with two of these being handed out to Vickers players it affected the Hoops'

domination of the game.

The visitors picked up where they had left off in the first and created some good opportunities with Ibemere, Penny and Hegley at the centre of it all.

They failed to increase their lead and just after the hour mark the game spun on its head with three red cards in under five minutes.

First off were Gary Cook for the Vickers and Ware’s forward Adam Bolle for what appeared to be handbags at 10 paces but the somewhat fussy official deemed the offences to be enough to warrant two reds.

Not wishing to make their aim of securing their 19th win in the league easy the Vickers made it even tougher when defensive midfielder Anthony Hogg joined Cook in the showers for retaliation to a bad challenge by his marker.

This numerical advantage gave the home side the motivation it needed to take the game to their superior visitors and they began to commit people forward in search of a goal.

The Vickers brought on fresh legs in the form of Callum O’Shea for Ibemere up front and dropped Penny back into midfield to replace the carded Hogg.

Jack Asbury was also introduced soon after as the Hoops looked to defend their two goal lead.

The home side grabbed a consolation goal with two minutes remaining as Ashley Taylor-Forbes headed home from an Ade Cole cross.

The Vickers saw out the remaining minutes to record a fine away victory and finish off the season in style clapped off by the travelling fans thankful for an entertaining season that has seen the club finish in their highest ever position (eighth) in the pyramid.

VCD: J Tedder, Watson, Barton, Hogg, Cook, Hunt, Winchcombe (J Asbury 82), Ward, Penny, Ibemere (O’Shea 80), Hegley. Subs not used: R Cole, J Bradshaw.