1st Team hold their own at home

Last night the 1st Team started a six-game run at home in their pre-season campaign with an entertaining match against Vanarama National League South side, Welling United.

As the game begun Phoenix started extremely well, holding their own against a new look Welling team, under new management.

And it wasn’t long before the hard work paid off, following a great move down the wing from Phoenix favourite Christie Pattisson, who fed through a lovely ball to new striker Frankie Sawyer, who in turn made no mistake in slotting it into the back of the net with ease. With just 14 minutes gone the home crowd were delighted.

For the rest of the first half Phoenix coped very well under some immense pressure from Welling, with Terry Murray putting in a solid first-half performance at the back, making some crucial blocks.

Between the sticks Steve ‘Frenchie’ Phillips made some excellent saves, including a double close-range block half-way through the first half.

New signing Richard Seixas from Dartford also impressed in midfield, as did Conrad Lee in the back four line-up.

All in all, as the team went in at half-time, one nil up, it was a great first 45 minutes.

Emerging from the changing rooms for the second half, manager Steve O’Boyle made four changes to the starting line-up with Dajon Golding coming on for Gregg Akpele, Ashley Proberts replacing Conrad Lee, Zak Bryon coming on for Jack Hopkins and finally Kweku Ansah replacing Richard Seixas in midfield.

There were also changes for Welling – their whole side to be exact, as the new management team decided to switch the entire 11 for the second half.

And it worked. Six minutes in Pierre Joseph-Dubois slotted one home for Welling to equalise the score.

With the heavy rain continuing to pour down both teams did extremely well in some very hard conditions. On 60 minutes Alfie Aldridge came on for Christie Pattisson, as did Adem Ramadan for Frankie Sawyer.

Some great exchanges happened following this change with Alfie putting a lovely ball across to Jack Barham who made no mistake in hitting the net, for it to be disallowed for offside, as the clock hit 70 minutes.

Jack Barham had put in an extremely consistent performance throughout the match, working extremely hard, causing Welling a fair bit of trouble.

Manager Steve O’Boyle made his final changes at around the 75th minute mark bringing on Tony Robinson and Eniye Amgbaduba for Ryan Andrews and Jack Barham respectively.

With about ten minutes left, a great run from Dajon Golding who passed out wide to Adem Ramadan, who swiftly crossed to Alfie Aldridge, resulted in another cracking goal. Again disallowed – this time for a foul in the box.

In the closing moments goalkeeper Steve Phillips made a series of impressive saves to keep us in the game, and in the 87th minute youngster Zak Bryon had a lovely shot just sail over the crossbar.

The rain continued into the night, but the score stayed firmly at 1-1.

All in all, another great game for the home side! Go Phoenix!

Saturday sees the squad face another Vanarama National League South side – this time Dartford FC, again at home. Come on down and get behind the lads!

Kick-off 7.45pm, Adults £5 entry, Children Under 16 Free.

Final score:
Welling United 1 – 1 Phoenix Sports

Pierre Joseph-Dubois (51) Frankie Sawyer (14)

Welling Team: Chris Lexington (Lewis Coller 45), Cole Brown (Kaka Dembele 45), Jordan Johnson (Archie Johnson 45), Jack Parkinson (Conor Dymond 45), Sean Francis (Olumide Duaojaiye 45), Jamie Coyle (Ian Gayle 45), Francis Babalola (Pierre Joseph-Dubois 45), Sam Corne (Laste Dombaxe 45), Alfie Pavel (Tom Bradbrook 45), Bradley Goldberg (Alex Fiddes 45), David Moli (Darren Foxley 45).

Phoenix Team: Steve Phillips, Ryan Andrews (Tony Robinson, 75), Terry Murray, James Fitchett, Conrad Lee (Ashley Proberts, 45), Gregg Akpele (Dajon Golding, 45), Jack Hopkins (Zak Bryon, 45), Richard Seixas (Kweku Ansah, 45), Christie Pattison (Alfie Aldridge, 60), Jack Barham (Eniye Amgbaduba, 75), Frankie Sawyer (Adem Ramadan, 60).

Stay tuned for all the latest news and announcements from your favourite side.

#gogreen #wearephoenix #phoenixfamily