Tonbridge 4 Ashford Town 0

AN ASHFORD supporter commented as he trooped away from Longmead on Monday night "We were lucky to come second." It was true enough as Ashford were outplayed by an Angels side battling against the spectre of relegation.

Tonbridge showed they understood the danger of their position from the first whistle and outfought a lightweight Town side.

But for a superb display by Town goalkeeper John Whitehouse the margin could even have been greater and Tonbridge even had the luxery of missing a penalty. The only plus factor for Ashford was the showing of the young reserves who were called in by the injury hit Town squad.

Town barely mustered a shot in the match despite the hard work of Simon Elliott and Adrian Stone and former Town keeper Joe Radford only had one save to make holding on well to a long range strike by John Nolan.

But Tonbridge never looked back after opening the scoring with a superb free kick from Ryan Briggs after 10 minutes and they could have been six up by half-time.

As it was they were limited to just 2-0 by some desperate defending by Ashford who called up Oliver Finch from the reserves after the injury to Stuart White on Saturday looks to rule him out for the rest of the season.

Minutes later Steffan Ball put a header against the Town bar and the rebound hit the back of Whitehouse forcing Jay Westwood to clear off the line. But on 34 minutes Whitehouse brilliantly tipped over a piledriver from former Ashford man Alan Tutton but could do nothing as defender Nick Humphrey headed home from the corner.

Whitehouse also made fine saves from Brendon Cass and Ball as Angels set the pace in the first half.

Ashford picked it up in the second half and Westwood found the side netting early on but the killer blow came from another power header from Humprey after 53 minutes from a another corner.

The introduction of Shane Sims and the two Thorogood boys Joby and Jon spurred Town on to their best spell but it was Angels who again showed the way to goal.

Ball sliced wide from the penalty spot after a foul on substitute Steve Jones but they wrapped up a fine 4-0 win in the last minute when substitute Frank Coles scrambled home from close range.

It was a vital win for Angels battling to get out of the bottom two despite a good first half to the season.