Despite the colder temperatures, it didn’t deter this blogger from getting to watch one of the games of the week from the National League. Ebbsfleet Utd were the visitors to the Crucial Environment Stadium, home of Worthing FC and a chance to watch the Kent outfit for the first time since pre-season.
I hadn’t seen Worthing in action since the opening day of the season, pretty fair to say so far the year has gone pretty well for the Rebels in their opening National League South season. Fleet are everyone’s champions elect given their full time status and backed by Kuwaiti money, and pretty much the title is theirs to lose by opinion.
Worthing had previously won at Havant & Waterlooville who themselves are doing their best to keep pace with Ebbsfleet, the Rebels coming away with a thumping 5-1 win and Tuesday night was going to be another very good test of the credentials.
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The early exchanges were fairly even, both sides paying respects to either other and some general sparring. Either side could have opened the scoring inside the first ten minutes, but it wasn’t until the 20th minutes that the visitors took the lead.
A nicely worked move down the right hand side saw an unmarked Dom Poleon fire home from eight yards out for the game’s first goal. The lead could have been doubled four minutes later as Poleon broke from the cleared Worthing free kick and teed up Franklin Domi, whose shot beat both Harrison Male and the post.
Worthing should have been level a couple of minutes later as Aarran Racine had a great chance to score but his header was at a nice height for Mark Cousins to make a routine save.
The second Ebbsfleet goal had a little bit of luck about it, a back pass Cousins scuffed away saw a Fleet defender send a ball down the line which set away Rakish Bingham who powered towards the Worthing penalty area and squared for an unmarked Poleon to grab his and Ebbsfleet’s second of the game with 11 minutes of the half left to play.
Worse was to follow five minutes later as Domi was fouled just inside the box and Luke O’Neil sent Male the wrong way from the penalty spot for the visitors third goal. Bingham then rattled the crossbar moments later as Worthing were overrun in midfield, unable to keep the ball when they did get it and Fleet just pouring forward at every opportunity.
Poleon had a glorious chance for a hat-trick a minute before the break after another swift Fleet counter attack but again arriving unmarked in the box he put his low shot past Male and the far post.
Worthing almost pulled a goal back as Josh Chambers brought a great save out of Cousins, the corner however no threat. Fleet did score again before the half time whistle went, a quick launch down the field from Cousins saw the bounce misjudged, Bingham heading towards goal laying the ball off to Ben Chapman who curled his shot past Male into the far corner and game over for the hosts after an impressive first forty-five for the visitors.
Worthing made a couple of changes at half time to try and stem the flow and although they had a bit more attacking play their efforts on goal were not testing Cousins. Fleet had a couple of chances themselves to add to the scoreline but had to wait until after the hour mark, Domi found in acres of space on the edge of the box and he calmy slotted past Male for the fifth goal of the evening.
With eleven minutes to go a sixth goal arrived for Ebbsfleet, substitute Darren McQueen was found in the penalty area in front of goal and with time to control his touch, he lashed his effort past Male. The same player then sent another effort just past the post in the final ten minutes as Fleet sought more goals while Omari Sterling-James clipped the post with a free kick, the points firmly going home to Kent.
A ruthless first half paved the way for the Ebbsfleet win, while the full time fitness showed it was hard to work out whether Worthing weren’t quite set up right or expected to give a better showing themselves after the weekend win and were trying too hard.
However it was, too much space and respect were afforded to Bingham and Poleon, both excellent strikers for this level and the latter will probably be disappointed he didn’t score a hat-trick.
The Rebels are still enjoying an outstanding first season in the National League South and if they repeat the first half again then they can be pretty happy with their final league position, I predicted around 8th in the table, so far they’re on track for that but having tasted the play-off positions already they won’t be settling for finishing outside the top seven.
