With the bit between their teeth following a disappointing defeat away at Ashford, the boys arrived and set out with an attitude to put things right. Our supreme leader, Jordan Laws, kicked off matchday with a drill-sergeant-esque team talk, emphasising that success would come from using the width and that intensity would be vital in this fixture.

We set out and immediately smelled blood, with some stellar play early on, particularly down the left, where Ryan Ames chucked some sensational aerials and instigated some threatening attacks that caused the Tunbridge defence plenty of headaches. Our attack was extremely productive early on, as we managed to upgrade many chances into short corners, which have been a fruitful source of goals throughout the season. We had received intelligence moments prior to pushback that the Tunbridge keeper lacked experience; however, we quickly learned that he was no pushover, as he extinguished a few early GW chances and was generally a large presence blocking the goal. Still the relentless GW took just 5 minutes to take the lead, as Kyle Rowe coolly slotted home from close range.

With the early foundation set, we spent the remainder of the half controlling possession for most of the 35 minutes. Steve Lett and Danny Eyre were the catalysts for a very healthy quantity of transfers around the back line, meaning Tunbridge were hardly able to get a sniff of the ball. Keaton Gates, despite not having a great deal to do, responded well when he was suddenly called into action, pulling off a tidy save with his noggin.

After some shrewd build-up play, Kyran Pender terrorised the defence and drove the ball into the box, then went for goal on his reverse only to be blown up by the umpire for alleged backing in—a decision which raised many GW eyebrows. One such pair of eyebrows was that of Ryan Ames, who, naturally, was vocal about his disapproval of the umpire’s verdict, only to subsequently hear a whistle sound. Ryan then began shimmying towards the umpire, wide-eyed, his tail between his legs, fearing his mouth had landed him in hot water. Fortunately for him, as he made his way over, the GW man realised that the umpire had absolutely no interest in him and was merely after a new ball, as Pender’s shot had deflected out of bounds. Despite that debacle, Ryan’s DOD-shout blushes were spared, as it transpired that his fullback comrades, Eren Basch and James Mills, had his back. What should have been a routine substitution became a somewhat intimate moment as the pair clattered into one another in passing, with Eren letting out a winded grunt from the collision.

The half-time team talk was heavily focused on ball pace, as we had diagnosed that our opposition could not live with our quick play. GW had no intentions of letting up as the second half commenced and won an early short corner, from which we deployed our “Anti-Ryan” routine: quickly slipping the ball to the right, before blindsiding the defence by playing it back into the middle. In this instance, it was Chris “Tommo” Tomkinson who swept the ball past the helpless barricade on the Tunbridge goal-line, bolstering his tally for the season.

Looking to drive the needle, GW continued to press right from the reset, with Zak Rowland leading the charge with tenacity, as per usual. He eventually won back possession and offloaded the ball to Alex Spurgeon, who did a great job to fashion a chance and hit a reverse shot. That shot, which appeared suspiciously like a backstick, nonetheless ended up in the back of the net, reinforcing his overall great start to the season. GW kept up the flurry of attacks, with Ollie Atkinson wreaking havoc, and Paul Bullard and Jordan Laws steadying the ship from central midfield. A penetrating ball was sent down the right to Tommo, who played his man like a fiddle and won a short corner. In the process, he also earned Tunbridge’s most prevalent defender a card. The defender was far from happy as he departed the pitch, chucking many toys out of his pram on his way to the dugout. It was Kyle Rowe who closed out the fixture with an assist from Kyran Pender, resulting in an overall 4-0 victory for GW. The team departed buzzing with the result and a replenished sense of confidence.