It was predicted ten weeks ago, a relegation showdown at Canterbury in the last National League Two (S) game of the season. Both sides have had their highs and lows.
Combe were not expected to get so close to Jersey or to beat Southend, they could have expected to get more out of other games, particularly Shelford.
Canterbury were not expected to get a five pointer at Taunton, or expected to go down to Clifton, the only game when things were out of Combe’s hands. Canterbury were six points clear and could easily have settled the matter what ever happened at Combe on Saturday writes Mike Attewell..
In the run-up to Saturday’s battle at Canterbury there were five sides in the mix. Newbury and then Hinckley soon fell away and Shelford were really under no threat and were out of it when they beat us at their place so all roads will lead to Canterbury from Orpington on Saturday.
At lunch on Saturday, the Worthing President said that his boys were “up for it” because their Coach was leaving and they wanted to give him a good send-off.
He wasn’t joking and Worthing started like a train and the first fifteen minutes were played mostly in Combe’s 22 but when that finished with only a penalty it was no small victory for the Combe defence.
Three minutes later Reid Bradford went over at the back of a rolling maul that was to be the lynch-pin of Combe’s victory—the dominance of the forwards, particularly in the second-half.
With the half fast coming to a close, another forward move saw Hamish Barton cross the line close to the posts and Luke Giles opened a sizable lead with the conversion 12—3.
That’s how the half should have finished. Worthing’s outside half Matthew McLean had other thoughts. Adding a try and the conversion, to his earlier penalty, just two minutes later which says something about Combe’s concentration! So at the break two points separated the sides 12—10.
The second half was an exciting but fairly static affair with the ball being battled for among the forwards for much of the time. That was after, six minutes into the half, substitute scrum-half Finlay Coxon-Smith, who had only been on the pitch one minute, scored the try that put Worthing ahead for the second time. The McLean conversion put them ahead 10—17.
Such was the nature of the game that twenty minutes of continual Combe pressure elapsed before John Coleman finished off yet another cross-field move hitting a gap to cross the line. Luke Giles’s conversion gave Combe a narrow lead.
Combe continued to battle towards a result and gave Worthing no chance to get back at them. A missed penalty, along with the one missed early in the first half that would have put Combe level long before they scored, kept the teams close.
When Tom Hockedy crossed between the posts, Goddington Dene erupted—until the ref called them back for a forward pass so the battle went on for another five or six minutes with Combe’s forwards now annihilating their opposite numbers to close the game out.

Team: Toby May; Kieran Leeper, Russell Tumath, John Coleman, Tom Hockedy; Luke Giles, Charles Edwards; James Sheppard (Marlon Rainford 40m.), Hamish Barton, Jordan Mitchell; Jon Wright, David Watkins (James Catkin 65m.); Reid Bradford, Greg Smith (Dean Sole 40m.), Zane Winslade.

Match reporter: Mike Attewell