Regent opened their home account on a cool August evening against newly promoted Bowers and Pitsea. Conditions were pretty ideal for football and Regent warmed up with a routine of passing which seemed to owe a lot to a doubles routine in tennis with alternative passing down the line and across the diagonal.

With new signing Ace Howell only on the bench Regent lined up with only one change as Amir Berkane replaced the absent Ricky Griggs from Saturday’s creditable draw at Margate. They started with Charlie Turner; Pip Boyland, Matt Cripps, Josh Gould, Jake Gould; Lamell Howell, Jake Turner, Amir Berkane, Jordan Barnett; Adam Hampson and Billy Hunt. Charlie Lindoe, Romario Dunne and Rigers Kabashi joined Ace Howell on the bench.

After the coin toss the sides changed ends so Regent defended the Seaview Road end of the ground and groups of supporters who had taken up their positions behind the goals trooped to the other ends to watch the important action.

Bowers kicked off and immediately launched an attack down their left-hand side which ended up with a free kick which went nowhere. This set the pattern for the first half which was a contrast between Regent’s attempts at an intricate style of play and Bowers’ much more direct physical approach which featured high-paced counter attacking breaks.

The first real chance for either side came after 25 minutes when a long ball was lifted over the Regent back line and Charlie Turner was adjudged to have brought down Bowers’ David Knight in the penalty area. Turner escaped with a yellow card but Knight made no mistake with the resulting penalty and buried it in the left-hand corner of the net.

For the rest of the half Regent pressed for an equaliser but struggled to make any impression on a robust Bowers side who had two players booked and saw the referee have words with various others after incidents best described as “handbags” which were brought to his attention by the linesman on the far side.

If anything, Regent’s play became even more intricate, and was easily stultified by Bowers’ much more muscular approach until, with the half time break approaching, the ball was pinballed around in the penalty area. Pip Boyland turned the ball back to Jordan Barnett who was lurking on the edge of the box and who simply passed the ball into the left-hand corner of the net. It was the only time the Bowers’ keeper had been required to do anything apart from take goal kicks for the previous 45 minutes but he got nowhere near the ball.

Regent went into the half time break level but their supporters had been mostly quiet and were well unimpressed by the first half performance.

Second half
Neither side made any changes at half time.
Regent came out with obvious intent in the second half and upped the pace and tempo of the game, winning corners and seeing yet another Bowers’ player shown the yellow card.

So, it was no surprise that after ten minutes of pretty constant pressure that Regent were awarded a penalty following a handball by a Bowers’ player. Billy Hunt stepped up to take the penalty but was denied by a good save by ‘keeper Callum Chafer low down at his left-hand post.

Whilst Regent were still getting over the shock of Billy missing a penalty, Bowers made another quick break down to the other end and after two blocked shots the ball came to Benjamin Sartain who hit a pearler past Charlie Turner and into the right-hand side of the goal to restore their lead.

Shortly afterwards there was a round of substitutions which saw Ace Howell replace Adam Hampson for Regent and Lewis Manor come on for James Thomas for Bowers.

There was another period of Regent pressure with attempts by both Howell brothers and an excellent left footed shot by Billy Hunt which was athletically pushed behind by Chafer for a corner.

After 72 minutes Regent’s forward pressure led to too much space being left at the back and another breakaway from Bowers led to Lewis Manor scoring their third from close range.

In response, Tom Rothery replaced Amir Berkane with Romario Dunne so Regent had three out and out goal scorers on the pitch. Romario had an almost immediate impact but put the ball wide of the post. Playing with so many forward players meant that there were more opportunities for Bowers in midfield and they won a series of corners until they put the final one directly out of play. Another Bowers player, Bradley Warner, went into the referee’s notebook but Regent’s approach of living dangerously at the back came back to haunt them after 83 minutes when Matt Cripps brought down a Bowers forward in the penalty area to concede a second penalty.

This time Bradley Warner stepped up and once again gave the goalkeeper no chance by burying the ball in the left-hand corner.
At 4-1 down newcomer Rigers Kabashi replaced Jordan Barnett, and the potential of both Kabashi and Dunne was shown when they combined minutes later for Romario Dunne to score a well taken goal in the 85th minute.

More Regent pressure led to yet another fine save from Chafer in the Bowers’ goal but there was to be no more consolation as Bowers and Pitsea held on for a deserved win.

Match Verdict
In a match of contrasting styles Regent have only themselves to blame for switching off after missing a penalty and ending up chasing the game against an uncompromising Bowers and Pitsea side. On the upside there were several good passages of play in the second half, good attempts by Billy Hunt and Lamell Howell and some clear potential in the cameo displays by Romario Dunne and Rigers Kabashi in the closing minutes.

Report By Paul Ketchley