Tunbridge Wells 2 Sevenoaks Town 0

Match 36/11/923 - Tuesday, 27 December 2011 - Kent League

Tunbridge Wells (1) 2 Irvine 41,55
Sevenoaks Town (0) 0
Att. 262

Entrance: £3 Senior
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 26/2,906

Match Report

Christmas is obviously a time when families get together, eat too much, possibly drink too much and almost certainly spend too much time in front of the television. So when it comes to Boxing Day and beyond, the vast majority want to get away from the sofa and get a bit of fresh air and what better way to do it than to take in a football match. It appears that the gentile folk of Tunbridge Wells were of the same mind as a whopping 262 descended on Culverden Stadium to take in their local derby with Sevenoaks Town. That number might not sound too many to the uninitiated of Kent League football, but represents double the usual attendance.

Any normal home game that I visit, I am able to find a parking space within the car park but as soon as I arrived and saw the number of cars already parked on the road outside of the gates, I knew not to bother progressing down the drive.

Tunbridge Wells is not really a football town, in truth it is not a sporting town. The achievements of the local clubs go largely unrecognised but there is something brewing at Culverden that is deserving of that recognition. In three weeks’ time, Cambridgeshire outfit St Ives Town will be the visitors for a FA Vase 4th Round tie and it is reported that they could be bringing as many as 200 supporters with them, hopefully some of the new faces from yesterday will return and an attendance approaching 400 could be achieved.

Vase success apart, manager Martin Larkin has built a side that should be challenging towards the top end of the Kent League when the fixture backlog is completed. Sadly for the Wells, Herne Bay are the runaway leaders and it looks although a seismic shift is needed to shake them from the summit.

On a heavy pitch, Sevenoaks Town belied their lowly position in the table in the early stages and were more than a match for their hosts. It took until five minutes before half time for Tunbridge Wells to establish a lead when a cross was headed home by Andy Irvine.

A second half mix up between goalkeeper and centre half allowed Irvine to double his tally and secure the points for the home side to send the spectators back to their sofas and left-over turkey happy with their afternoon in the fresh air.