Faversham Town (2) 3 Lovell 6,29, Bourne 67
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 McCollin 36
Attendance: 346
Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 60/1,550
Match Report
The defensively poor display against Folkestone set this game up as an accident waiting to happen. Faversham, a league below; on a bad run; and four ex-Angels in their side.
A surprise was sprung when Tom Beere was spotted in the warm-up, whatever the circumstances that have allowed Hampton to let him become cup-tied, his appearance can only be a good thing, perhaps this is going to work out after all.
We reminisce that a year ago we were at Ascot, actually I was in New York, but that turned out alright ... in the end.
The Salters Lane pitch looked perfect, manicured and in even better condition than when I visited pre-season.
A feature, not in a good way, of Tonbridge’s season so far is that they have consistently started games slowly and, once again, this was the case and naturally it would be the ex-Angels who would be the architects.
A corner from the right from Danny Walder was headed downwards by Mark Lovell, hardly a man mountain to defend against, with the bounce lifting the ball past Jonny Henly to give the hosts a sixth minute lead.
Tonbridge worked their way back into the game with plenty of possession, something they “enjoyed” for the entirety of the game. Andre McCollin dragged a shot wide of the post before striking the inside of a post with the ball rebounding across the face of goal before being cleared.
Faversham doubled their advantage on the half-hour when a 70 yard cross-field pass from Walder, inside of Jey Siva, found Lovell clear in enough acreage to graze a substantial flock of sheep. The striker kept his composure and, as Henly advanced, fired into the bottom corner.
The Angels grabbed a route back into the game seven minutes later when an inch perfect through ball into the left channel from Beere sent McCollin clear and into the box from where his well struck shot beat Simon Overland at his near post.
Overland kept his side’s noses in front at the break when he saved well from Joe Turner.
The amount of possession and the chances created in the first half gave Tonbridge supporters firm belief that this year’s FA Cup journey wouldn’t be ending at the first fence.
An early second half effort from Chris Kinnear was pushed away by Overland and the goalkeeper made a similar save to deny Turner two minutes later.
Steve McKimm swapped his strike force introducing Alex Akrofi and Dan Thompson but a headed goal after 67 minutes left the Angels with an uphill battle. Once again it was Walder with the assist as his cross found the head of Matthew Bourne who had remained in the box following a corner.
Turner brought another save out of Overland, but it was the goalkeeper’s save from an Akrofi penalty kick that confirmed his award as man of the match.
Thompson, a striker so desperately in need of a goal, spurned two headed chances late in the game as the seriously good chances reached 14 by my notes.
There were angry exchanges with some frustrated Tonbridge supporters following the game and online the knives were out as the disappointed vented their anger. Steve McKimm doesn’t want to hear about Tonbridge and the FA Cup, but for the older fraternity it is not something to get vexed about, we have been here many, many times before.
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