Hythe Town 1 Tunbridge Wells 1

Match 07/21/1872 - Tuesday, 20th July 2021 - Pre-Season Friendly

Hythe Town (1) 1 Leighton 45
Tunbridge Wells (1) 1 Corke 8
Attendance: 135

Admission: £3 Senior
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 60/442

This early part of this preseason is all about “firsts for”. This evening was the first time I’ve seen Tunbridge Wells for nine months, an afternoon at Erith Town when in our hearts all of us knew we shouldn’t have been there. At Hythe Town, it was good to see friends that have come through Covid safe and well and as enthusiastic about the coming season as myself.

This unusually long preseason is leaving clubs, for injury and holiday reasons, shorn of players. Grays Athletic turned up at Tonbridge a dozen short and similarly Tunbridge Wells had seven absent for a game at the Isthmian League side and, in fairness, the home side had some significant faces missing. But, certainly for half-an-hour that didn’t look the case.

After a really hot day that had turned into storms, the evening was at least a bit fresher. The Wells fairly roared out of the traps and in the second minute Lucas Murrain rattled the crossbar. After eight minutes the visitors were in front when Regan Corke cut in from the right to drive home at low shot.

Corke was proving a real live wire with Hythe struggling to contain his threat down the right. Meanwhile, Hythe were not really posing any threat of their own.

A lightning counter attack, just past the half-hour deserved a goal for the Wells but Harry Hudson narrowly put the finish wide after brilliant work from Harvey Killick and Corke had opened up the home defence.

Corke once more exercised the home goalkeeper before Hythe finally started to make an impression on the game bringing Aaron Lee-Wharton into the game, turning away a low shot for a corner.

Exactly as the clock ticked onto 45 minutes, a long high cross found Hythe’s Noel Leighton at the far post to head home an equaliser.

The second period saw more of an equal contest with far fewer chances. Murrain was sent clear on 53 minutes but shot wide and after 68, Killick struck the post after good work from Connor Pring and Jordan Johnson-Palmer.

Lee-Wharton was not unemployed making good saves on a couple of occasions.

A bad looking injury to a Hythe player delayed the game for several minutes and the last chance for either side to win the game fell to Corke whose driven shot was agonisingly wide.

An entertaining game as preseason goes, the Wells performance was very encouraging and, more importantly, it was good to spend time with those people having come through this horrible period of our lives.