Chelmsford City 1 Tonbridge Angels 0

Match 51/25/2393 - Monday, 26th January 2026 - National League South

Chelmsford City (1) 1 Taylor 13
Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Attendance: 1,357
Admission: £9.36
Mileage: 132/3,148

If the powers that be at the National League could see their way clear to give Chelmsford City automatic promotion out of the South then there won’t be a Tonbridge Angels supporter that will not be eternally grateful. For them, this is the ultimate graveyard.

As every National League manager reminds us, “there are no easy games in this league”, but some are historically more difficult than others and Chelmsford, for a variety of reasons from the Dartford Tunnel closures through to abject refereeing have contributed to the ultimate Theatre of Screams. In fairness, there have been many occasions when we have been beaten fair and square, but back through the years, something always happens at the Melbourne Stadium and rarely in our favour.

We have won there, once, five years ago, when Tom Parkinson and Tom Beere’s goals gave us a 2-0 win in a game that, bar around 15 officials, was seen by nobody due to Covid restrictions. That, as they say, is sod’s law.

Just managing to complete the journey to this soulless place is an achievement. Last season it was my turn, along with my passengers, to fail to make it through the Dartford Tunnel as a vehicle fire led to a situation whereby, at kick-off time, we were still on the Kent side. This season was no different as an earlier accident meant an hour’s delay, that thankfully we had allowed for, but others had to make the decision to turn around.

Of the places we visit in National League South, this is the least appealing. The athletics track means that to sit in the main stand you might as well be in a different county and the maze of barriers that supposedly lead to the terraces behind the goals can take you into dead ends. The pitch looks like it has been used in training for the athletics club hammer throwers and, if all this sounds like an excuse for the result, then it’s not. On the night, Tonbridge’s lightweight attack foundered on the brick outhouses that makes up the Chelmsford back line.

The necessity, due to the athletics club priority status, means that midweek fixtures have to be played on a Monday night, and we never seem to get a Saturday fixture. Consequently, the Tonbridge Angels manager, Alan Dunne, needed to rotate from Saturday’s starting line-up that produced a heartening 4-1 win over AFC Totton, and my guess would be, that if the game had been played, even 24 hours later, he would have chosen a different side.

There wasn’t much in the game, for all their resources which this season, for the first time, means that Chelmsford are a full time club, it took one moment of quality from Lyle Taylor, once of Nottingham Forest and Charlton Athletic, and reported to be earning anything between £1,500 and £2,500 a week, depending on who you a listening to, to seal the points with a cracking effort from 20 yards.

A case could be made that the Angels deserved something out of the game. Three minutes after Taylor’s goal, Matty Warren’s driven shot from a similar distance came back off the crossbar and in a second half scramble in front of goal, the Chelmsford back line threw their considerable bodies on the line to deny Bunmi Babajide, Alfie Pavey and Ansu Janneh within less seconds than shots.

Despite the admirable effort, there was a sense of inevitability that another miserable evening in Chelmsford was going to go unrewarded, only leaving the prospect of doing battle with the M25 as the motorway fairies were despatching their lane closure cones. Thankfully, this was a contest that was won with a trouble-free drive home. Happy endings, now that is clutching at straws.