Tonbridge Angels 1 Maidstone United 1

Match 52/25/2394 - Saturday, 31st January 2026 - National League South

Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Korboa 67
Maidstone United (1) 1 Moore 5
Attendance: 2,509
Admission: Season Ticket
Mileage: 38/3,186

The circus that is the A26 derby came to town and for another year Maidstone United returned to the county town unbeaten as they have been since Teniola Time in August 2014, but at least this season has seen the Angels take four points from their biggest rivals following their historic win at the Gallagher in November.

How I wanted a win today, having sat out that Gallagher success on the end of a hospital bed awaiting my wife’s discharge who had spent eight days in hospital following a fall. When the winning goal went in, I asked her if anybody would notice if I ran down the corridor waving my shirt, she said that seeing we hadn’t seen a soul for hours, nobody would notice!

It was not to be, there was no Teniola or Shields Time but Tonbridge gave it their best shot, recovering from going a goal down with less than five minutes on the clock, they hit the woodwork three times before crafting an equaliser that sent a packed Yeomans into rapture.

Alan Dunne’s side is a long way from the finished article, he better than anybody knows that, and just when you think they are on the road to consistency they can throw in a performance that doesn’t meet the standards that he is striving to achieve. But, I as a supporter and I hope many of the people around me, can see where we are heading and that is not back to the Isthmian Premier.

Week after week it seems they are coming up against teams that Dunne labels as “heavyweights” and he bemoans the disparity between his side and full time teams, but, whilst not winning every game, they rise to the challenge. But, strangely and something that certainly needs addressing, it is the odd occasion when they meet a side on a level playing field that they fall short and to ensure our National League South status, the visits of Chippenham, Hampton, Bath City and Salisbury need to supply the vast majority of the 15 points required to get to the magic 50.

The attendance of 2,509 was only a hundred or so short of the number at the reverse fixture and the large number of travelling support in the segregated north end were in jubilant mood when the Angels fell behind to a scrappy, set piece goal bundled home by Deon Moore after Taylor Foran’s initial effort had been parried by goalkeeper Laurie Shala.

This is perhaps the biased bit! I have to say that given the early goal this should have been the catalyst for a promotion-seeking, a club of substantial means, such as Maidstone United to go on and win the game comfortably, that they didn’t is a credit to Tonbridge, but also an indictment that they simply do not have the credentials to achieve to what they supposedly aspire, or could it be that the behind-the-scenes rumours that they don’t aspire to that are actually true?

Tonbridge regained their composure and were unlucky not to go into the break on level terms, with an effort from Tom Leahy that brushed the post and an, albeit mishit cross from Ricky Korboa, that sailed over the head of the Maidstone goalkeeper, Nathan Harness, who had a shaky afternoon, only to strike the inside of the post and rebound to safety.

Dunne made half-time substitutions, something that he does to good effect. Sometimes I don’t agree or even understand them, but more often than not he is right and I’m not, and that’s why he is a football manager!

But Scott Wagstaff brought a different tempo, a quality that eventually brought the equalising goal but not before Korboa had struck the post a third time with the ball gratefully falling back into the arms of Harness.

The equaliser came on 67 minutes, begun and finished by Korboa, who released the livewire substitute Bunmi Babajide who drove at the Maidstone back line before releasing Wagstaff, who driven wide by Harness was still able to put in a cross to the far post from where Korboa was left with a tap in.

A melee in front of the dug-outs saw Wagstaff ending with a dislocated shoulder and leaving the pitch from a situation that an incompetent official in Tom Ellsmore saw pretty much nothing. Biased opinion again maybe, but had Wagstaff stayed on the pitch, Tonbridge were winning this game.

I walked away from a mostly happy Longmead Stadium actually gutted that we hadn’t won the match and whilst it will be Maidstone that, in terms of their league position, will be most disappointed with the point, it was as much as they deserved.