Tonbridge 2 Hastings United 0

Match 65/10/883 - Monday, 25 April 2011 - Ryman Premier

Tonbridge (1) 2 Walder 14 (pen), Jones 74
Hastings United (0) 0
Att. 817

Entrance: £10
Programme: £2
Mileage: 26/9,599

Match Report

Over the Easter period, both Tonbridge and Gillingham have had similarly varying fortunes and on this I will focus later in the post. Tonbridge’s Easter Monday encounter with their old foes Hastings United was a game that was spoilt by a rock hard pitch that neither side completely came to terms with.

The home side was given the benefit of a soft penalty award after 14 minutes. Sonny Miles was pushed to the ground by a Hastings defender and Danny Walder stepped up to opening the scoring despite the Hastings’ keeper, Seb Barton, getting a hand to the ball.

Although Tonbridge dominated the proceedings, neither goalkeeper was seriously called upon until the 74th minutes when Sam Jones scored from 25 yards with a cracker that found the bottom left hand corner of the net.

The home side turned up the heat and substitute Carl Rook came on to set up a great chance for Adrian Stone which was wastefully sliced wide.

An excellent Bank Holiday turnout of 817 might not have been treated to greatest of games, but apart from the travelling support of relegation-threatened Hastings, they would have been happy to see the Angels sitting pretty in second position going into the last match of the season.

It has been strange the way the Easter period has been a mirror image for both Tonbridge and Gillingham. On Saturday evening there was despair as Tonbridge had lost a vital six-point encounter with Harrow Borough and Gillingham fans had endured a woeful defeat at the hands of Barnet. Tonbridge’s position within the play-off places had only been maintained by virtue of Maidstone’s shock win at Bury Town, whilst Gillingham fell below the dotted line.

What a difference 48 hours can make in this period. At Rotherham, Andy Hessenthaler rang the changes, ditching seven of Saturday’s starting XI and came up trumps as an Andy Barcham goal with a quarter of an hour remaining won the points and moved Gillingham back into the play-off places. Similarly, Tonbridge’s three points leaves everything in their own hands going into their final fixture at Horsham, with home advantage to play for in the one-off semi-finals.