Dover Athletic 2 Tonbridge 1

Match 21/12/974 - Saturday, 22 September 2012 - FA Cup 2QR

Dover Athletic (2) 2 May 6, Webb 43
Tonbridge (1) 1 Purcell 29
Att. 625

Entrance: £9 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 99/1,247

Match Report

It was 40 years ago that a fresh-faced, 21-year-old went to the Angel Ground on FA Cup First Round day alongside 7,769 others in hope that his Southern League favourites might pull off a giant killing against their illustrious opponents from south London, Charlton Athletic. Sadly, it was to end in disappointment as the Football League side romped to a five-nil victory. Today, the no-longer fresh-faced, disappointment-hardened Tonbridge supporter entered Dover Athletic’s Crabble Ground with little expectancy that the years of hurt might be at an end. Once again, sadly, like so many other seasons in that 40 year cycle, Tonbridge failed to make it past the first hurdle.

With stats like those it is obvious that the FA Cup and Tonbridge [Angels] Football Club are not a good fit and it was so predictable that they would be dealt with a tough draw, down the years Tonbridge have had difficult draws and when they get a soft one, they mess it up. There were good reasons to be optimistic, Dover had failed to win at home this season and Tonbridge had the confidence of their first win last Saturday against Boreham Wood, but after a first minute scramble to clear and a sixth minute goal from Ben May, the usual FA Cup scribble was appearing on the wall.

It was further disappointing that Tonbridge could have erased that writing as the game panned out with an equaliser and plenty of possession that could and should have produced a different result.

Disappointment is a word I’m using a lot in this post, and it is disappointing that the police felt the need to impose segregation on this game for fear of trouble between two sets of supporters that obviously don’t like each other. A group of Dover “supporters” gathered at the corner of the seated enclosure during the second half and the insults and counter insults that followed virtually justified the police’s decision. It was such a distraction that the support that Tonbridge had enjoyed in the first half as good as died at a time when it was most needed.

Tommy Warrilow looked towards the amount of possession as good reason for his side to have merited their place in the hat for the next round but their failure to stretch goalkeeper Mitch Walker during the second half says otherwise. Two poorly defended goals added to the despair. After six minutes, a simple cross into the box allowed an unchallenged May to glance a header into the bottom corner and another cross was headed down by Ian Simpemba to Danny Webb who scored from the edge of the six yard box. In between, George Purcell won out in a challenge with Webb, to score from inside the box to equalise the opening goal.

The second half erred on the side of a non-event, Frannie Collin had an opportunity but poked the shot straight at Walker, whilst with the game stretched Dover had a couple of chances late on to seal the game, substitute Ricky Modeste pulling a shot wide when clean through.

So that’s the FA Cup for another year at qualifying level, Tunbridge Wells fell at the first, Tonbridge fell at their first, it doesn’t auger too well for Gillingham at this rate. How’s that song go: “Forty years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming”, but sadly dreams can turn into nightmares.