Tonbridge (0) 1 Lovell 48
Charlton Athletic (3) 7 Cook 10, Smith 12,51,73,88, Feeley 28,
Miles (o.g.) 78
Att. 806
Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 26/5,808
Match Report
A first Kent Senior Cup Final appearance for seven years; a trophy that hasn't been won for 38 years. This season has had so many "first fors" that it was with a fair degree of optimism that I left home to take in this Final.Sadly, all that was witnessed was a totally one-sided affair that epitomised Tonbridge's season, one of shambolic defending that allowed Charlton Athletic's Development Squad to run up an embarrassing scoreline for everybody, supporters to the Manager, associated with Tonbridge Angels.
Much soul-searching needs to be spent in the summer period and one would guess that the team that opens season 2013-14 will show wholesale change from the one that has finished this term.
If Tonbridge wish to point to a mitigating factor for this humiliation they can rightly point their finger at the KCFA who refused their selection of date, which would have allowed time to get injured players fit, and accepted Charlton's proposal. Gary Elphick failed to make the game and it was in his central defensive area that the Championship side made the most hay.
Make no mistake, this Development Squad showed huge potential and would have, almost undoubtedly, won the game at a canter should Tonbridge been able to field a fully fit, strongest eleven but at least the underdogs could have avoided such an embarrassment.
From the moment of the pre-match handshake it was apparent that physically this was a contest between men and boys, but the boys were the men. This Charlton side have a physicality that I've rarely witnessed at League Two level and this must be the foundation of their success having already put their development league title in the cabinet.
Tonbridge opened brightly enough with Henry Muggeridge producing a mazy run, seemingly intent on showing to his previous employers exactly what they decided they could do without. But two quick fire goals on 10 and 14 minutes put the Championship side into the ascendancy. A free-kick routine caught the home side napping and the subsequent cross was touched in by Jordan Cook and the scoreline was quickly doubled when Michael Smith converted from inside the box after Joe Pigott nodded on a cross.
The game was over as a contest before the half-hour mark when Kevin Feeley's free header from a corner found the far corner of the net despite the despairing effort of Muggeridge on the line.
A window of hope opened up from Tonbridge early in the second half when a cross from Ollie Bankole, on as a second half substitute, was touched home by Mark Lovell at the far post. That window was closed shut just three minutes later when Smith scored his second of the evening with a shot into the roof of the net.
The disappointment of any recovery being quickly snuffed out took its toll as Charlton inflicted the maximum punishment on their hosts who were the architects of their own humiliation. On 73 minutes a horrendous back pass from Ijaha was intercepted by Smith, who rounded Worgan for his hat-trick goal. Smith was involved again as Sonny Miles diverted his shot over the goalkeeper for the sixth and when he intercepted another suicidal backpass from Miles, with a couple of minutes remaining, he rounded the keeper to score his fourth of the evening and his side's seventh.
I took my camera along with the over-optimistic expectation that a 1975 celebration photograph seen on Facebook earlier in the day could be replicated in 2013. I was prepared to take the picture should the victors emerge victorious, but I wasn't prepared for the debacle that unfolded and I was so depressed by the turn of events, I could not wait to get away from Longmead at the final whistle.
By August the grass will be greener, the evenings a damn sight warmer than this one in May and a renewed sense of optimism will have been installed. I can only surmise that it is going to be an interesting summer at Tonbridge Angels Football Club.
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