Sevenoaks Town 1 Tunbridge Wells 5

Match 79/13/1105 - Easter Monday, 21st April 2014 - Southern Counties East

Sevenoaks Town (1) 1 Davis 40
Tunbridge Wells (2) 5 Beecroft 34, Radford 44, Pilbeam 47, Fuller 61, Everson 85
Att. 212

Entrance: £3 Senior
Programme: £1.00
Mileage: 46/7,395

Match Report

Results on Saturday left the remainder of the matches of the clubs followed by this blog in the meaningless category. If I wanted meaningful, then I should have had the stomach to travel to Chelmsford for the last rites of Tonbridge’s season. But that cause I considered lost and the thought of Bank Holiday traffic both sides of the Dartford Tunnel was enough to persuade of the futility of such a trip, as you will have gathered by the end of this piece, it was a reasonable decision.

Tunbridge Wells had nothing more to play for, after their defeat at Ashford on Saturday, than third place, but it is an absolute credit to their support that the attendance at Greatness Park was the highest at that ground for five years. Tunbridge Wells may well have garnered their support on the back of last season’s Vase run but they have fostered a great spirit between themselves and the club. They have a great repertoire of songs, not the same tuneless drone that is monotonously outpoured at some places and there appears to be much appreciation from the players themselves.

Sevenoaks captured the morning’s news with the announcement of the appointment of Micky Collins, ex-Tonbridge favourite and the man that steered Erith and Belvedere into Ryman League, as their manager for next season with a three year contract to boot.

Whether Collins was there to watch his future charges I’m unaware, but from their lowly position in the league, Sevenoaks made a pretty good fist of stretching their more lofty neighbours in the wonderfully tagged A21 derby.

The pitches are now very hard and both sides had difficulty judging passes that tended to run away from their intended destination. Tunbridge Wells eventually found the right formula on 34 minutes when Jake Beecroft picked up a loose clearance on the edge of the box and drove the ball into the centre of the goal.

Sevenoaks were not to be outdone and a fine move five minutes before the break ended with Jamie Davis striking an angled shot from 10 yards into the far corner of the net. Half-time parity would have been no more than the home side deserved but their visitors carved them open and a right wing cross was converted at close range by a Lee Radford header.

The second half was largely one-way traffic as Tunbridge Wells, royally as their choir would have it, put their hosts to the sword. The game was over as a contest a couple of minutes into the half when Jon Pilbeam produced a fine individual goal and further strikes from Joe Fuller and a cracking finish from substitute Elliott Everson completed the rout.

Sadly, I would love to have been wrong and felt very guilty at 3 o’clock that I wasn’t at Melbourne Park, Chelmsford (this was lessened as I spotted more and more Tonbridge supporters also in attendance) but, in these days of internet access via a mobile phone, the devastating news that the Angels were behind 3-0 after 30-odd minutes, four by half-time and an eventual embarrassing end to their Conference South time with a 7-1 defeat.

Back to the Wells and now they face a further season in the Southern Counties East. I hope that the league is reorganised to take it to 20 clubs and, I would guess, unless second placed Ashford do not get promotion or there is a surprise addition, Tunbridge Wells are going to start next season as the really big fish and an expectation that they will win this League. One thing is for sure, the choir will certainly have something to sing about.