Kingstonian (0) 1 Kempton 68
Tonbridge (0) 0
Att. 354
Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 108/4,016
Match Report
With no wins in their last five games and only one in their last nine Ryman Premier League games, Tonbridge are in danger of sleepwalking their way into a relegation dogfight or, even worse, relegation itself. Their position was given a helping hand with results elsewhere on Saturday, from the bottom-up, the first winners were Grays, who sit in 12th position. If Steve McKimm’s side continue to be reliant on the helping hand of others they will find themselves in the bottom four and scrapping before they have realised the danger.
As a non-league stadium, Kingsmeadow is among the best, as a Football League stadium when visiting for AFC Wimbledon, it is not really of the required standard. Unfortunately, for Kingstonian, this could have consequences in the not-too-distant future. Wimbledon have long since wished for a return to their home borough of Merton and now have plans in place with the council for the building of a 20,000 capacity stadium on the site of Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium.
Kingstonian, previously the landlords at Kingsmeadow, are now the tenants of AFC Wimbledon having sold the leasehold of the ground during the ill-fated ownership of the Khoslas and should the League Two club achieve their ambition of a return to Merton the ground would be sold with, it is reported, Chelsea the likely purchasers who would use the stadium for their reserve, youth and ladies teams.
The programme notes made clear that Kingstonian would move on to a site where they would find an affordable rent having “enjoyed” a virtually rent-free existence as tenants of AFCW.
The game was about to get underway with an embarrassing situation for the referee, who had forgotten that there was to be a minute’s applause for three Kingstonian officials who had recently passed away. Despite, even a loudspeaker reminder to the referee, he was about to start the match until the spontaneous applause from spectators alerted him to his error. Tonbridge supporters in the crowd would have enjoyed the time to remember one of their own favourites, Geoff Truett, who sadly passed away during the week.
The first half was quite open and it was something of a surprise to get to half-time goalless. Tonbridge came under early pressure with Kyle Merson making a good save to thwart Kempton, but also causing problems of his own with indecision.
Tonbridge did, however, grow into the game and Tommy Whitnell, playing behind Joe Taylor, leaving Marvin Williams in a deeper role, having a couple of opportunities to write his name on that trivia question.
Merson fumbled from a corner once more and it took a goal line clearance to preserve the goalless status as the hosts continued to exert the lion’s share of possession.
Any injury to Jack Parter resulted in the second half introduction of Tonbridge’s latest signing, Dane Luchford from neighbours Tunbridge Wells. Luchford, brother of the Tonbridge coach Justin, made a good impression with his direct running. First big chance of the second half came to the Angels with Taylor’s diving header from Whitnell’s cross going wide.
Chances for both sides were at a much greater premium than in the first half before Kingstonian opened the scoring. A corner, found the head of arguably the smallest player on the pitch, and Kempton was able to steer it into the corner for the decisive goal. It was a disappointing goal to concede, from a distance of 70 yards, it was clear that the scorer had a free header to convert.
There was still plenty of time for the visitor’s to respond but the game petered out with barely an assault on the Kingstonian goal worthy of note.
I hope to be back at Kingsmeadow next season resulting from Kingstonian's continued tenancy at the stadium and, more importantly, the fact that Tonbridge haven’t woken up and found themselves in Ryman South.
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