Tonbridge 1 Faversham Town 0

Match 41/15/1246 - Tuesday, 11th November 2015 - Kent Senior Cup 2R

Tonbridge (0) 1 Parkinson 80
Faversham Town (0) 0
Attendance: 182

Entrance: £7
Programme: £0.50
Mileage: 38/2,929

Match Report

The Kent Senior Cup is a difficult competition to assess in terms of its value. In terms of local prestige I would rate it above the Ryman League Cup in importance, but because of the higher graded clubs in the competition, it is also much more difficult to make progress to the later rounds, which is why I found Tonbridge’s departure from the League Cup at the hands of Hastings rather disappointing.

As to its value to the likes of Steve McKimm, I wonder if it is a fixture that he could do without. Perhaps this season, with an already extensive backlog of fixtures in the Ryman Premier, that might be the case. McKimm, though, would want to respect the competition and the paying public, albeit a sparse attendance, by putting out a team that would be competitive. His choice was already limited by injuries and Luke Blewden and Nathan Elder, who picked up strains on the heavy pitch at Needham Market, were not risked. Jack Parter, Anthony Riviere and Nick Wheeler were also given the night off, whilst, coming back from an injury lay-off, Tom Parkinson was able to put another 90 minutes under his belt.

This was also a good opportunity to blood some youngsters and added to starters Steve Panayi and Brett Milham, there were introductions from the bench for Connor Pring and Perrie Roje.

Faversham Town fielded a strong team with ex-Angels loan goalkeeper, Will Godman taking his place between the sticks for the Whites.

It has to be said that the match wasn’t one blessed with excitement, charitably, I would say it was absorbing! The stand-out performance on the night, at least from a Tonbridge viewpoint, was from goalkeeper Aaron McGuigan. The young custodian may not have the physical presence of his regular first team counterpart but his agility was a principal factor in Tonbridge progressing to the third round of the competition.

The opening 45 minutes saw very few clear cut chances. McGuigan tipped over a far post header from a corner and Parkinson hit the bar following a James Folkes cross. Faversham had the ball in the net after 35 minutes but Wayne Wilton’s effort was disallowed for offside.

The second period was a lot more entertaining. Milham appeared to be pulled back in the box, but penalty claims were waved away by the referee before Faversham struck the bar with a close range header. McGuigan had a 20 minute period when he kept the Angels in the game. After 53 minutes, he came out on top in a one-on-one situation and a one-handed save after 65 minutes was exceptional.

As the game appeared to be meandering towards a penalty shoot-out (which of course, Tonbridge never win), Folkes crossed from the right to Parkinson, who swept the ball home from close range.

There was a final flourish from the visitors that saw McGuigan saving comfortably a header from a corner and deservedly taking the man of the match award.

Back in 1974, the value of the Kent Senior Cup wasn’t questioned when Tonbridge last won the trophy following a famous victory over Maidstone and, I suppose it wasn’t two years ago, when they reached the Final albeit with an entirely different outcome. So, in my opinion, there are positives that can be found and the competition should be embraced.