AFC Croydon Athletic (0) 3 Kaffo 51, Wallen 55, Jenden 88 (pen)
Tunbridge Wells (0) 2 Nwoko 52, Beecroft 54
Attendance: 79
New Ground: 316
Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 90/1,862
He has assembled a squad that looks, on paper, more than capable of being competitive but wastefulness in front of goal coupled with defensive errors made for a frustrating evening at Mayfield Road.
Taking the positives, Tunbridge Wells were far the better side in the first half and should have been out of sight of a side that ended the evening at the top of the SCEFL Premier with the forward partnership of Joe Nwoko and Jack Harris looking to be a real handful for any defence.
Harris has returned to the club from time spent in higher levels and is no longer the gangly, raw striker that departed. He is stronger both in mind and body and will eventually score and create goals for the Wells, hopefully in abundance.
The Wells held sway in the opening period with Steven Ita dragging a shot wide after just two minutes and the powerful Stephen Ikpeme shooting wide right before the game settled into a competitive contest.
Scott Whibley needed to be substituted before the half-hour mark when he suffered a head injury following what appeared an innocuous header. Scott later revealed that he had a drill fall on his head a couple of weeks ago and when he headed the ball he suffered something called secondary impact syndrome. The injury necessitated an ambulance being called to the ground and the Wells skipper being taken to hospital for scans following which he was thankfully given the all clear.
The Wells continued to create chances, the best of which came after 36 minutes when a free kick taken by Tom Davey found the head of Perry Spackman who put it across the face of goal where Nwoko failed to make a touch.
The game took off early in the second half when, after 51 minutes, Croydon went in front with an unchallenged Junior Kaffo glancing header nestling into the bottom corner.
The lead lasted less than a minute when a strong run from Harris looked to have brought the Wells a penalty but Nwoko ran the ball into the net with Croydon seemingly appealing for the penalty to be given! The referee managed to confuse the issue by needing to consult the linesman before giving the goal.
A third goal in three minutes saw Tunbridge Wells in front when Ita was brought down inside the left hand angle of the box. Jake Beecroft successfully converted from the spot.
A surging run from Ikpeme almost gave the visitors some breathing space but two minutes later, Croydon were allowed to get in a cross from the right bye-line to Marlon Wallen who had the simplest of tap-ins.
Both sides searched hard for a winner, Chris Oladogba needed to be at his best to turn over an effort from Morgan Jenden whilst Tommy Lawrence saw his shot well saved low to his left by the Croydon goalkeeper. Substitute Jon Pilbeam set up Harris, but the ball got stuck under the feet of the striker.
Perhaps Tunbridge Wells paid for their ambition to go for all three points when, with just three minutes remaining, an attack was broken down with a long punt forward which found Davey exposed one-on-one with the referee, who had a strange evening, deciding that he brought down the Croydon attacker. I was too far from the incident to say whether the tussle was a foul or not, but I do feel that there was another Tunbridge Wells defender arriving on the scene, so the sending off for being the last man was very harsh.
Jenden dispatched the penalty to seal the points for the Rams despite a last gasp effort from Spackman ending the game with ball in the goalkeeper's hands.
The Tunbridge Wells support among the sparse attendance will surely believe that Jason Bourne now has the tools at his disposal, they just have to be utilised in the correct manner. A little bit of game management in the final minutes would surely have yielded a point from this game.
As a new ground, once the rough track had been negotiated (no mean feat), a surprisingly large grandstand came into view. This seats just over 300 people, and is a relic of their Isthmian League days and the Pakistani spot-fixing chairman. It is in need of a little loving care but it is still a fine structure for this level of football. On the dug-outs side there are two covered standing enclosures, to which nobody on the night ventured to. There is also covered standing behind one of the goals.
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