Tunbridge Wells 1 Erith Town 5

Match 50/18/1643 - Tuesday, 30th October 2018 - SCEFL Challenge Cup

Tunbridge Wells (0) 1 Biddlecombe 77
Erith Town (3) 5 Goodchild 27 Nash 33 Kempton 38 Callender 46 Ojulatayo 80
Attendance: 109

Admission: £4 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 38/3,192

This was the most depressing night that I’ve had at football in a very long time. A 5-1 defeat is, what it says on the tin, a thrashing. But they happen every day in football, such defeats leave football people angry with the chairman, the manager or the players or they can be confused, even distressed that a performance could produce a result so poor. But, at Tunbridge Wells, the reaction seems altogether different. There hardly seems to be any anger, just an air of resignation.

The bright new dawn, I won’t say has proven a false dawn, but the sun has yet to rise on the new era for Tunbridge Wells Football Club.

People are voting with their feet, an attendance of 109 for a first team fixture is woefully low for a club that has shown it can attract three times that amount. At half-time and 3-0 down, some disappeared to the bar and were slow to return and when they did they learnt that within 12 seconds of the restart the deficit had increased to four, they turned on their heels not to return to the bar but to their cars and home.

It seems that mildly despairing rather than Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells reside on the terraces of Culverden Stadium, such is the volume of protest at the present position of the club. There are many good people working hard behind the scenes to make a blanket accusation of apathy, but when I visit Rusthall, a club similarly struggling in regards of results, I don’t sense the same negativity that surrounds Tunbridge Wells.

What cannot be disputed is that those supporters need something to cheer and when the only shot on target is the consolation goal in the 77th minute it is easy to understand their disappointment.

An early move between Jake Beecroft and Rob Loftings ended with a shot from Alexx Kendall that went wide and nothing more was seen of the Wells as an attacking force until the 71st minute by which time they were 4-0 down and that effort from Beecroft didn’t test Adam Molloy either.

It took until the 27th minute for Erith to finally make a breakthrough when a cross from the right was headed back across the face of goal by Adrian Stone for Jason Goodchild to convert from close range.

Six minutes later, a shot from Dan Nash took a deflection before nestling in the bottom corner and, by the 38th minute, a free kick floated into the box saw Stefan Kempton given the freedom of the box to glance a header from close range.

Steadman Callender was allowed to run, virtually unchallenged and rifle a shot into the top corner as the second half opened to the despair of those that had not decamped to the bar.

The home side finally found a response when a cross from Bryce-Borthwick allowed Josh Biddlecombe a close range tap-in only for, three minutes later, Leon Ojulatayo to add a fifth for the the visitors.

My half-dozen or so Tunbridge Wells games a season barely merits an opinion but the people I know that support this club through thick and thin deserve so much better.