Tonbridge Angels (1) 2 Sutcliffe 25 Robinson 65
Herne Bay (1) 1 Salako 36
Attendance: 278
Admission: £8
Mileage: 38/3,687
Tonbridge Angels progressed to the semi-finals of the Kent Senior Cup with a narrow win against a stubborn Herne Bay side that stayed in game for its duration.
“It sounds good (to be through the the semi-final), that was the plan at the beginning of the night but I’m not overly impressed with the team performance. It’s difficult when you make seven changes, there’s some lads in there that haven’t played for some time so this competition is important for that, let alone actually trying to win it, it’s good for us to be able to give some of the boys a game. We are through, I thought Herne Bay worked really hard, put us under a lot of pressure and didn’t let us settle and we made hard work of it,” commented Jay Saunders after the match.
The seven changes referred to saw Andrew Norburn make his first senior start between the sticks. Crossley Lema, Ryan Hanson, Trevan Robinson, Deondre Date, Naz Bakrin and Mo Dabre being the starters from Saturday’s side at Weymouth.
It was one of those nights cold enough to see a cloud of steam coming off the players whenever there was a huddle following an injury and the vast majority of the attendance, including a very vocal cluster up from the east Kent coast, seeking the relative warmth of the covered enclosures.
The opening half-hour was pretty much one-way traffic with the Angels dominating. A third minute corner was met with a header from Hanson that was blocked with the follow-up shot going over and minutes later, Date flashed a shot across the face of goal.
On 24 minutes, Robinson was sent clear by Santos, who through the evening was the centre of everything, but he had his angle narrowed by Josh Bexon, the visiting goalkeeper, who deflected the ball away for a corner, the result of which being delivered by Santos to the head of Ethan Sutcliffe who scored from around six yards.
Herne Bay’s first real foray into the Angels’ territory brought a surprise equaliser on 36 minutes when the dangerous strike pair of Kane Haysman and Michael Salako linked well for the latter to finish into the bottom corner. Haysman, three minutes later, forced Norburn into his first save.
The crossbar thwarted the Angels taking a half-time lead when a corner from Santos was worked to the edge of the box from where a driven shot from Hanson rattled the woodwork.
The half-time break saw Scott Wagstaff, who had taken a heavy knock, replaced by Liam Vincent and this almost brought an instant dividend as he flashed one of his trademark crosses into the box that evaded everyone.
On the hour, Vincent’s cross to the far post saw Robinson hook the ball over the bar at the near post, before the striker received a superb crossfield pass from Sutcliffe to cut in from the left and bury his shot into the bottom corner to restore the Angels’ lead.
Chances to put the tie to bed came and went for the home side as Sutcliffe saw a header cleared from the line and Vincent’s shot clear the bar after good build up between Robinson and Lema.
A late free kick for Herne Bay on the edge of the box produced a nervous moment but the shot clear the bar and the game was seen out comfortably.
Dover beat Deal to seal one of the other semi-final positions with games between Bromley and Ebbsfleet, Phoenix Sports versus Welling to secure the other places.
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