Bearsted 4-1 Redhill - If we want to be in the League above, you've got to go to teams in the League above and show what you can do, says promotion-chasing Bearsted manager Kevin Stevens

Bearsted 4 – 1 Redhill
Location	Otham Sports Ground, Honey Lane, Otham, Maidstone, Kent ME15 8RG
Kickoff	15/08/2026 15:00

BEARSTED  4-1  REDHILL
The FA Vase First Qualifying Round
Saturday 15 August 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Honey Lane

BEARSTED manager Kevin Stevens says he is going for promotion from the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division this season despite revealing a weekly budget cut of £400 from last season.

The Bears extended their winning run to three games at the start of the new season by ensuring Redhill exited The FA Vase at the very first stage for the last four seasons.

Andy Lampard’s side arrived at Honey Lane sitting in second-place in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South table, having picked up seven points, having been held to a 1-1 draw at home to Alton,  before back-to-back 2-0 wins over Epsom & Ewell and Balham.

However, the Lobsters stunned Isthmian League South East Division side Ashford United with a 2-1 home win in The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round last weekend but they failed to replicate their heroics during a game of two halves here today.

Redhill deserved their lead when it arrived through an emphatic finish from left-winger Jayden Smith, as Bearsted put in a lacklustre performance on yet another scorching August day.

Bearsted attacker Nathan Light suffered a nasty injury to his left knee and striker Diekonifeoluwa Falade grabbed an equaliser on the stroke of half-time from the penalty spot, before the Bearsted number nine scored another penalty five minutes into the second half.

Bearsted controlled most of the second half and two awful pieces of goalkeeping from Redhill’s James Dillon gifted Falade his hat-trick and Matthew Day to give the final outcome a rather flattering look.

Bearsted opened their League campaign with a 2-0 win at Chislehurst Glebe to sit top of the pile after one game before stunning Isthmian League South Central side Ashford Town (Middlesex) with a 2-1 win in The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round last weekend.

“You can only be happy. I love The Vase, it’s something you always want to do well in every single season, so to win 4-1, you can only be happy,” said Stevens.

“We didn’t play well first half, they were the better side. I thought the wind in the first half was a lot more hurting than we thought it was. Our defence definitely said that anyway, but it did seem to affect them. I thought we played it better in the second half and dominated from start to finish really.

“We watched them. We watched the Veo on them on last weekend’s game. We got a report as well from Ashford and from someone else.  They’ve won two out of three in their League and drew the other one and beat Ashford United last week, which is no mean feat, beat the team above.

“I thought they were very direct, which we saw on the Veo and with the reports we had, very direct. I thought it worked for them in the first half. We didn’t cope with that wind very well. They turned us really well but they’re a good side and happy to come away with a 4-1 win really.”

Firstly, Stevens should also take credit for his tireless work over the summer to get the hallowed turf as green as possible, as most of the country bakes in hot summer temperatures and a current draught which has made his job “very tough,” to get the grass pitch in a playable condition, especially with no rainfall here in Kent for around two months.

“Do you know what? It would probably had been a bit greener actually. It got a disease.  I’m going to really bore everyone when they read this, it (the pitch) got a disease a little while ago called Red Thread, which spreads at night when you water a pitch sort of late at night and then it’s damp. It’s a fungi basically. It’s a disease so I couldn’t water it at night, so it was only getting watered from six to about half-eight in the morning before the sun came up, so I couldn’t water it at night, so it was a lot browner than this.

“It’s been only the last two weeks, we got rid of the Red Thread, with a bit of seaweed and nitrogen treatment and I’ve been able to water it for about two and a half hours at night as well as two and a half hours in the morning, so we’re starting to see it green up.

“You’ve seen the rest of the pitches, we just haven’t got the water to get on them unfortunately. It’s been tough, it’s been very tough. I’ve never known anything like this before. The only good thing is it’s quite nice to sit here for two and a half hours watching the sprinklers go.”

Redhill started the game on the front foot and three-goal central midfielder Seanan McKillop cracked a right-footed rasping drive towards the roof of the net from 20-yards, which forced Bearsted goalkeeper Adam Molloy to palm the ball over his crossbar, following a slick three-man move, with five minutes and 33 seconds on the clock.

“We started a bit slow but I’ve got to give credit to them,” said Stevens.

“I thought the way they were playing and playing with the wind, as I said, was hurting us a little bit but I just thought we was a bit flat.  I didn’t expect that of these boys but the credit I give them is, it was a hard half but they stayed in the game.

When asked why he enticed Molloy to leave Isthmian League South East Division side Deal Town to sign for the club, Stevens replied: “He’s experienced as you know, he’s won the League three times, he’s played Step Four.

“I spoke to Kingy (Deal Town manager Steve King) about him and Kingy’s a good gaffer, he couldn’t give him higher praise. He’s probably not the sort of ball-playing keeper we normally have but do you know what, he does, exactly that! He saves everything that comes at him more or less.  He’s great in the dressing room, great in the clubhouse, just the experience. He’s just a really good lad as well as a good keeper.”

Redhill fully deserved their lead when it arrived with 24 minutes and 23 seconds on the clock, following a sloppy pass out of defence by Daniel Keyte, who played on the left-hand side of three central defenders.

Keyte’s sloppy pass went straight to McKillip, whose fine through ball put Jayden Smith thorough on goal and the winger emphatically drilled his right-footed shot into the roof of the net.

Stevens said: “DK sort of rued that one. It was a bit of a silly ball to give away. I suppose once in a blue moon that’s going to happen when you play out but I mean it was an absolutely fantastic strike by the lad. You’re not stopping them. Any other day, they normally fly over the bar but it was a bit sloppy from us but that summed up the first half by the way!”

Bearsted took nearly half-an-hour to start clicking into gear and Light pressed Redhill’s right-back Finn Bishop on the half-way line before feeding Ross Ibbertson, who drove forward and his weak shot deflected off centre-half Thomas Smith and visiting goalkeeper Dillon made a comfortable save down on his knees and into his midriff (28:12).

“That’s Ross’s first start today. He had a really good pre-season and we really wanted to bring Ross into the club, so he’s been very unlucky not to start,” admitted Stevens.

“He’s a bit like Adam (Molloy). He does what it says on the tin. Whether you play him full-back, whether you play him in midfield, he breaks the game up. He wins second balls, he’s decent on the ball as well, probably needs to practice shooting, that’s all.”

Bearsted’s poor start to the game almost came back to bite them when Dillon – who has a big kick on him – launched a right-footed free-kick towards goal some 35-yards from his own goal-line and the ball went through Molloy’s fingers and the ball clipped the crossbar and dropped for the former Deal Town goalkeeper to grab hold of the ball (29:10).

“I looked to one of my coaches and went ‘Kingy told me he don’t make mistakes!’ I said to him at the end, ‘what was all that about?’ and he said, ‘I’m keeping the crowd entertained,’ but very unusual from Adam. Even in training he just stops everything, his handling is so good, so a bit unusual but I don’t think we’ll see that again all season!”

Bearsted went very close to grabbing an equaliser following the first of their seven corners, however.

High right-wing-back Clark Woodcock swung in a quality delivery from the left with his right-foot towards the back post where Light found a pocket of space to flick his header across the keeper and sailing agonisingly past the far post (33:55).

Stevens said: “Nathan’s been absolute quality this season. I think he’s probably just edged being our best player and when I saw that coming to him, I thought that was going to be buried in the back of the net.  I think he tried to put too much on it personally, powered it too much, just a little bit wide, a good area.”

Bearsted produced a sweeping counter-attacking move when Finn Bishop’s defensive third throw-in was powered forward by Bearsted’s high left-wing-back Luka Radojevic before Woodcock played the ball into Falade, who played the ball over to Light, who teed up Woodcock, who leaned back and blasted his first-time drive high over the crossbar.

Light now faces weeks possibly months on the sidelines when he took a painful bang to his left knee following a penalty area tackle from Redhill’s left-sided centre-half Archie Harland-Goodard on the opposite side of the penalty area.

Essex-based referee Elora Hardstaff blew the whistle (39:54) and consulted with her assistant referee Nicky Kinghorn before deciding to caution Archie Harland-Goddard for the tackle, as well as cautioning a man on each side for dissent (McKillop and Radojevic).

Bearsted grabbed the equaliser with 44 minutes and 7 seconds on the clock, as a composed Falade sent Dillon the wrong way (diving to his left) as the ball was slotted into the near bottom left-hand corner.

Stevens admitted: “Fortunate probably with the pen. I couldn’t really see it from where I was properly but probably fortunate with the pen but we were staying in the game. We were working hard. You get the little rub of the green like that sometimes.

“I’m not sure about the penalty, I couldn’t see it properly. The fact that Nathan has come off and he could be badly injured actually. His knee doesn’t feel right at all, so we’re hoping – he’s going to get a scan on it – but we’re hoping that’s not as bad as what he thinks it is at the moment.

“But that’s what Nathan does. He puts his body on the line. He wins tackles, he’ll win headers and he’s been so good this pre-season and obviously Dieko’s stepped up. I’ve had Dieko here before, so I know he’s very calm on penalties.

“I’ve just substituted Matt Day for Nathan. The coaches were saying, ‘get Matt to take it,’ but he put on in in the first game but Dieko’s very calm. I knew he’ll score.”

When asked whether Light’s time on the sidelines could potentially be months rather than weeks, Stevens replied, “The prognoses at the moment ain’t great but you never quite know. I’m hoping the physio might be a little bit too negative about it but they’re not normally wrong. What he’s saying, he’s in a lot of pain and he looks a bit out of shape.  Possibly (it’s going to be months rather than weeks), I’m hoping it’s not, so we’ll have to see.”

Stevens does, however, have strength in depth as he revealed he was missing seven players  from his 25-man squad, with Ryan Blake (wedding), Aidan Clark (ankle), Richard Jimoh (knee), Rueben Jones (holiday), Conrad Lee (tight hamstring), Daniel Melvin (groin) and Liam Parle (knee) all missing the third game of the new season.

The referee walked over to the side of the pitch and called over both managers before the start of the second half and the pair of them were told ‘it’s a man’s game’ being screamed out by someone in the crowd will be reported by her to The Football Association.

Stevens was naturally asked his reaction to the incident.

“Someone shouted when there was a tackle ‘it’s a man’s game’ and they reported that. That’s a reference of us having a female referee, which I think anyone who’s been at a game of football has probably head that saying loads of times. It’s nothing to do with a female referee. It’s to do with she gave us a foul, in our opinion, a soft free-kick to them when it was just a good, crunching tackle but because they’ve said something, it’s going to be reported but I’m very irate about that if I’m honest with you because if it’s something was said and it was said in the manner to her because she was a female referee, I’ll be the first to do something about it, so I’m quite irate about that because I don’t know why they would say something. But yes, let’s see what happens. Although we’ve won, I am a little bit down about something like that being taken forward.”

With Stevens’ words still ringing in his players’ ears, Bearsted came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half and the referee awarded Bearsted with their second penalty, this time for handball.

Former Margate centre-half Tyler Hatton was denied by Dillon from within a crowd of players and the ball was cleared out to Woodcock, who recycled the ball back into the box from the right-channel and assistant referee Kinghorn flagged after spotting a handball from Redhill left-back George Bond.

Dillon dived to his left again but this time Falade’s clinical left-footed penalty was rifled high into the top left-hand corner of the net, as Bearsted grabbed lead with four minutes and 36 seconds on the clock.

“I thought that one you could see clearly, it’s hit his arm, the arm went up a little bit and it’s hit his arm, everyone was adamant it was a penalty. They’re obviously going to disagree with it probably,” said Stevens.

“Dieko’s second one, you do sort of think Matt Day now has come on and he’s been our penalty taker but Dieko’s very confident, wanted it and despatched it really well again.”

When asked whether Falade or Day will take their next penalty, Stevens replied, “That’s a good question! I think Dieko will want to take them, that’s for sure but Matt Day missed our last game through a calf injury and he’s back after coming through training on Wednesday, so he’ll probably want it as well, so we’ll just see whose confident on the day.”

Redhill were not their threatening start after the interval as it seemed both penalty decisions had knocked the stuffing out of them and they lacked quality to threaten a solid Bearsted back three, well marshalled by former Sevenoaks Town centre-half Ryan Sawyer.

“That’s something we have really worked on in pre-season, is our defensive shape. The unit’s been tight, blocking crosses, blocking shots and we do that really, really well. We’ve done it well in three games we’ve done it, so impressed with the boys in that manner today, putting their bodies on the line,” said Stevens.

“Tyler Hatton has come in today because of some injuries, he’s new, so he probably would’ve been on the bench to start today but I’m delighted to put him in because we know what quality he’s got.

“Ryan Sawyer texted me when I was on holiday. I already had four centre-halves and I sort of thought ‘I don’t really need another one’ but after sleeping on it, it was just a too big an opportunity to turn down.

“After speaking to Marcel (Nimani, Sevenoaks Town manager), I know Ryan anyway from playing against him but speaking to Marcel convinced me even more. He’ll be good for the club, good for the dressing room, so not just good as a footballer but a great person to have around it. Experienced and he’s been great since day one.”

Bearsted strangely went route one and they were gifted their third goal of the game with 15 minutes and 13 seconds on the clock, thanks to some Sunday League goalkeeping from Dillon.

Hatton smashed a long ball over the top of Bishop (who started at right-back before slotting in on the right-hand side of a three-man defence alongside Archie Harland-Goddard (centre) and Bond (left).

Dillon rushed out of his penalty area and miss-kicked the ball.  Falade cut inside and stroked home his hat-trick, knowing he doesn’t get presented such chances by SCEFL Prem goalkeepers because they are miles better than this bloke!

Falde controlled the ball before sweeping his right-footed shot bouncing into the middle of an open goal from 25-yards for a very early Christmas present.

“A bit of a poor decision, I think, I feel by the goalkeeper but do you know what? It’s the endeavour of the strikers, both of them, Matt and Dieko were chasing it down. We were getting up the pitch quick and I’m a big believer in keeper’s see that in his eyeline. He sees the players and that forces the mistake in my opinion.”

Woodcock hooked the ball in from the right-channel into the Redhill penalty area, the ball was laid off by substitute striker Day and holding midfielder Jack Palmby lashed his first-time shot over the crossbar, as Bearsted produced a trademark attacking move (17:48).

“I thought Jack was going to blast that in,” admitted Stevens.

“Clark’s been fantastic since he’s come in. We got him, Matt Day and Ross Ibbertson from Larkfield. Three players that we were so keen to bring in pre-season. Just three fantastic lads. They drive training and they’re fantastic in the dressing room and Clark hasn’t played out where we’re playing him before, so he’s taken to it like a duck to water. He’s been so, so good, it’s great to have him.”

Lampard threw on a couple of players in the 71^st minute with Ethan Ford and Thomas Harland-Goodard and the Surrey side increased their desire levels from this moment.

Redhill failed to create any clear-cut chances from open play but they produced a three-man set-piece routine with 31:09 on the clock.

Ferrar swung the ball in from the right, the ball was flicked on at the near-post by Archie Harland-Goddard and substitute striker Alex Keating steered his near-post header wide of the near post.

“They put more people up top but I trust our boys to deal with it.  We’re quite a big side so we’re comfortable when defending set-plays. We practice that quite a lot in training as well, not just scoring them but defending them, so I trust our boys to keep the ball out,” said Stevens.

Bearsted went very close to grabbing a goal (34:01) when Falade jinked past three Redhill players before Archie Harland-Goddard firmly shut the door shut.  The ball came out to substitute Liam Gillies, who drilled a first time angled drive across the keeper and flashing just past the foot of the far post.

With a minimum of four additional minutes signalled, Bearsted’s last two corners were used to eat up time by the corner pole, instead of putting the ball into the goal-mouth from the left.

Redhill threw the ball into their penalty area close to the flag, Bishop opened the gate and allowed Falade to cut in towards the near post. 

Dillon failed to clear his lines and the former Chelmsford City and Lancing goalkeeper suffered a knock to his right foot as Falade pressed him and Day took the ball off his team-mate to stab the ball over the line to find the bottom left-hand corner from close to the by-line to give it a flattering 4-1 scoreline.

Stevens said: “I think Dieko’s a bit annoyed that Matt pounced on it. He wanted four Dieko. Do you know what, they’re in a and around it. The keeper dilly-dallied on the ball a little bit and they nicked it off him, so if you’re not there and you’re standing there waiting and you’re protecting your lead an standing back, that doesn’t happen but they’re in it and fair play to them both.

“As I say, first half, I thought we was off it, way, way off it and I think against decent teams and I think they’re a decent team, they’re very direct but good at what they’re doing, what they do.

“If you don’t do the right things, which we said at half-time, we’re actually playing their game. We were actually moving the ball too quickly, getting rid of it, lumping it. We don’t play like that, so first half we were playing their game and they’re going to beat us at their game because we don’t play like that.

“So we just said at half-time, ‘let’s just get back to doing what we do’ and if we come off here win, lose or draw, we’ve done what we do, or we try to do what we do.

“The boys have gone out and put in a much, much better second half performance, fully deserved in my opinion.”

There were four League fixtures this afternoon with home wins for Chislehurst Glebe (2-0 over Snodland Town), Faversham Strike Force (1-0 over Phoenix Sports), Larkfield & New Hythe (3-1 over Tunbridge Wells) and Rusthall (2-1 over Fisher).

Each of the 18 clubs have either played two or one League game with the top five containing Larkfield & New Hythe (six points from two games), Faversham Strike Force (four points), Bearsted (three points from one game), Petts Wood & Holmesdale (three points from one game) and AFC Greenwich Borough (three points from one game).

Bearsted welcome Faversham Strike Force to Honey Lane on Tuesday night.

“That will be a tough one. I was down there watching that as well actually against Snodland, they’re good, they’re effective at what they do.  I wouldn’t say there was any right way or wrong way to play football but there’s a way I like to play and there’s a way they play and if it’s effective for them, then great.

“They’ve had a great result today beating Phoenix, so they won’t be easy but we won’t take anyone for granted in this league.

“I don’t think there’s an easy game in this league anymore. They’re used to be years’ ago but there’s not now.

“We’ve done our homework on them. We know what we’ve got to do to try to get a result and if you’re not at it, I know they’ll cause us a lot of problems, so hopefully the boys will be at it for 90 minutes.”

Stevens then takes his side to Isthmian League South Central bottom side Egham Town next Saturday in a bid to spring a FA Cup Preliminary Round upset.

“When the FA Cup draw came out and we got Ashford Town (Middlesex) and then you look at the next one and you think if you beat them you’ve got Egham, I thought ‘oh my god, never had it as tough as that.’

“But we went to Ashford Town, played well, fully deserved the win. I think they went down to 10 men after about 20 ish minutes but before that we were comfortably dominating. I think them going down to 10 men, we stepped off the gas a little bit.

“Listen, we want to be in the League above next year, make no bones about it. I don’t think I’ve ever said that to you – but there’s a lot of teams in this League who will be thinking the same, so I’m not for one moment thinking like it’s a given and we can do that.  It’s going to be a lot of hard work.

“There’s going to be games where we lose and games hopefully we win more but if we want to be in the League above, you’ve got to go to teams in the League above and show what you can do, so we’ll go there full of confidence and see how we get on.

“We petered out last year a little bit (finishing in sixth-place), after being in the play-offs all season. We just fell away. We’ve got a better squad this year. No disrespect to the boys who were in it last year, a lot of them are still here, but we’ve also added eight or nine players. We’ve got a better squad, a lot better in depth, so we expect on paper to be better but that doesn’t always happen.

“But our aspirations are to get promoted and that probably puts a target on our back but if a lot of managers in this League, if they’re already honest, they’re probably saying the same thing.”

Stevens, who takes his side to Chessington to play Epsom & Ewell (who beat Horsham YMCA 5-1 away today) in The FA Vase Second Qualifying Round on Saturday 12 September, was really honest when it comes to his budget this season.

It’s really hard for Bearsted to compete with a National League South giant on their doorstep in the shape of Maidstone United, attracting a really low crowd of 91 for this ninth-tier FA Vase tie, despite The Stones playing away to Walton & Hersham in the sixth-tier this afternoon.

“It’s very difficult.  My budget was cut £400 this year and I didn’t have a lot last year, so to have it cut £400 was a bit worrying pre-season,” said Stevens.

“We’ve done our homework, we’ve brought the right players in, all of them have come here for a lot less money, a lot, lot less money but they believe in what we’re trying to do.

“They love the silly things. I had a couple of players tell me the other day ‘the washing just smells nice’ where it’s washed here at the club by my wife Lesley.  The dressing room is full of stuff for them to have.  We have meals here after every training session, just things that actually people enjoy and it bonds the group, so hopefully we can keep those players.

“It’s disappointing. First League game against Glebe we had 63 and we won 2-0 and you stand over there and you look over this side and you think ‘they’re aint many people here’ and it’s so frustrating! 

“It’s on a nice pitch, it’s a nice place to come to. It’s nice, the clubhouse is nice, the food they do in there is nice and I find it really frustrating.

“We’ve got the housing estate gone up, we’re trying to come up with ideas to get more people in. We’re trying to get families to come. We’ve got something around 30-31 teams I think at the club. A lot of those are very young, so we’re trying to get more of them to come. We’re thinking about maybe a bouncy castle and kids can play on that before kick-off and hopefully they can watch the team.

“It’s a little bit frustrating to see crowds like that and even that today I learn that’s under 100 today. It’s a little bit of a disappointment really.”

Bearsted: Adam Molloy, Clark Woodcock, Luka Radojevic (Sam Flisher 84), Tyler Hatton, Ryan Sawyer, Daniel Keyte, Jack Palmby, Ross Ibbertson (Liam Gillies 76), Diekonifeoluwa Falade (Colby Wait 90), Nathan Light (Matthew Day 44), Samuel Stace (Luke Martin 85).

Goals: Diekonifeoluwa Falade 45 (penalty), 50 (penalty), 61, Matthew Day 90

Booked: Luka Radojevic 44

Redhill: James Dillon, Finn Bishop, George Bond, Eion Fraser, Thomas Smith (Ryan Ferrar 53), Archie Harland-Goddard, Jayden Smith (Thomas Harland-Goddard 71), Paddi Harland-Goddard (Ethan Ford 71), Aidan Brown (Alex Keating 54), Seanan McKillop, Tyrese Sutherland (Javeon Dyer 24).

Goal: Jayden Smith 25

Booked: Archie Harland-Goddard 43, Seanan McKillop 43

Attendance: 91
Referee: Ms Elora Hardstaff
Assistants: Mr Nicky Kinghorn & Mr Simon Brickwood
Referee Coach:  Ms Nicoleta Bria

Match Duration:
First Half: 48:39
Second Half: 50:10

Long throws into the opposing Penalty Area: Three
Bearsted: Clark Woodcock 1
Redhill: Archie Harland-Goddard 2