Crowborough Athletic 1-2 Wimborne Town - It's going to take us a bit of time to recover from our FA Cup exit but we've got to concentrate on the League now, says proud Crowborough Athletic boss Sean Muggeridge

Crowborough Athletic 1 – 2 Wimborne Town
Location	Crowborough Community Stadium, Fermor Road, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 3BU
Kickoff	03/10/2026 15:00

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC  1-2  WIMBORNE TOWN
The Emirates FA Cup Third Qualifying Round
Saturday 3 October 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Alderbrook

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC manager Sean Muggeridge says it’s going to take them a bit of time to recover from their controversial FA Cup exit to workmanlike and direct outfit Wimborne Town.
 

Tim Sills’ men extended their unbeaten run to 12 games after grabbing their place in the final Qualifying Round after putting in a professional performance, in front of a crowd of 518 at Alderbrook, as Crowborough Athletic's unbeaten run of four games across three competitions came to an end.

Wimborne Town arrived in East Sussex sitting in 12^th place in the Southern League Premier Division South table with 12 points (three wins, three draws and two defeats).

They needed two replays, to beat Portishead Town (3-1, after extra time after a goal-less draw at home), followed by a 4-3 win on penalties after a 1-1 extra time draw after coming away from Weston-super-Mare with a 1-1 draw.

Crowborough Athletic – who last reached this stage of the competition back in 2008 – have scored 19 goals in their seven FA Cup ties this season, banking £10,069 in prize money, which Muggeridge wants to use to bring in a couple of new centre-halves.

"The club's made some good money out of it. We've just got to try and use it in the right way now and hopefully get a couple of players in," said Muggeridge.

"We've lost two centre-halves today.  Harrison Mayhew (ankle) and Will (Puffette) is going back to Uni after today. We've got to get some players in now."

The Crows have beaten Guernsey (5-0) and Epsom & Ewell (3-0) before stunning AFC Whyteleafe (Isthmian Premier, 3-2 at Flamingo Park after a 1-1 draw here, before National League South side Hampton & Richmond Borough were beaten 3-1 here in a replay, following a 3-3 draw away from home.

Crowborough Athletic were without attacking midfielder, the five-goal Harry Forster through suspension and Marcus Goldsmith was on his honeymoon and three players were cup-tied, George Brooke (Margate), Finley Chapman (Hastings United) and Will Samways (Chatham Town).

Crowborough Athletic were by far the better team, especially during the first half and if they showed more belief than they may have produced a third Cup upset as this Wimborne Town side were there for the taking.

Wimborne Town grabbed the lead, courtesy of a controversial penalty decision made by Kent referee Nick Dunn, which was emphatically converted by winger Owen Roundell just before the hour.

But Crowborough Athletic restored parity, courtesy of a sublime 30-yard curling strike from striker Rushaar Samuel-Smikle, who has scored six of his nine goals this season in The FA Cup.

Wimborne Town’s captain Sam Roberts – who played in the heart of three centre-halves – capped off his man-of-the-match performance by breaking Crowborough’s hearts with a finish following a corner with 16 minutes left.

“Frustrating to be honest with you. I think first half we probably weren’t clinical enough and we made a Step Three side look very ordinary, I thought and on another day, we probably would’ve won,” said Muggeridge, who was interviewed inside the boardroom for 30 minutes.

“But I think the officiating was very poor. If I’m going to get in trouble, I don’t care! I think those penalties aren’t given, nine times out of 10, they won’t be given. The guy’s got his hands down. It probably hits his hand and the main reason they got at us a little bit was because there was an off-the-ball incident where Harrison Mayhew’s got injured and we’ve had to reshuffle and our midfield wasn’t as good as it was beforehand.

“I’m really proud of them. I’m really proud of them for getting to this stage but at half-time I was thinking ‘we’re going to get through’. I thought we were the better side.

“Did they (Wimborne) up it a little bit? Maybe but I think it was more about reshuffling – but I don’t think there’s was a penalty. It just hasn’t gone our way basically. 

“I think they were quite direct. They didn’t really have a lot but mind you, we didn’t have a lot. The goalkeeper didn’t have to make a lot of saves. I think it was so frustrating, we’re talking about the referee really because of those two decisions.”

Crowborough Athletic centre-half William Puffette – who was playing his last game before heading off to university – missed a decent headed chance following their first of five corners, with three minutes and 39 seconds on the clock.

Right-winger Lloyd Francis floated his right-footed corner in from the right and Puffette rose and looped his header over the crossbar from eight-yards.

“Yes, I mean, we did have a lot of height today.  We haven’t normally got that height but we had it today,” explained Muggeridge.

“If was for a reason. We put Josh (Turner) in midfield, a centre-back, to give us more height and I thought those two Josh and George (Hutcheon) were superb in the midfield. Will just didn’t get over it. It just sort of looped over didn’t it. It was a chance.”

Francis then delivered his second corner, which brought head tennis inside the Wimborne penalty area and the ball came out to the impressive Elliott Duncan and the left-winger cracked a right-footed drive towards the bottom near corner from 16-yards, which was comfortably gathered by visiting keeper Kai Crampton in his midriff (5:08).

Duncan was a threat for Crowborough during the first half, before Sills told Billy Walker (right-sided centre-half) and right-wing-back Charlie Wooding to vastly improve their defending after the interval to snuff him out of the game.

“I mean he’s a great finisher. I think on another day he might’ve scored that but he’s just a quality finisher and when he gets his opportunities like that, they normally turn into a goal,” said Muggeridge, who admitted he missed Forster, with Connor Pring playing further forward than his usual holding midfielder role.

“I think with Fozzie being out, we just didn’t have, Connor Pring’s a good player but he’s better more deep but we didn’t have the bit of magic that Fozzie can produce.”

Wimborne Town were a direct outfit with both teams kicking the ball in the air, which produced a poor quality tie but Crowborough Athletic’s two centre-halves Harrison Mayhew and Puffette were keeping four-goal targetman Will Fletcher at arms’ length.

The Dorset side lost striker Lewis Williams to an injury, so on came Joe Smith and Roundell launched four long throws into the Crowborough penalty area.

Connor Pring, playing in the number 10 role, played a 20-yard pass with his right-foot along the deck into Duncan, who took a touch before cracking a right-footed drive sailing over the top of the far post from 35-yards, as Muggeridge’s men were by far the better team in the first half.

Crowborough Athletic missed a glorious chance to take a deserve lead, with 36:43 on the clock, on the counter-attack.

There were several players from both sides within the Crowborough half and the ball came out to Pring, who split open Cameron Munn (a winger but the last defender in this phase) with a lovely long ball to put in Samuel-Smikle, who should have scored when faced with the keeper.

He did Munn for pace but lacked the quality and composure needed at this level and stabbed his right-footed shot straight at Crampton, who made a comfortable save by picking the ball up between his legs.

“You could see Rushi today, he’s got to be better on one-on-ones but then he does score that fantastic goal,” said Muggeridge.

“That’s what he’s all about. He’s an absolute handful and a goalscorer of fantastic goals but one-on-one’s aren’t always easy, people think they are.”

Wimborne’s left-wing-back Cameron Sullivan (who was cautioned by the referee for diving within the left-channel as the impressive Harrison Mayhew closed the door), swung in a free-kick from the right, which was punched away by Martin Grant.

The ball came out to central midfielder Josh McQuaid who chested the ball and Roberts recycled the ball back into the box where the flapping Grant flicked the ball backwards with his outstretched gloves and the ball bounded off Fletcher’s face and went behind the right-hand post for a goal-kick (38:30).

A lacklustre Wimborne Town created their first shot on target with 41:59 on the clock, inevitably following a set-piece.

Roundell looped his third long throw into the Crowborough penalty area which was headed away at the near post by left-back Lucas Mvongo (who Muggeridge revealed had to leave the game due to dizziness).  Roundell then laid the ball inside to Sullivan, whose low left-footed drive from outside the right-corner of the penalty area, was tipped around the post by Grant, getting down low to his left.

“That was the only one that might’ve been on target,” recalled Muggeridge.

“We were very, very good today in the first half against a good side and to limit them to just to that and we had a couple of really good chances at the other end.

“What were my thoughts? (at half-time)

“Well, the thing was, I told them ‘you’ll never get a better opportunity to go into the next round of The FA Cup’ because I thought we was on top.

“We did all the right things and I thought we were going to go and win it to be fair but things in football, that is why we just love it so much, things didn’t go for us.

“Whether we should be on the front foot a bit more but things were dropping to them. Not making excuses, but I just think when they don’t go for you and your centre-half has been superb gets injured and you bring your superb midfield back into centre-half, I think they started getting at us a little bit more.”

All eyes were on a Crowborough attack when play was halted when Crowborough centre-half Harrison Mayhew went down with an ankle injury inside the D of Grant’s penalty area.

Muggeridge walked on to the pitch to asses the damage before the number five was taken off the pitch.

“I don’t know, it looks like quite a bad ankle (injury),” revealed Muggeridge.

George Hutcheon, who was combative in the middle of the park, alongside Joshua Turner, was taken out of the fire and partnered Puffette in the heart of defence and on came Alfie Lamben, who failed to offer the same quality.

Referee Nick Dunn awarded Wimborne an uncontested drop-ball on the halfway line where Roberts smacked a right-footed volley towards the edge of the Crowborough box where Smith flicked his header which was comfortably gathered by Grant (9:19).

With Wimborne Town being made to look ordinary, they grabbed the lead with 13 minutes and 6 seconds on the clock from the penalty spot.

Smith hooked the ball into Fletcher, who played the ball out to Wooding on the right and he put in a cross towards the near-post where left-wing-back Cameron Sullivan attempted to hook the ball on.

Referee Nick Dunn penalised Crowborough’s Hutcheon for a very soft handball and Grant was sent the wrong way by Roundell, who emphatically stroked his right-footed penalty into the right-hand corner.

“Their bench was having a go at him (the referee) for a lot of decisions and I think he’s given that because he thought he had to,” claimed Muggeridge.

“But in my eyes, if you’re giving that penalty for handball, football’s just gone basically because he had his hands down his side.

“I’ve got to watch the veo. It looks like it’s rebounded off something and hit him on the arm.  Now, in a game like this, in a FA Cup tie, if you’re not 100 per cent sure, he couldn’t have been 100 per cent sure. I’m not even sure he’s seen it but it’s just completely mucked us up!

“I’m just very frustrated! But he couldn’t have the courtesy of just give me what he’s given the penalty for. I know it’s handball but if your arms are down by your side, how can it be handball? It wasn’t even a deliberate one!

“He was poor for both sides. It’s difficult to referee, I’m a referee, it’s difficult to referee, I do understand but these crazy decisions. I was so frustrated because it wasn’t really a level playing field really but the referee’s are there to do a job.”

Lambden clipped a long ball in behind, from within the centre-circle, where Duncan sprung back from the dead to embarrass Munn on the by-line but the angle was too tight for his drilled effort, which screamed across the face of goal in the air (19:10).

Crowborough Athletic’s players were guilty of playing too many balls in the air, which was meat and drink for Wimborne’s defenders, with Roberts showing his experience of putting in a resilient away performance at the heart of their back three.

Muggeridge admitted he was impressed with Wimborne’s number five.

“I mean, he was superb. He kept a very good player in Rushi relatively quiet. He’s probably played a lot higher (Salisbury, National League South). I don’t know, he looks like he’s played higher.  He’s a leader, he’s very clever as well. Clever in sort of, I’m not having a go at him because I think we need a player like that. Clever little tugs. He was a very good player. He was my man-of-the-match today by a mile for me.”

Crowborough Athletic restored parity with 24 minutes and 12 seconds on the clock, with a sublime finish of high quality from their number nine.

Pring was inside the Wimborne half when he hooked a ball up in the air towards the edge of the Wimborne penalty area, which was expertly controlled by Samuel-Smikle.

For the only time of this game, Samuel-Smikle escaped from the shackles of the 31-year-old Roberts, cut inside and onto his right-foot before curling a sublime shot into the top far corner of the goal from 30-yards.

It’s no surprise when Muggeridge revealed post-match that Samuel-Smikle and Duncan are both under seven-day approaches but refused to reveal who those clubs are.

“Well, Rushi is very important to us. I’m sure after today, again, he’ll be looked at by other teams but we gave him his chance. He was only playing under 23s at Tunbridge Wells at the time when we pulled him out (the first time we signed him),” said Muggeridge.

“He’s just so good for us. We do play him in sort of areas that he needs to get into but he’s affective and he’s a handful.

“We just need to really work on him now on his other little bits but if he gets those other bits he might not be with us and that’s the problem. I mean, that goal was just class, wasn’t it?  You were just waiting for it to ripple the net.

“Obviously, it’s not won us the game unfortunately. A goal like that should win you the game.

“I thought we could win it when we scored. We were sort of on top a little bit, so I thought we can go and win it.  But I’m also wary that we could get a little bit of bad luck and lose it.

“I would’ve taken a draw at the time because of the way things were going. It wasn’t going for us in a lot of things, injuries and things like that, so I would’ve definitely would’ve taken a draw but it didn’t happen like that.

Sorry, I did try to get more details out of the manager but he was having none of it!

“We’ve had a couple of seven-day approaches on a couple of players. I can’t tell you (who the clubs are), I’m not allowed to. I can’t tell you, I like you Steve but I’m not telling you that, I can’t.”

Curling one into the top far corner in a FA Cup tie will enhance Samuel-Smikle’s profile.

“Of course, when they’re playing games like this, their profile goes up because people will see. I call them lazy managers who will look at the team sheet and go ‘he’s scored so many goals, lets go out and put a seven-dayer in on them. They don’t even go and watch them, so that’s the distraction…”

Wimborne Town nicked the victory, with 28 minutes and 29 seconds on the clock, following their third of five corners.

Sullivan floated the ball in with his left-foot from the right and an under-pressure Grant flicked the ball away with his gloves.

Roberts’ initial drive was blocked from inside a crowd of players, the ball was the laid back to him by South Korea born substitute winger Seung-Woo Yang, before Roberts rifled his left-footed shot over a crowd of players into the roof of the net and Grant was cautioned by the referee for showing dissent, putting his point across to the man in highlighter pen yellow from outside his penalty area as Wimborne’s players celebrated playing their Get out of Jail Card.

Muggeridge claimed: “Yes, I mean it’s a foul on the goalkeeper! They stopped, their players stopped as well. We stopped thinking the ref was just going to blow up and then they started up again and he didn’t give the foul but then we didn’t clear our lines.  We’ve got to take something from it. Although it was a foul on the goalkeeper, we didn’t clear our lines and we stopped.

“Was it a good strike? It was probably a good strike. We should really be doing better from that anyway. It should’ve have got to that stage – it was a foul on the goalkeeper!

Wimborne Town then created chances to score a flattering third.  Although Roberts did score a flattering second to seal their progress.

Yang whipped in a cross from the right where Wooding rose inside the penalty area to steer his header over the Crowborough crossbar.

Yang delivered a deep free-kick from midfield where Fletcher ghosted in to flick his glancing header from a tight angle, which was comfortably gathered by Grant, low to his left (31:37).

“He (Fletcher) is a handful. They’re a Step Three side. I don’t know what sort of standard some of those players have played in but he was a handful and I thought Will and Harrison done really well against him,” insisted Muggeridge.

“I don’t think we would’ve lost today – whether if we would’ve won, I don’t know – but I don’t think we would’ve lost if Harrison didn’t have to come off because he’s a very important player to us.”

Hutcheon was combative in a good way when he was playing in the middle of the park.

“He’s been a bit of a find really. He’s come back from Uni and contacted us to come here and he’s been fantastic really,” added Muggeridge.

Wooding played the ball into diminutive Chillian substitute winger Angel Diaz-Villa, who laid the ball off to Smith, whose swept shot was comfortably saved by Grant, to prevent the ball nestling inside to the bottom left-hand corner (48:25), following a sweeping Wimborne move.

The home fans gave their players’ a rousing reception at the final whistle as their lucrative FA Cup campaign came to an end with plenty of pride and a case of what might and should have been as Wimborne Town were there for the taking today.

“The boys are going to be down now. That is what I don’t like about The FA Cup because it’s buzzing when you’re going though but picking them up when they go out – I’ve had it in the Vase a few years back - it’s going to take us a bit of time to recover but I’m really proud of them, to get through all those rounds and then lose like that – which I don’t think they deserved to lose to be fair.

“They look flat (post-match inside the dressing room).  I’ll be honest with you and so they should be. If they got absolutely outplayed and you can hold your hands up but they put all that effort in and got nothing out of it and they’re disappointed with what’s happened and we’re all disappointed but we’ve just got to get on with it because we could suffer.”

Muggeridge revealed that both Finley Chapman and Brooke will return to the squad for Tuesday night’s home Sussex Senior Cup Second Round tie against Lewes.

Craig Nelson’s side are in fourth-place in the seventh-tier Isthmian League Premier Division table (19 points, six wins, one draw and three defeats) following their 1-0 derby home win over Whitehawk today and played much better football than Sills' side when they lost 1-0 away to Cray Wanderers in the FA Cup First Qualifying Round Replay last month.

“We’ve got a nice easy one on Tuesday against Lewes haven’t we?  We can’t make too many chances because we’re going to get hammered otherwise,” said Muggeridge.

Crowborough Athletic return to Isthmian League South East Division action next Saturday when Marcel Nimani brings his Sevenoaks Town side across the border.

Sevenoaks Town sit in ninth-place (12 points from nine games) but Crowborough Athletic are currently bottom of the eighth-tier table with four points from six games.

The bottom eight tonight contains Deal Town (nine points from eight games), Whitstable Town (nine points from seven), Punjab United (nine points from 10) and Horley Town (nine points from eight).

The four sides inside the relegation zone tonight are Eastbourne Town (eight points from eight games), Peacehaven & Telscombe (eight points from nine), Merstham (six points from eight) and Crowborough Athletic.

Looking at my mobile phone and checking out the League table and results on Football Web Pages, Muggeridge, admits, “It’s not looking great is it? We’ve got to concentrate on the League now. We’re bottom of the League now. We need to get some League games behind us now and get some three points. We’re out of The FA Cup, we haven’t got The FA Cup to fall back on, so we’ve got to try and get up the League now.

“Marcel is a brilliant manager. I really like him. I think he’s a top man. I’m expecting a very difficult game.

“I always said it was going to be harder this year (after finishing fourteenth last season) and that Cup run hasn’t done us any favours to be fair. We’ve got to get them back up again and if we play like that and like they did against Hampton & Richmond…

“If we play like that, I don’t know, I think this side might be equipped for higher teams, not being that disrespectful to teams we’re in, I think we’re equipped because I think their more direct when teams are higher.

“In big games we are very good. We are good at big games. It’s just the games where we’ve got to get up for and we have to try to get up now.”

Crowborough Athletic: Martin Grant, Jack Mayhew, Lucas Mvongo (Finley Nwanosiki 85), George Hutcheon, Harrison Mayhew (Alfie Lambden 54), William Puffette, Elliott Duncan, Joshua Turner, Rushaar Samuel-Smikle, Connor Pring (Yannick Vochyan 90), Lloyd Francis (Tom Pearson 69).
Subs: Carter Ryan, Malachi Mbogba, Charlie Holmwood

Goal: Rushaar Samuel-Smikle 70

Booked: Connor Pring 40, Martin Grant 74, William Puffette 89

Wimborne Town: Kai Crampton, Charlie Wooding, Cameron Sullivan, Sam Roberts, Billy Walker, Harvey Wright, Owen Roundell (Yang-Woo Seung 73), Josh McQuaid, Will Fletcher (Angel Diaz-Villa 88), Lewis Williams (Joe Smith 20), Cameron Munn.
Subs: Tyler Edmondson, Finley Toghill, Cameron Plain

Goals: Owen Roundell 59 (penalty), Sam Roberts 74

Booked: Cameron Sullivan 45

Attendance: 518
Referee: Mr Nick Dunn
Assistants: Mr Declan Wyatt & Mr Christopher Britton
Fourth Official: Mr Benjamin McDonald

Match Duration:
First Half: 47:52
Second Half: 52:19