Erith & Belvedere 3-2 Tunbridge Wells - We were told to go after the league this season and it looks like this competition is one that we're looking to target, says Erith & Belvedere coach Mike Parker

Erith & Belvedere 3 – 2 Tunbridge Wells
Location	Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Kickoff	30/11/2022 19:45

ERITH & BELVEDERE  3-2  TUNBRIDGE WELLS
DFDS Kent Senior Trophy Second Round
Wednesday 30 November 2022
Stephen McCartney reports from Park View Road

ERITH & BELVEDERE coach Mike Parker says the club are looking to target winning the Kent Senior Trophy, as well as the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division title this season.

Tony Beckingham’s side are 16 points clear of second-placed Stansfeld, with 46 points from 17 games and booked their place into the Quarter-Finals after beating Tunbridge Wells on a chilly night at Park View Road.

Tunbridge Wells defeated Canterbury City (2-1) in this competition and The Deres have beaten Welling Town (2-1) and Lordswood (3-0) to reach the last eight alongside Bearsted, Deal Town, Erith Town, Hollands & Blair, Punjab United, Stansfeld and Snodland Town.

Both clubs put out strong sides tonight, especially as both were last in action on Saturday 19 November, with Erith & Belvedere making four changes to the side that won 2-1 at Deal Town, while Tunbridge Wells made three changes to their side that lost 4-3 at Punjab United and went into the game in the top eight with 24 points from 17 games.

Tunde Aderonmu, 35, scored a first-half hat-trick to put Erith & Belvedere in the driving seat, taking his goalscoring tally to 14 goals for the season, while centre-half Robbie Bissett and striker Rhys Bartlett scored for Tunbridge Wells.

“I’ll sum that up with a typical cup performance.  I think we’ve created more than enough chances to put the game to bed but we all know that if you don’t put those away, you’re always going to be struggling,” admitted Parker, whose side have now won 20 of their 26 outings in all competitions this season.

“To be fair to Tunbridge Wells, who played some good football and we were under pressure for the last 25 minutes but cup performance, we’re into the next round and that’s all that matters.”

This was Tunbridge Wells’ third defeat on the bounce and their manager Luke Carpenter said: “Not happy with the result but pleased with the performance.  I think it’s one way to put it, on the back of our recent performances. We have to try to take some positives away from the game but ultimately we’ve lost so I’m not overly happy.

“Tonight’s a difficult one because we’re missing some players. We’re missing a lot of players, we’ve got some injuries, a couple of knocks that we’re recovering from. We’ve got players that have had issues with work.

“What I need to do, I need to look at the ones that have been here and what they’ve done and I’m proud of the people that have been here and they’ve really stepped up.”

Tunbridge Wells created their first chance after only 161 seconds when Frank Griffin (who plays on the right of a three-man defence) released right-wing-back Matthew Astle, who put over a cross towards the near post for striker Trevor McCreadie, whose shot on the turn from 15-yards was held by Adam Molloy.

“I think first half we played well.  You can look at the scoreline and you can say you’ve had a stinking first half and the second half you’ve been brilliant,” said Carpenter.

“I think we’ve played well first half. I thought it was probably an even game and a bit of basketball like but I think we’ve played very well in the first half and we’ve caused them troubles and I don’t think they’ve had an easy game.”

Tunbridge Wells were the last side to beat Erith & Belvedere, winning a league game here 5-1 on 22 October.

Parker added: “He’s a handful, he was the last time we played them in the league and scored four past us in that game. We know he’s a big player for them and luckily for us he struck it straight to Molloy’s hands.”

Erith & Belvedere raced up the other end and clinically opened the scoring with three minutes and 43 seconds on the clock.

Aderonmu played the ball out to right-winger Bradley Ryan, who took a touch before whipping in a low cross into the Tunbridge Wells box.  The ball was deflected out to Aderonmu, who clinically drilled his left-footed shot into the bottom far corner from 16-yards.

“We said before the game, we thought they’d play a back three on us, they did the last time we played, so wide deliveries were key and it was an excellent delivery by Bradley Ryan and Tunde finishes it off brilliantly,” said Parker.

Carpenter added: “Disappointing from our point of view. It’s something that we’ve looked at but ultimately they’ve got very good players and you can’t give them chances like that, they will take them and they’ve got multiple players that can do it.”

Griffin’s first time pass released Bartlett down the left and his cross was met by McCreadie, who nipped in front of Rob Strachan to flick his shot past the near post, as the opening exchanges were end-to-end.

Tunbridge Wells should have equalised in the 14^th minute, however, when Connor Pring and Jacob Feasey linked up well down the left before Bartlett was released down the wing before cutting into the box and dragging his shot across Molloy and past the far post from just inside the corner of the penalty area.

Carpenter added: “Rhys is another one who is bringing his fitness up. A fully fit Rhys puts that in the back of the net!”

Erith & Belvedere also went close just 56 seconds later.

Right-back Fraser Walker released Ryan down the left and he cut the ball onto his left foot before floating a cross towards the back post.  Aderonmu cushioned his header back across goal for striker partner George Purcell to hit a spectacular overhead kick just over the crossbar from the edge of the six-yard box.

“George’s someone who needs a few minutes for sure and I know George Purcell will be frustrated. He could’ve had a hat-trick himself I think. He knows he’s got to hit the target there,” added Parker.

Tunbridge Wells are a side that play-out-from-the-back and Griffin was guilty of giving the ball away within his defensive third and second later Nathan Palmer burst forward before curling his right-footed shot around the far post from 25-yards with the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

Tunbridge Wells were to be denied an equaliser on the half-hour mark with Molloy, the busier of the two goalkeepers, making a fine double save.

Striker Feasey released Astle, who put the ball into the box and McCreadie’s shot was saved by Molloy, who reacted to block Feasey’s drilled low drive, which looped just past the left-hand post.

Carpenter admitted: “It’s got to be a goal really, hasn’t it?!”  It’s a tough one. They’re throwing bodies all around the box. It’s a tough one. It is a tough one but I think realistically we should be scoring them.  On another day they fall for you.  That is where I’m saying that you give them a chance and they’ll take them.  Sometimes, our inconsistent season, we’re not.”

Parker added: “He was busy tonight.  Their movement between the two of them (Feasey and McCreadie) was excellent.  They sort of switched between this 3-5-2 to 3-4-3 kind of shape and it was causing us a few problems, especially as we didn’t have an extra midfielder in there but luckily for us Adam had another good night shot-stopping as he always does.”

Tunbridge Wells deserved their equaliser when it came via their fourth of six corners, with 31 minutes on the clock.

Griffin swung the ball in from the left and Bissett (who plays on the left of a three-man defence alongside Tommy Smith and Griffin) found a pocket of space to stab his shot trickling into the bottom right-hand corner, just crossing the goal-line before Molloy could claw it out.  Assistant referee Raymond Snell signalling that the ball did cross the line.

“We’ll give it to Robbie, why not? He’ll take it, a collectors item,” said Carpenter.

“Ironically, we do quite a bit on set-pieces and we went through something quite specifically before the game today and it wasn’t that! It’s come off.  Fair play, we’ll take it.”

Parker added: “I couldn’t actually see it from my angle, I was blocked.  Tunbridge Wells’ players are adamant, the ref’s not.  I don’t really know what’s going on and then the lino says it’s over the line.  He’s made the decision and it’s 1-1.

“It’s poor really. It falls into an area, we should defend and it shouldn’t get to that stage but it does.”

Erith & Belvedere hit Tunbridge Wells on the counter-attack and grabbed the lead with 37:01 on the clock.

Centre-half Lewis Chambers hit a long diagonal ball out of defence and Walker put the ball in from the right and Aderonmu produced another clinical finish, left-footed into the bottom left-hand corner from 15-yards.

“I’m so happy for Tunde.  He’s been out of the side for a little while now and he’s stayed patient and he hasn’t moaned and his patience has come off.  I think he's scored five in his last three games for us so I’m over the moon for him.  He’s a man in form in front of the sticks and he’s not going to miss that chance,” said Parker.

Carpenter added: “Look, they’ve done what they need to do but there were two things that have happened within that sequence and it comes right from when they originally get the ball.

“I think on the second pass that we specifically work on that not happening and I’m calling out it hasn’t been done and that’s contributed to them being gifted an opportunity.

“From their point of view they’ve still hard to work their way to get to that shot so they’ve done very well on that but it’s frustrating for me because they’re two massive preventable goals that we’ve worked on and called out.”

Erith & Belvedere killed the game off by scoring their third goal just 66 seconds later, courtesy of a goalkeeper mistake.

Goalkeeper Jason Tibble’s poor kick was intercepted by Purcell some 35-yards from goal and his pass put it on a plate for Aderonmu to score his hat-trick poking the ball past the goalkeeper from three-yards out.

Parker added: “Man of the hour and we pounce on a poor ball out and I can see what they’re trying to do with their style of play. It’s gone a little bit wrong there and we’re lethal in front of goal.”

Carpenter, as expected, didn’t throw his goalkeeper under the bus.

“That’s one of them that you don’t really need to talk about or dissect because he knows it.  There’s not really anything magical that you need to give him in terms of advice on that. He knows what he’s done.  Everyone knows what he’s done. It’s not something that you expect to happen again. It’s not one that you need to go on about.”

However, playing out from the back, instead of the goalkeeper launching a big kick over the halfway line, will gift many goals during the course of the season.

It was almost four when Aderonmu teed up Purcell with a low cross from within the right channel but Purcell failed to hit the target, looping his shot just past the right-hand upright.

“I don’t really know how much he knew about it. It sorts of hits his leg and sort of cannons up over the bar, it’s one of those things,” Parker said.

At half-time, Parker said: “Just to try to sort our game plan really. The game was out wide and we felt they weren’t dealing with a lot of balls over the top very well.  Their defensive side of the game wasn’t their best tonight and the lads literally kept kicking the ball away in the second half but we stressed the importance of wide areas and switching play.

“For the first five or so minutes we started the half really well and the boys were well on top in the game but it didn’t pan out that way for the rest of the half.”

Carpenter added: “We’re still very much in the game and it’s not over.

“I generally felt that we were creating enough chances and we’re causing enough problems. We then set some targets both in and out of possession and I think we’ve smashed every single one of them baring putting the ball in the back of the net.

“We probably had four very, very good chances that if it falls to anyone of their guys, they’re finishing.”

Tunbridge Wells dominated for large chunks of the second half, despite losing 20-goal striker McCreadie during the interval to what Carpenter described as “a knock.”

The Wells’ first opening came within the first five minutes when Feasey’s low cross from the right was drilled towards the bottom near corner by Astle, which was blocked by Molloy’s legs.

Carpenter said: “I’m very pleased with the second half performance, more importantly because of the reaction to the situation at half-time.

“You can’t take the three goals away obviously, it’s a silly thing to say that but if you take those three goals out of it and look objectively to how the game was being played, I would say it wasn’t too dissimilar.”

Parker said: “We were not dealing with the extra man in midfield very well at this point and we’re just kicking the ball away.

“We were causing a lot of our own problems a lot there but we’re a side that looked rusty. We haven’t played on Saturday and we didn’t train on Tuesday because of this game and the World Cup matches.”

Tunbridge Wells deservedly notched their second goal of the night with Bartlett being gifted his third goal of the season with 17:59 on the clock.

Central midfielder Jack Palmby drove forward before slipping a 20-yard pass along the deck to release Bartlett but Molloy claimed that he had both hands on the ball as he leaned down to pick the ball up but Bartlett pounced swiftly to round the goalkeeper to slot the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle from six-yards out.

Carpenter said: “Good persistence from Rhys.  I won’t comment on their claims and what they’re saying. I’d probably be doing the same to be fair.

“We just look at ourselves.  The controllables are we look at what we’ve done.  Palmby has found a good pocket, he’s opened up and changed the angle and put Rhys in.  Rhys has been persistent enough to gamble on it and he’s got his rewards for it.”

Parker added: “Again, I don’t really know what’s going on. The game sort of happens and pauses and they do their job and put it in the net.

“The ref has actually apologised to Molloy and said ‘yes, I think I saw you had two hands on it’, which is a little bit frustrating but at the end of the day it didn’t cost us the game.

“We were under pressure for the last 20 odd but we managed to see it out.”

Tunbridge Wells kept probing for an equaliser that they deserved to extend the game to an extra 30 minutes, with Erith & Belvedere often sitting back and trying to hit their opponents on the counter-attack.

Griffin played the ball into Palmby, whose right-footed drive from 25-yards was smothered by the busy Molloy, grabbing the ball at the second attempt low to his right on his goal-line.

Tunbridge Wells certainly missed their 20-goal talisman McCreadie during the second half.  Their next goalscorer is Bartlett and central midfielder Pring, who both have three goals, whereas Erith & Belvedere’s leading three marksman have 14 (Aderonmu), 13 (Nathan Palmer) and 10 from substitute striker Danny Lear.

“I hope this doesn’t seem disrespectful because I don’t mean it that way. If you’ve got the ability to do it, then do it,” said Carpenter.

“They’ve got the finances to be able to bring in multiple players of that type of calibre that will (score goals) if you give any five or six of them a chance, they’re going to put it in the back of the net. We don’t have that luxury.

“What we’ve got is people we’ve worked around to supply Trevor.   Trev doesn’t score those goals without other people contributing so it might not always be them finishing but they’re contributing towards him getting the goals.  You play to your strengths, right, and if Trev’s putting the ball in the back of the net is a strength of ours, then we’ll work the ball to get it to Trev.

“If you look at recent games we are now starting to get a variety of goalscorers because we’ve got people coming back from injuries and we’re working on set-pieces.  We’ve got others that can finish.”

Erith & Belvedere started to attack more inside the final 15 or so minutes when a bullet header out of defence by Rob Strachan released substitute left-winger Michael Hagan, who released Nathan Palmer, who dragged his shot past the far post from 15-yards.

Parker said: “That’s the game put to bed at that point if he does score.  We changed shape at that point, we moved to a 4-3-3 to try to combat the overload in midfield and try to shore us up.

“It was a great number 10 run from Palmer but he just can’t put it home.”

When asked about Hagan’s 24 minute debut cameo, following the winger’s departure from Isthmian League South East Division side Sheppey United, Parker replied: “Fantastic signing for us.  Hagan’s an experienced player. He experienced winning the league with Sheppey last year. He’s a great lad as well.  We had him at training last week and I think he played well when he came on in the game when we were under pressure and he’s doing a lot of running. He’s a great asset to have in the changing room and the squad.”

The home side created a couple of late chances with Jerome Wade drilling a right-footed drive from 30-yard flashing past the left-hand post while left in space in a central position.

Nathan Palmer and Fraser Walker both linked up well within the right channel and Walker’s deep cross was recycled back into the box by Hagan but Nathan Palmer’s effort was caught at knee height by Tibble.

Both of these sides return to league action on Saturday, against two sides fighting relegation and languishing in the bottom two.

Erith & Belvedere host Fisher at Park View Road, while Tunbridge Wells travel to Sittingbourne to tackle Canterbury City.

Canterbury City are rooted to the foot of the table with 12 points from 16 games, while Fisher have 14 points on the board and are two points adrift of safety (Welling Town).

“We were told in no uncertainty go after the league this season and then see what else falls and it looks like this competition is one that were looking to target so we’re very happy with what we’re doing but there’s still a long way to go,” said Parker.

“I think the bottom half of the table is a little bit of a false pretence.  Fisher have had their FA Cup run at the beginning of the season and they’ve got a few games in hand.

“When we played them last time they were lively, young. I know Ajay Ashanike likes to promote the youth and give them chances but we’ll take nothing for granted.  They’re a lively bunch and they’ll work really hard for him and although they’ve got games in hand, they are scrapping and we can’t underestimate a scrapping side.  We have to keep winning and they have to get themselves out of a little bit of bother.”

Carpenter hasn’t given up grabbing a runners-up spot, especially with his side only six points adrift of Stansfeld.

“Canterbury will be a tough game, it will be a very tough game.  When we played them in a previous round of this cup, we found it quite tough. They were a good side defensively, caused us a couple of problems on the counter-attack. It's another game we’re not taking lightly.

“We’ve got an incredibly important December and January actually. I’ll put that in there. 

“Before a ball was kicked, I said this will be a competitive league. I said everyone will be beating everyone.  It’s going to be a very tough season for that reason. In terms of inconsistency and it has been and I think it will continue to be.

“I think there will be a couple of teams that will start to come out stronger at some point and right now if you ask me whose those were, I honestly can’t tell you.”

Erith & Belvedere: Adam Molloy, Fraser Walker, Ryan Palmer, George Monger, Lewis Chambers, Rob Strachan, Nathan Palmer, Jerome Wade, Tunde Aderonmu (Tyrell Richardson-Brown 56), George Purcell (Danny Lear 66), Bradley Ryan (Michael Hagan 66).
Subs: Ben Wilson, Ayogami Lugboso

Goals: Tunde Aderonmu 4, 38, 39

Booked: Lewis Chambers 2, George Monger 68

Tunbridge Wells: Jason Tibble, Matthew Astle, Rhys Bartlett, Tommy Smith, Robbie Bissett, Frank Griffin, Connor Pring, Zak Wolvey, Trevor McCreadie (James Nurden 46), Jacob Feasey (Luca Bradley 76), Jack Palmby.
Subs: Jack Walder, Johnny Phillips, Jack Turnbull

Goals: Robbie Bissett 31, Rhys Bartlett 63

Booked: Jacob Feasey 25

Attendance: 74
Referee:  Mr Zach Moules
Assistants: Mr Derek Peck & Mr Raymond Snell