Hollands & Blair 5-2 Tonbridge Angels - We are the comeback kings, says Hollands & Blair joint-manager Joel Green, as it's maybe a step too far for Tonbridge Angels, who suffer two youth Cup defeats in three days

Hollands & Blair 5 – 2 Tonbridge Angels
Location	Maidstone Road Sports Ground, Bournville Avenue, Chatham, Kent ME4 6LR
Kickoff	06/05/2026 19:45

HOLLANDS & BLAIR  5-2  TONBRIDGE ANGELS
Go Cardless Kent Intermediate Cup Final
Wednesday 6 May 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Maidstone Road

HOLLANDS & BLAIR development team joint-manager Joel Green says he was feeling overwhelmed that his comeback kings celebrated winning the Kent Intermediate Cup for the third time in the club’s history.
 

Tonbridge Angels’ former Colchester United goalkeeper Jacob Hunt saved an early penalty, before left-wing-back Callum Fincham drilled a stunning opening goal before Hollands & Blair centre-back George Byrne headed in his fourth goal of the season to restore parity in Chatham.

However, Tonbridge Angels striker MacKenzie Richardson drilled in a second from outside the penalty area to hand the Isthmian Youth League Under 18 East title winners a deserved lead.

However, Hollands & Blair – runners-up in the Southern Counties East Football League Development League Under 23 West Division – scored four second half goals to claim the silverware, breaking one of the two handles of the trophy during their dressing room celebrations.

Diminutive attacking midfielder Morgan Arnott flicked in his fourteenth goal of the season, before substitute right-winger Lennon Reid scored a late hat-trick as their opponents capitulated.

Hollands & Blair have defeated Ebbsfleet United (4-1), Sporting Club Thamesmead (3-2) and Faversham Town (3-1) to win this Reserve Team trophy.

Six-time, Kent Intermediate Cup winners Tonbridge Angels, meanwhile, have beaten Lordswood (4-1), Margate (7-6 on penalties after a 1-1 draw), Deal Town (2-1) and Cray Wanderers (1-0).

“The season we’ve had, we’ve just fallen short of winning the league so we are a game away from doing the double this year and the squad that we’ve got and the youth that we’ve got, I don’t see us not being able to perform to the same level next season,” said Green.

“They’re (Tonbridge) tidy, energetic.  We knew they were going to be very technical on the ball. I didn’t think that we would give them as much time and space in that first half than we did.

“The goals they took were special. I mean they’re only special because we gave them the time and space!

“The second half we changed a few things, personnel and tactics and I think that changed the game.”

Tonbridge Angels’ under 18 youth team manager Dominic Welsh added: “A game of two halves.  Football’s a brutal game. I thought we’ve done really well in the first half, created two really good goals. I think we feel tonight we’ve gifted the goals that we’ve given away.  It’s quite difficult without watching some back, like small margines cost us.

“I didn’t think we dominated well enough in our defensive third but we gave it a good go.

“We’re an under 18 side competing in an under 23 competition. To get to the final was a good accomplishment and I feel we gave a decent enough account of ourselves. 

“We got caught a little bit towards the end of the game trying to throw some bodies forward – but that’s football.

“Hollands & Blair are an older team than us and I think that showed in the second half, a little bit more experience maybe, a little bit more know-how in those sort of games.

“They were quite direct, they put a lot of balls into the box and that’s something we’ve actually done quite well with in recent games but we just didn’t deal with it today – but they deserved the win in the second half.”

Hollands & Blair flew out of the traps and referee Samuel Girt awarded his first penalty of the game after only 98 seconds.

Hollands & Blair striker Owen Edwards – who was forced off with cramp in his left calf towards the end of the game – played the ball out to right-wing-back Jack Shepherd, who cut into the penalty area and was tripped by Fincham.

However, Edwards drilled his right-footed penalty, which Hunt dived to his left and used his body to ensure the ball looped up and kissed the crossbar and dropped down and the keeper grabbed hold of the ball on the goal-line, with two minutes and 40 seconds on the clock.

“Owen doesn’t normally miss shall we say. The keeper’s pulled off a great save there with three minutes in,” said Green.

“The momentum shift from missing a penalty to scoring was quite big. It was big credit to the keeper. He didn’t just pull one or two saves, he pulled off three or four in that first half to keep them in it.”

Welsh added: “Cal said ‘he stood on the ball,’ it’s difficult from where we are to see how much he did but really good save from Jacob.

“Jacon’s had a tough, tough game on Monday night and I thought he bounced back tonight, especially in the first half. I thought he was outstanding in the first half. It was a good save.”

Tonbridge Angels threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Burgess Hill Town on Monday night at Longmead Stadium, losing 4-2 in the Champions of Champions Isthmian Youth League Semi-Final against the South Division title-winners.

Tonbridge Angels were a side that played the ball along the deck with crisp passing and they were good at keeping possession and right-wing-back Noah Millis fed the ball to Richardson, who hooked his left-footed volley across the keeper and past the far post from within the right-channel.

Tonbridge Angels took the lead with a beautiful strike with 10 minutes and 8 seconds on the clock.

A high Millis pinged a diagonal from right-to-left, holding midfielder Nathaniel Waul won the ball in midfield and played the ball out to Fincham on the left.

He easily cut inside Oscar Sword – who played on the right of a three man defence – and from just outside the corner of the penalty area, drilled a stunning right-footed drive screaming across the keeper and the ball crashing the top of the far post before nestling inside the bottom of the opposite corner of the goal.

Welsh said: “Great finish and like I say, it was a well-worked goal. Everyone will remember it for the strike but I think it was actually a good passing move.

“We sort of worked the space really well and Cal’s got it in his locker to find that finish.”

Green added: “The ball was won in the middle, plays out to that left-hand side and we just didn’t close it down. We allowed him to shoot. Yes, he’s taken the goal very well but if we don’t allow him that space, he doesn’t get that shot off, for me.”

However, Hollands & Blair grabbed the equaliser from their second of seven corners, with 17 minutes and nine seconds on the clock.

Shepherd delivered a deep corner with his right-foot from the left towards the back post where Freddie Searle – who played behind the front two – knocked the ball across the face of goal in the air and Byrne buried his header into the roof of the net via the head of the defender on the goal-line.

“That’s been our season pretty much, especially for the first half of the season. We are the comeback kings,” revealed Green.

“At half-time we are either a goal or two down and we tend to turn things around. 

“For the latter half of the season, that didn’t tend to happen but we’re in a final, it’s a one-off game. That was what our message was at half-time – ‘don’t panic’, we’ll get chances and hopefully we’ll take them.”

Welsh added: “I think it’s something that we spoke about prior to the game, dealing with the long balls and balls in the box. It was difficult. The number 12 (Searle) done really well in the first half to win a lot of the first balls, but we spoke about trying to deal with the knock down but it was a bit of a soft goal for us to give away.”

Tonbridge Angels took the lead with another stunning strike, with 21 minutes and 13 seconds on the clock, following a sweeping move along the deck.

Former Charlton Athletic centre-half George Vassilev played the ball into striker Robert Penman, who fed Fincham, who played the ball inside to Richardson, who was given oceans of space (Blair holding midfielder Joshua Brooker failed to close him down) and the second striker drilled his right-footed drive into the top-left-hand corner from 30-yards, despite keeper Makenzie Porter diving to his right and getting fingertips to the piledriver.

“Again, a really well-worked goal. I thought it was probably the first time in the game we really put five or six passes together,” admitted Welsh.

“I mean, another really good finish from Mackenzie. Our game is about getting the ball down and controlling the game and I felt we did that from that move onwards in the first half and another good goal and it’s something that we do quite often and quite well.”

Green added: “Another worldy. Again, I think we’ve allowed him the space in the middle to have that shot. It’s not exactly a carbon copy by with the way the goal has come about, it’s not been pressed.”

Both sides then went close to scoring in the space of 69 seconds.

Tonbridge Angels played a long ball out of defence from Vassilev, which released Fincham, who cracked a right-footed half-volley towards the top near corner from 25-yards, which was pushed around the post by a diving Porter.

Hollands & Blair swiftly attacked after defending the resulting corner and left-wing-back Drew Briffitt found space inside the penalty area and drilled a snap-shot towards goal, which forced Hunt to fly to his left and pull off a two-handed save (28:57)

“Drew is our flying wingman. I mean he had an absolutely worldy today himself. He was unlucky not to be on the scoresheet today to be fair but another day they go flying in, like he has been all season, he’s been putting (eight) goals in all season,” added Green.

Hollands & Blair were to be denied an equaliser (39:05) when Hunt performed heroics again from a set-piece.

Hollands & Blair skipper Richard Davies launched his only long throw into the penalty area, the ball was flicked on at the near-post by Searle and Arnott’s looping header at the back post was tipped over the bar by Hunt’s outstretched left-hand.

“We’ve got some height. We don’t tend to score an awful lot of old-fashioned headers straight into the goal. It’s more knock downs and using those tall men.  Defensively we’re quite sound with the heading side of it as well,” revealed Green.

Welsh added: “Jacob made some really good saves tonight and bounced back from Monday’s performance really well, so he’s got that in his locker – he’s a good goalkeeper.

“They’re a big side. I’ve played previously against Hollands & Blair’s men’s (first) team and they’re always a big side. They’re always well-versed but they were also well-organised.

“It wasn’t just lump it into the box. They knew the areas they wanted to hit and I thought they used that to their advantage.

“Listen, we’re an under 18 side so a little bit of naivety in that element of the game but that’s a big learning curve and something that we have done well in previous games but not tonight.”

Shepherd floated in Blair’s fifth corner of the night towards the back post and Arnott found space at the far post to guide his free header just past the right-hand post.  Despite being tiny, Arnott was a threat in the air.

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the interval.

Green said: “Don’t panic! There was a lot of negativity going on, which was something we touched on before the game.  The message was not to; things are going to go against you in a final. Not everything’s going to go with you.

“If you react in a negative way and if you don’t stick together, you’re going to compound it. That was what was happening in the first half so the message was just settle yourselves down basically and just don’t over-react.”

Welsh added: “I praised them on how well we did when we got the ball down and played but I think the big warning shot was that 45 minutes of football isn’t game won.

“We tried to make sure that there wasn’t any complacency, went through a couple of key things out of possession to try to prevent their threats, which were the balls into the box to try to get a bit more pressure on it, trying to stop giving away too many free-kicks in our box. I think it was actually balls in the box which I don’t think we did well enough on.”

Tonbridge Angels controlled the start of the second half and the quiet Lucas Kernan put the ball in from within the right channel towards the near post where Richardson’s right-footed hooked volley from eight-yards went harmlessly wide after only 71 seconds.

Tonbridge Angels then produced a sweeping move which ended with Penman sweeping the ball out to the impressive Fincham inside the box, who took a touch before fizzing in a low drilled left-footed angle drive, which flashed across the diving Porter and just past the foot of the far post.

“Another decent move. Cal’s put it in a decent area. I’m not sure whether the goalkeeper got a nick but we’re just looking to try to get runners into the box, a few more players into the box,” said Welsh.

“Believe it or not, we’ve been playing the whole season without really an out-and-out striker.  Rob and Mackenzie both do a good job out there but they’re both midfield players so sometimes we lack that natural instinct to get in and around those sort of efforts.”

Green admitted: “They’re going to have chances. Football is not a game where one team dominates the other, especially in a final.  It’s never going to happen that way. They had some chances in that second half. I think we defended and we dealt with them the best we could.”

There was some respite for Hollands & Blair as Byrne travelled over the half-way line and into space before drilling a right-footed shot from 30-yards, which was comfortably caught two-handed at head height by Hunt, without having to dive.

A poor kick from Porter was intercepted by Waul, who fed Penman, who glided towards the edge of the Hollands & Blair penalty area with the ball at his feet and his low drive was comfortably gathered low down by the untroubled keeper.

Tonbridge Angels were knocking on the door and Penman’s corner was floated towards the back post where former Millwall centre-half Ed Dyer glanced his free header harmlessly wide of the target at the back post.

Hollands & Blair were clinical in front of goal during the second half, grabbing an equaliser with 13 minutes and 59 seconds on the clock.

Davies charged down the left wing and put in a lovely cross towards the near post where Arnott brought the ball down in space inside the penalty area before flicking his volley into the left-hand corner of the net from seven yards to score a wonderful goal.

“Morgan this year has been unplayable. He doesn’t need a lot. He works in confined tight space. He only needs a sniff and nine times out of 10 he’ll put them away,” said Green.

“When the cross was put in and it landed at Morgan’s feet, it was almost like ‘wow, here we go.’

Welsh added: “I mean I thought Morgan had a really good game. He was a threat in the first half down the left, drifted out to the left quite a lot and his movement was good.  He was decent on the ball.

“Probably critical without watching it back that we didn’t track the run very well. It’s a great touch and a good finish and a decent ball into him but we sort of questioned how close we were to try to prevent that.

“But it’s a decent goal and a tough one to take at a time where we actually felt we were on top of the game.”

Adrian Sulovari – who played on the right of Tonbridge’s three-man central defence – put in a low cross from within the right channel and substitute Ollie Thomson drilled a first time right-footed drive through a crowd of players and past the far post before it went horribly wrong for Tonbridge Angels for the second time in three days.

Welsh said: “With a young group, we had similar on Monday, we had to play on Monday, which probably played a factor in a little bit of legs and bits and pieces like that but we did control the game but we didn’t really create too many chances.

“I think the final decision on what pass to play was not quite there. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best.

“But it’s been a really difficult week. We’ve had a couple of lads go down with illness. We had to bring Fiachra (Pritchard) off in the first half – he came off not feeling very well and we’ve had two lads drop out this morning feeling unwell, so it’s been a difficult week with two games in three days but that’s football.”

Hollands & Blair edged 3-2 in front with 32:00 on the clock.

Briffitt fed substitute Jacob Ware, who whipped in a left-footed cross from the left towards the back post where the unmarked Reid had his big moment with a miss-hit volley, which he placed across Hunt and crept into the far corner.

Edwards, who tried to force the ball over the line, suffered cramp in his left calf and play was held up for five minutes and eight seconds so the striker could receive treatment beside the left-hand post, before Tonbridge could restart the game.

“He almost miss-hit it, bless him.  I think it came off his studs, maybe, but the direction was there and I will say it, you take your own luck in a final,” added Green.

Welsh added: “I think that’s the goal we’re most critical about to be really honest. It’s a ball to the back post and we’re sort of ask players in the box to be marked, especially around the back.

“It’s a decent enough ball in but it’s unopposed. It’s a decent finish but we’re not close enough to effect it and we haven’t communicated well enough and it’s a bit of a disappointing goal.  We’re letting in too many poor goals and that was probably the worst one of the night.”

The impressive Arnott played a first time pass, Reid put the ball into the box and Briffitt got involved but full credit for Arnott who showed desire inside the box to have a couple of blocked shots inside a crowd of players and the ball finally fell to Reid, who swept his left-footed shot through the unsighted keeper to give Hollands & Blair their fourth goal of the night with 41 minutes and 35 seconds on the clock.

“I think their goalkeeper he’s almost a bit unsighted, shall we say. It’s gone past the defender and gone through the middle of the keeper,” said Green.

“We didn’t have a lot of luck in the whole game and it seems like those two goals are all the luck we needed really.”

Welsh added: “It’s a scrappy one. I think we’ve got a couple of opportunities to half-clear it, don’t quite manage to but difficult at that stage in the game because we’re trying to push. We’re trying to get bodies forward.”

Welsh threw Dyer up as an emergency striker and he was denied by a fine save from Porter, who stuck out his left leg, to frustrate the National League South club, before former Charlton Athletic man Harry Bingham drilled a deflected angle drive flashing just past the foot of the far post.

Hollands & Blair hit Tonbridge Angels on the counter-attack down the left and the outstanding Reid won his side their second penalty after being fouled inside the box by substitute right-back Ollie Thomson.

Reid swept home his left-footed penalty, past the diving keeper into the bottom left-hand corner, with 48 minutes and 9 seconds on the clock.  The final whistle was blown by referee Samuel Girt at 55:59.

“I don’t think he was ever going to give that ball to anybody else, knowing that he’s on two goals and the way he strikes a ball and the way he strikes a penalty. It was always going to be him,” said Green.

Welsh added: “Five-two is probably in the end a really harsh scoreline because we’re in the game for large periods but you’ve got to take that gamble at that stage in the game.

“We’ve streamed a lot of players forward, got caught on the break and if you watch the video back, I give credit to my boys really, there were eight or nine of them sprinting back at a time where we could’ve been despondent to try to recover it but I think that 70 yard sprint back, by the time you get there, you’re tired and I think it was a bit of a lazy leg and it’s kind of the icing on the cake.”

There are 60 clubs between fourteenth-placed National League South club Tonbridge Angels and seventh-placed Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division finishers Hollands & Blair.

When asked how his Tonbridge players were feeling post-match, Welsh replied: “Hurt. We’ve lost a Semi-Final and a Final in the space of three days but I think we’re a young group, we’re an under 18 group.  We’ve won the league back-to-back seasons, won it last season and a similar group have won it again this season.

“We’ve only lost one league game this season, so they’re hurt but I’ve just reminded them of how good they’ve been this season and what they’ve done in the last two years. 

“I think we’ve scored 99 goals, one short of the 100 tonight, so they’re the memories we’ve got to remember.  We’ve been outstanding in this competition.  We’ve played some good under 23 sides, Margate, Cray Wanderers and Deal and we’ve had some really good moments in it, some late winners, so that’s something that I’ve reminded them of towards the end.”

Joint-managers Green and Joel Lake replaced Edwards and brought on substitute goalkeeper Jack Reeves as a lone striker for the final 104 seconds of stoppage time.

“Owen’s run his socks off,” said Green, who was asked about Reeves’ late cameo.

“Today was the only fixture we’ve ever had to sort of name two goalkeepers.  Now the fact it was a final, I don’t think we left anything up to chance by doing that, so it was a bit of a roll of a dice.  We made some subs because of a couple of things We need some more legs, there was some tactical changes and we’ve also got players in who are putting all their effort in, in a midweek game.

“Cramp’s going to be factor. If we didn’t have our goalkeeper, we would’ve been fine but Jack Reeves is a footballer, he knows what he’s doing on the pitch, whether he’s in goal or on the pitch.”

The Southern Counties East Football League Development League West runners-up were able to celebrate their Cup success.

“We’re overwhelmed! Halfway through the season, we had a sniff that we could win this League. Results didn’t quite go our way, sort of February time I think it was. That’s allowed Cray Wanderers just to nip us in the League.

“The Cup run has been good but to get to the final with the group of lads that we’ve got and then to actually to be 2-1 down at half-time and come back and win it in the way that we have, I mean there’s not much else I can ask for. We have been the come-back kings.”

Both Green and Welsh were asked whether there are any players knocking on the door of Darren Blackburn and Alan Dunne at first-team level.

“We’re in our second season doing this. It’s a huge learning curve for us as we’re going.  Joel Lake (joint-manager) is one of the youngest coaches (25) in the League, so he deals with youth every single day. There’s different traits that we both have and I think at the moment we’re working at quite a high level.

“The boys respect us, the older boys in the team know their roles. We’re going to lose a few boys next season. The older boys will end up trying to push on into a higher level, where we’ll be trying to develop the next crop that comes through from the 18s.

“There’s a few boys. Drew (Briffit) been a fairly regular first team substitute. We’ve had George Byrne, he’s nicked a few appearances. Jack Reeves, our substitute goalkeeper tonight was very unlucky tonight but he’s been featuring in the first team pretty much in every squad. He doesn’t play a lot but he’s featuring and getting that experience.”

Welsh replied: “Mackenzie, the lad who played up top today, he’s sort of been in and around it for a little while.  He has been out at Lewes in Step Three (Isthmian League Premier Division) of late.

“Dani Sulovari, who played right centre-back has been on the bench a couple of times this season.

“But the lads in there have got a decent future in the game.  They’re talented boys.  Tonight was maybe a step too far on a big occasion but there’s definitely a future in football for a lot of them.

“It’s tough going from under 18s level to Step Two National League South football, so we feel if we can get them into Step Five (Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division) and above, it’s a good level for them to be playing and giving them that exposure.

“We’re not a full-time outfit, We’re lucky it we train once a week most times. A lot of these boys will head off to Uni next year, some are heading off to America so they’ll all go their different ways and hopefully over the last two years or a year for some of them, we’ve given them enough tools to go and do well in football but also be good people.”

Hollands & Blair: Makenzie Porter, Jack Shepherd, Drew Briffitt, George Byrne, Richard Davies, Oscar Sword (Daniel Francis 74), Joshua Brooker (Zach Tydeman 61), Datiel Jackson (Jacob Ware 75), Owen Edwards (Jack Reeves 90), Morgan Arnott, Freddie Searle (Lennon Reid 46).

Goals: George Byrne 18, Morgan Arnott 59, Lennon Reid 78, 87, 90 (penalty)

Booked: Joshua Brooker 27, Datiel Jackson 69, Owen Edwards 90

Tonbridge Angels: Jacob Hunt, Noah Millis (Kyler Barton 80), Callum Fincham, Ed Dyer, George Vassilev (Jack Gallacher 58), Adrian Sulovari (Harry Bingham 86), Nathaniel Waul, Fiachra Pritchard (Ollie Thomson 43), Robert Penman, MacKenzie Richardson, Lucas Kernan.
Sub: Alfie McGuire

Goals: Callum Fincham 11, Mackenzie Richardson 22

Booked: Ed Dyer 38, George Vassilev 45, Noah Millis 59, Callum Fincham 90

Attendance: 358
Referee: Mr Samuel Girt
Assistants: Mr William Campbell-Wroe & Mr Simon Barker
Fourth Official: Mr Guy Touko