Holmesdale 1-0 Tunbridge Wells - The boys know the start to the season we've had hasn't been good enough and isn't in line with our expectations of what we hope to do this season, admits apologetic Tunbridge Wells assistant Wayne Emerson

Holmesdale 1 – 0 Tunbridge Wells
Location	68 Oakley Road, Bromley, Kent BR2 8HQ
Kickoff	06/08/2025 19:45

HOLMESDALE  1-0  TUNBRIDGE WELLS
The Emirates FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay
Wednesday 6 August 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Oakley Road

TUNBRIDGE WELLS assistant manager Wayne Emerson admits their start to the season hasn’t been good enough and in line with their expectations after giving their league rivals Holmesdale their first FA Cup win in 10 years.

 

Bromley based Holmesdale have started their Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division campaign with a 1-0 home defeat to Bearsted and went into this Extra Preliminary Round Replay in the bottom four after one league outing, while second-from-bottom Tunbridge Wells opened their campaign with a 2-0 home defeat to Fisher.

The two sides were locked at 1-1 after Saturday’s tussle at Culverden Stadium and winger Kayden Turner-Bernard’s first goal for the club sealed a lucrative trip to Isthmian League South East Division side Ashford United in the Preliminary Round on Saturday 16 August.

“The first thing to say we’re, to a man, absolutely gutted.  The performance we gave tonight wasn’t good enough, wasn’t at the standards that we’ve set ourselves,” admitted Emerson, who was in charge tonight with manager Steve Ives on holiday.

“The players’ themselves identified that at half-time that for whatever reason we weren’t where we wanted to be in that first half.

“I think we saw an improvement in the second half. We were more affective at what we did and we were just talking about it. Yes, it’s a difficult one to take because we’ve had the chances to get ourselves in both games, I think.”

When asked what was missing from his side, Emerson replied, “I think first half, a little bit of quality on the ball, too many touches, try to overplay at times but then the flip side of that is it’s quite a compact pitch here. 

“AC (Constable) set them up as a very compact, tight block. We knew he would. It’s how they played on Saturday and we then tried to force it over the top on a small pitch with a compact unit.

“We were trying to play balls into very, very tight spaces behind them, which again we talked about at half-time.

“I think again we’ve had the chances to win the game.  It’s a difficult one. On one hand you go their keeper’s probably made three world-class saves but on the other hand you have to sort of look at it and go how many times are we going to have to say that’s a world-class save, rather than saying we should be scoring?”

Holmesdale manager Andy Constable, 46, added: “I thought it was a good entertaining FA Cup game for all of the people who came through the gate.

“We’ve come through with a 1-0 victory, a clean-sheet. We don’t have many of them. Our record defensively last season was pretty poor, so to get a clean-sheet this early in the season against a team that have got the attacking threat that they’ve got, I’m really pleased with that.

“I think aside from the two massive saves that Charlie (Wealands) made at the end of the game, I thought we defended really well and I think we were good value for the win to be honest.”

The two sides produced a low-quality encounter at Oakley Road, with Tunbridge Wells creating the first opening inside the opening five minutes.

Centre-half Tommy Penfold relished pinging long diagonals out of defence and he pinged a ball out to winger D’Armando Lawrence, who cut inside three defenders to reach the by-line before ineffective striker Lucas Murrain got in on the act before former Daler Rory Ward hooked his right-footed volley sailing over the crossbar from 15-yards.

Holmesdale centre-half Alimamy Mansaray was a threat in the Tunbridge Wells penalty area with his head at set-pieces.

Attacking midfielder Callum Keeble delivered a high hanging delivery to the back post for Mansaray to loop his header over the crossbar.

Holmesdale sealed their passage as early as 12 minutes and 13 seconds on the clock, however, as Tunbridge Wells centre-half Ryan Hine opened the gate.

Keeble’s downward throw released impressive striker Lewis Heywood-Oriogun down the left and he easily outmuscled Hine down the left before whipping in a cross/shot which was palmed away by visiting goalkeeper George Bentley.

However, he failed to get enough fist to the ball and the ball fell nicely for Turner-Bernard to sweep his right-footed shot into the near corner.

“We bang on about getting Lewis in those areas because he’s quite physically strong and he’s capable of holding people off once he gets into the box. It’s how we won two of the penalties we got awarded on Saturday so I think getting him in that areas works well for us,” said Constable.

“He’s done what we’ve asked him to do by hitting one across the box and to be fair George has got a big hand to it and Kayden’s in the right place at the right time, which we talked about as well and he’s tucked it away nicely.

“So not the most glamourous goal but listen, it gets us through, so we’ll take it!”

Emerson said: “I think it’s one of those where we’ve got caught perhaps not as organised as we should be from the throw.

“Whilst it sounds a bit cynical, I probably want my centre-half stopping that happening. There’s a physical battle and the guy’s managed to knock it past him.  For me the guy shouldn’t go past the centre-back in that area of the pitch.

“Without throwing Ryan Hine under the bus at all, I think that sums up where we were.  There were just too many 50-50 battles first half we didn’t come out on top and as a result we’re disorganised.

“The cross comes in, Bents has pushed it back out into an area, trying to stop the first cross and the 11 reacted quickest.”

Penfold saw Holmesdale goalkeeper Charlie Wealands off his line in the 19^th minute and tried to score from a speculative drilled left-footed free-kick from the half-way line, only for the ball to bounce past the right upright.

Keeble delivered another high hanging free-kick into the Tunbridge Wells penalty area and once again Mansaray used his height to loop a free header across goal and dropping past the far post.

Constable was enraged when referee Daniel Davis ignored Holmesdale’s strong penalty shouts when Hine clearly fouled Heywood-Oriogun inside the penalty area in the 25^th minute.

“I’ve got to be careful I suppose but I just can’t understand what officials see and what compounds it for me is that I get an apology saying ‘I got it wrong,’

“It’s absolutely no good to me and you trust the officials, obviously without them you can’t have the game. I get that but decisions that are that easy and obvious to make they have to get it right and we’re seeing it too frequently for me particularly at this level where the standard of officiating for me is just isn’t acceptable!

“Lewis clearly got to the ball, knocked it past the centre-half, who’s absolutely cleaned him out and the ref just waves it away, so I can’t explain it.

“I get an apology to say ‘I got it wrong’, but it’s no good to me and I can’t really accept that apology. If you just want people to make the right decision, simple as that. I think that’s fair.”

A very diplomatic Emerson replied: “I’m not going to comment on individual decision. I think it’s safe to say that over both games probably both benches have felt that there’s been some interesting decisions.”

Holmesdale were to be denied a second goal on the half-hour mark when Keeble launched the third of his five long throws towards the near post and Mansaray’s towering near-post header was pushed over the crossbar by Bentley’s outstretched arm.

Constable said: “We probably had about 20 long throws at the weekend and I think they dealt with every single one. We didn’t win many but tonight I thought we looked a bit more of a threat in the box and Ali’s got a flick on that and their keeper’s made a little decent save to tip it over, so pleased when stuff that we work on.

“People will look at us and probably think it’s not the most attractive way to play football but it can be affective and unfortunately that one didn’t drop in because the keeper’s made a decent save.”

Emerson added: “I think we had half-chances first half. We weren’t as organised first half as I want us to be and that was the challenge.  I think second half we got that better.  Yes, just a difficult first half, gave us a lot to do.”

Holmesdale’s holding midfielder Jason Goodchild hit Nathan Moseley with a strong tackle and referee Davis carried on with play and the ball was hit long in behind stand-in Holmesdale’s right-back Nathan Palmer but the impressive Lawrence stabbed his shot past the foot of the near-post as Wealands narrowed the angle.

Tunbridge Wells striker Murrain offered little (Emerson didn’t ask his striker for his injury diagnoses) and went down under Alfie Clarks’ challenge.

Ward floated the resulting free-kick into the Holmesdale box and Tommy Penfold came up from the back to send his towering header over the crossbar.

But Tunbridge Wells put in a lacklustre first-half performance and were over reliant on headers from set-pieces as another Ward set-piece was met by Penfold at the near-post and his header looped across the former Rusthall stopper and past the far post on the stroke of half-time.

“We didn’t have the fluency that we’ve had in the games up until now,” admitted Emerson.

“I think the boys knew where we were but we spoke before the game about the things that we wanted to do. We spoke before the game about what the dangers were and I think the frustration of our bench, I wouldn’t say the players already knew was that the things we spoke about being a problem, were the problem.

“We did the things we asked us not to. We didn’t do enough of the things we said we should do and the boys were honest. They accepted that wasn’t the standards we set ourselves.

“Wasn’t the standards they demand of themselves and I think we did see a bit of a reaction second half.”

Constable said: “Basically just said ‘look, we can go on and keep a clean-sheet and win the game’ and thankfully that’s what happened.

“I liked a lot of what we was doing. We had Jorden Mbola come on who offers us a lot of pace in behind and Kayden, I thought was looking sharp running at people.

“I just asked them to keep putting the ball into areas, getting them turned and hopefully those two can make something happen.

“I don’t know, we didn’t do it as much in the second half, maybe they probably dominated the ball a little bit more than we did but we did look a bit of a threat on the counter but not as much as I perhaps would’ve liked.”

Holmesdale took only 103 seconds to create their first opening of the second half as substitute winger Jorden Mbola flicked the ball inside to Keeble, who smacked a left-footed volley screaming over the Tunbridge Wells crossbar from 35-yards.

Goodchild was carded for a foul on Tunbridge Wells right-back Joshua McArthur Nolan, who had charged down the right channel and Ward’s quality delivery was met by holding midfielder Christian Lawal, who headed wide.

Holmesdale squandered a glorious chance to double their lead in the 51^st minute, with a well-worked set-piece.

Keeble floated a deep free-kick from the left, the ball was hooked back across goal by Clark at the far post and Mbola took a touch before stabbing his shot across Bentley, who comfortably held low to his left.

“He tried to have a touch, I think he should’ve hit it first time. It was a good opportunity,” admitted Constable, who would have buried a chance like that during his playing career in this division and the level above on his £70 per week wage demands.  Players in this ninth-tier division demand at least double that wage nowadays.

“I feel like sometimes we didn’t shoot when we should and we made some poor decisions in the final third but I suppose in Jorden’s defence he’s got in the right area. I just felt he should’ve hit it first time, rather than have a touch. He did have a shot away but that was never going in that one.”

Emerson said: “It was one of those games, there was a number of moments like that that we were not as solid as we should be and I think it’s a frustration that they were able to have those type of chances, which is something we’re normally strong at.”

Tunbridge Wells’ defence failed to pick up Mansaray at set-pieces throughout the game and the centre-half smacked a right-footed volley past the left-hand post from 20-yards after Keeble delivered the home side’s third and final corner.

Tunbridge Wells squandered a glorious chance to grab an equaliser in the 12^th minute of the second half.

Lawrence started to dominant Palmer and put in a great cross from the left and substitute striker Rhys Bartlett’s cushioned header across the keeper dropped agonisingly past the left-hand upright.

“I’m not going to say should (have scored). From where I was, the angle it looked like it was in,” said Emerson.

“The keeper’s body language, it looked like it had gone in and yes those are the chances, if we’re getting back in the game, those are the sort of chances we need to take.”

Constable admitted: “That was a big let off. I thought Lawrence was very, very effective for them. He was at the club a little while ago with his brother Lester, played a lot for the 23’s when Lee Roots was the gaffer here and he’s obviously developed as a player.

“I thought he was a big threat for them and it’s one of them. The ball kind of goes in a bit of slow motion and you expect that one to nestle in the corner but in cup competitions and to win games sometimes you need a little bit of luck, so we’ll take that.”

Lawrence impressed for the away side against his former club.

“He’s quick, he’s got quick feet, he’s unpredictable. We’re looking forward to seeing more of him this season.,” added Emerson.

Tunbridge Wells started to up it and increase their desire levels from this moment in the game and went on to dominant with right-winger Regan Corke finally jumping out of Nathaniel Murray’s pocket.

Emerson was asked post-match whether Tunbridge Wells rely too much on Corke – and that other players in the side need to step up and produce the magic moments.

“No, I don’t think we rely on him. I think he is someone who can produce a moment of magic but equally seen in the first game, Chris Lawal’s had a great shot saved. Rory’s (Ward)had a really good strike tipped over. You talked about D’Armando (Lawrence).

“We’ve got players on another day, Rhy’s header goes inside the post.  Yes, it’s great to have a player like Regan in the team who can completely change the game, who can at times be unplayable but I don’t think we rely on him. We’ve got a really good group and we’ve got threats all over the pitch.”

Constable believed the momentum change was in his left-back Nathaniel Murray’s lack of fitness.

“Nat Murray, I thought on Saturday had a fantastic game against Regan, kept him quiet Saturday. We kept him there tonight and he done the same in the first half. I think to be fair to Regan as the game got on, Nat got a bit more tired. Regan started to cause us a few problems, which is where their chances came from but overall I thought Natt done really well at left-back against him and kind of nullified the threat from him really.”

Lawal played the ball inside to Ward, who fed Lawrence with a low pass, who took a touch before dragging his right-footed shot across Wealands and past the far post from 20-yards in the 65^th minute.

Corke exploded into life and easily skipped past a tiring Murray outside the box before sprinting towards goal, drilling a low right-footed drive for Wealands to dive low to his left and use a strong left-hand to push behind for a corner.

“I mean there’s a number of those isn’t there where on another day, you watched enough of our games to know on another day Reg makes that run and the ball nestles in the far corner,” said Emerson.

“It just felt tonight that it didn’t go our way but that’s not me cursing my luck. I think we make our own luck and unfortunately we’ve just not been good enough today.”

Constable added: “That was the first one that was when by that point Regan was a problem and I think Natt was getting a bit tired but he got into a very dangerous area and Charlie’s done well to smother that one at the near-post and that was the start of a nice little run of saves from him, I think.”

Holmesdale’s bench started to lose their discipline with assistant referee Alex King calling over referee Davis to book Constable (78) and his coach Elliott McManus was carded five minutes later for standing in front of Wells’ left-back Muiz Alaka as he wanted to take a throw-in on the half-way line, which saw numerous players from both sides get involved in handbags.

“My one was, I don’t know, what was it the 78^th minute and then for one reason the linesman decides to start saying at that point ‘only two standing’ when it hasn’t been a problem in the whole entire game.  He says that, I probably react. I have no idea what I’ve said but obviously I end up getting booked,” explained Constable.

“Then Elliott has probably interfered with them trying to take a quick throw-on, there’s a bit of a scuffle and he ends up with a yellow card as well but look it’s part of parcel. We have got to enjoy ourselves a little bit on the bench haven’t we?”

Holmesdale’s 23-year-old goalkeeper Wealands produced save-of-the-season in the 85^th minute to prevent the game going into extra-time.

McArthur Nolan put in a cross from the right and Corke smacked a right-footed volley towards the roof of the net from 10-yards, only for Wealands to dive high to his right and use a strong hand to palm the ball over his crossbar.

Emerson said: “I’m grimacing as you say it (save of the season). It’s a, over the course of the two ties, he’s probably made five or six very, very good saves. That one was probably pick of the bunch. All of our belief we’re thinking that’s a goal. Great reactions from him, fair play.”

Constable said: “That was ridiculous! Like the reaction. You think that’s Save of the Season already? To be fair, it’s all reaction and to get a strong wrist to tip that over, it was actually a great bit of play from them and a great volley from their player and the fact that he’s managed to turn that over the bar from perhaps that close makes it even better.

“It was a great, great, great reaction save and really please for Charlie. He’s come in (from Hythe Town, relegated into this division from the Isthmian League South East) and he’s doing a very good job for us and we’re really, really pleased with him.”

With Tunbridge Wells dominating large chunks of the second half, lone Holmesdale sub striker Wale Odedoyin put in a very poor performance as he failed to keep hold of the ball and Constable and his assistant manager Tony Beckingham were not pleased with his application.

He did have one chance in the last 10 seconds of the game, bulldozing his way past last defenders Toby Crampton and Hine before stroking his left-footed shot across Bentley and trickling past the far post.

Constable revealed Odedoyin’s future is away from Oakley Road.

“Look, Wale I think needs some game time. He’s obviously played second fiddle to Lewis at the moment and I think it’s probably a bit frustrating for him as a striker not being on the pitch as much as he would’ve liked.

“I think on the back of last season where he had a few clubs at the start of last season and ended up back with us and didn’t perhaps deliver the same as he did the season before when he scored 19 goals for us.

“He’s obviously a bit of a handful, he’s a physical presence and at the moment it’s tough for him because Lewis is doing a really good job for us and we’re putting in a lot of trust in Lewis to try to develop his game but I think at times Wale can make decisions where they’re not the best.

“The first game of the season in the league he cost us by getting sin-binned because he said something.

“I think he comes on and he causes a bit of chaos.  The chance he has at the end, he actually done everything right with that, i.e. his touch was good. It took him away from the defender. He hit it fairly early with his left-foot but it just bobbled past the post.

“So we’ll have a look at the situation with Wale but I think we need to perhaps look to get him out on loan somewhere just to get some minutes, which we’ve actually discussed with him, so it won’t come as a shock to him.”

This was Holmesdale’s fifth FA Cup win in 19 attempts and their first since beating Mile Oak 2-0 here at this stage in 2015.

“It’s 10 years since that happened so it’s really positive. It’s another thing that we can say we’ve ticked a box at the club. It’s a bit of a Step in the right direction. We’re slowly getting progression with our league position (thirteenth-place), I think it’s positive,” said Constable.

“We’ve obviously pleased to get through and get a bit of prize money (£1,125, Tunbridge Wells bank £375) and get to test ourselves against a very good Ashford team, so we’ll look forward to going down there and see how we can cope with that.”

Constable takes his side to Whitstable to play newly-promoted ninth-placed side Faversham Strike Force on Saturday.

“That’s going to be a good game. I’m expecting a tough one down at Whitstable. I think it looks a lot different to when I was there. It’s fantastic to see what they’ve done last season in the Vase and everyone knows Whitstable’s clear favourites for the league this year so good luck to them down there.

“We’re playing Faversham (Strike Force) on the same pitch but I think it will be tough. They’ve come up as champions, so they’re going to have a lot of confidence.

“I think they like to play some decent football on a good surface. We know about their threats. We’ve had them watched. We know what to expect so we can go down there and hopefully be prepared to try to get something from the game.”

When asked about the Bromley based side’s aims for the season, Constable replied: “Look, we want to try to progress.  The first thing is let’s get secure and get safe. Get us to a position where we feel we’ve got enough points to not start looking at what’s going on below us and then see how far we can take it.

“We finished thirteenth last season and only two points off seventh and if I look back at some of the points we dropped, we probably should’ve secured that which would ‘ve been fantastic to get a top eight finish.

“For me, if we can get anywhere near that again, it will be great. I’d love to do something decent in the Cups. Our draws in the cups have been tough.”

Constable, who was part of Kevin Watson’s Chatham Town side that reached the Fourth Qualifying Round, losing 2-0 at home to St Albans City back in 2013, reported that winger Malachi Hudson was struggling with an hamstring injury and Keeble was forced off with an ankle injury tonight.

Other players on the treatment table currently include Deandre Williams, Reelwan Lugboso, Sam Bayford and Devonate Roberts (hamstring) and he has an injury crisis at right-back, hence why Palmer slotted in that position.

Emerson, meanwhile, demands a reaction for Saturday’s trip to Ashford to tackle Kennington, having been knocked out of The FA Cup at the first stage for the past three seasons.

“I’ve got no more words to describe how we feel right now, other than thoroughly disappointed and massively frustrated,” said Emerson.

“We’re all absolutely focused on Kennington. The boys know the start to the season we’ve had hasn’t been good enough, isn’t in line with our expectations of what we hope to do this season and they’re all really determined to put it right for the travelling fans that come out to support us.

“Thank you for the support both Saturday and for coming up here tonight on a Wednesday and the staff and the players really, really appreciate it.  We’re really, really sorry that we’ve not been able to deliver for you tonight and we’re absolutely doing everything that we can to get back to winning ways, to start winning ways for the season on Saturday.

“We’ve got a group of players around us to do well this year, to improve on where we were last year (ninth-placed finish) and we’ve had a shaky start. I think we’ve got a squad capable of the play-offs.”

Holmesdale: Charlie Wealands, Nathan Palmer, Nathaniel Murray, Jason Goodchild, Alimamy Mansaray, Malachi Hudson (Jorden Mbola 24), Alfie Clark, Lewis Heywood-Oriogun (Wale Odedoyin 68), Callum Keeble (Trey Roberts 87), Kayden Turner-Bernard (Ramone Lewis 90).
Subs: Nad Nwitua, Chris Tuley, Storm Glautier

Goal: Kayden Turner-Bernard 13

Booked: Kayden Turner-Bernard 45, Jason Goodchild 48, Andy Constable 78 (manager), Elliott McManus 82 (coach)

Tunbridge Wells: George Bentley, Joshua McArthur Nolan (Matthew Dunmall 87), Muiz Alaka, Christian Lawal, Tommy Penfold, Ryan Hine, D’Armando Lawrence, Nathan Moseley (Toby Crampton 76), Lucas Murrain (Rhys Bartlett 45), Rory Ward, Regan Corke.
Subs: Edward Dyer, Ryan Coltress

Booked: Christian Lawal 45, Muiz Alaka 82

Attendance: 163
Referee: Mr Daniel Davis
Assistants: Mr Alex King & Mr Max Doyle
Observer:  Mr Ian Bentley