I'm proud of our team performance, says Wells skipper Jason Bourne

Saturday 05th March 2011

TUNBRIDGE WELLS skipper Jason Bourne says he wants to become the first man at the club to lift the Kent Senior Trophy when they lock horns with Erith Town on 17 April, writes Stephen McCartney.

The long-serving right-back was a part of the side that lost on penalties to VCD Athletic in the April 2006 Final at Park View Road, Final.

Tunbridge Wells opened the scoring that year through a Joe Fuller penalty in the 76th minute, but the lead didn’t last long as Danny Penny levelled just four minutes later following a corner, before Vickers celebrated their first success in this competition by winning 3-1 on penalties.

Only Bourne, Sam Phillips and Alex Rich have survived from that Final, and Bourne is desperate to lift the silverware against Tony Russell’s side.

Two of VCD Athletic’s players that day, Ricky Bennett (who came off the bench for the last 12 minutes of extra time and saw his penalty saved by John Whitehouse) and Paul Foley, have since gone into management with VCD and Chatham Town respectively, although Foley replaced Martin Ford at the helm and lead them to the Kent League title two years ago, before joining Chatham last summer after the club were harshly relegated out of the Ryman League after just one season, due to ground grading issues.

“I’m really excited about playing in a Cup Final,” said Bourne, beaming with pride following his side’s last-gasp 1-0 home win over Holmesdale at Culverden Stadium today.

He added: “It’s probably one of the most unsightly football matches you’re ever going to witness and it was whoever battled the hardest today.

“I’m not sure we did but I think we just about edged it at the end. It was a game of few chances and thankfully Keelan took his right at the end.”

Predictably, match-winner Mooney clinched the Man-of-the-Match award, converting one of only two of his goalscoring chances, but central defender Perry Spackman should have collected the award, with a solid display at the heart of defence.

“As a team we really defended well,” said Bourne. “Perry and Boylie (Andy Boyle) dominated in the air. Richy (Alex Rich) worked really hard down the left and in front of us as well and put a shift in and Sam Phillips covered every blade of grass today. What he gives to the team really benefits everyone.”

But Martin Larkin’s side clearly missed 20-goal striker, Carl Cornell, due to suffering from sickness in the early hours.

Bourne admitted: “We missed Hooley. Of course we’re going to miss a player who scores that many goals for you.

“We didn’t really have any attacking flair today, but we defended really, really well and sometimes that’s how big teams win games really.”

The only goal today was scored with 45:26 on the clock and Bourne was preparing for an extra 30 minutes of football - before Mooney pounced with a clinical right-footed finish to beat Darren Ibrahim at his near post from a tight angle after cutting in from the left.

“I saw a couple of people in the crowd grimace as they didn’t want to watch another half-an-hour of it, but I’m glad not to take it to extra time or penalties, as it’s a bit of a lottery,” said the number 2.

Reflecting on the smash-and-grab raid, a cruel way for Gary Davies’ Holmesdale side to lose their first ever semi-final as a Kent League club, Bourne said: “I’m not disappointed of the team performance. I’m proud of the team performance. It means the team’s a really good team to win like that.”

And it’s winning that matters in a semi-final, as chairman Joe Croker explains.

“Today’s game was very, very even and it’s very hard on Holmesdale to have lost so we’re very pleased we’ve made the Final and our lads’ will give a good performance in the Final. I’m sure of that and we’ll be giving everything to win,” he said.

“Conditions we’re tough, we had a few players being not on top of their form, etc, but I’m not disappointed with the performance. Today was all about results, not particularly about performance.

“One hundred and eighty people here, they were Tunbridge Wells supporters, they will go away very, very happy because it’s all about result not performance.”

The chairman issued a hands-off warning to suitors from the Ryman League for Mooney’s signature.

“Keelan Mooney is a superb player, who if he would shoot a bit more, he’d score a lot more goals, but he’s an unselfish player. You could see why all the Ryman clubs want Keelan,” he said.

There will be a new name on the Kent Senior Trophy this season as neither Erith Town or Tunbridge Wells have won it. The Wells were beaten in 1986, 1992 and 2006.

“I’m not sure if we’ve ever won it, if we have it’s been a long, long time ago so we’ve lost our last three successive finals in it so this one we’ll be really be going for,” added Mr Croker.

Today’s crowd at Culverden Stadium was higher than eight of the eleven games in the division above - Ryman League Division One South.

Mr Croker is pleased with the support that the club is getting at present.

“It shows what Tunbridge Wells Football Club can do. Tunbridge Wells Football Club is building up it’s support week in, week out.

“The club is getting bigger, support wise, and there will be a lot of support down at that Final as you can imagine.”

Visit Tunbridge Wells’ website: www.tunbridgewellsfc.co.uk