Rusthall 2-0 Tunbridge Wells - We're hoping to achieve some really good things this season and yes, we are ready to win promotion, insists Rusthall manager Jimmy Anderson

Rusthall 2 – 0 Tunbridge Wells
Location	Jockey Farm Stadium, Nellington Road, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8SH
Kickoff	27/12/2025 15:00

RUSTHALL  2-0  TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 27 December 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Jockey Farm Stadium

RUSTHALL manager Jimmy Anderson insists his team are ready to win promotion at the end of the season after comfortably winning the Rocks Derby against a mainly lacklustre Tunbridge Wells in front of a record crowd at Jockey Farm Stadium.

The crowd of 1,208 braved the bitterly cold conditions to witness the Rustics’ claim the local bragging rights, with first-half goals coming from left-winger Yassin Fares and attacking midfielder Jack Kirby to win their fifth of 15 meetings between the two sides in all competitions since first locking horns in 2017.

With Bearsted being held to a 1-1 draw at home to Kennington, Anderson’s men leapfrogged over Kevin Stevens’ side into third-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table, while Tunbridge Wells slipped down a place into thirteenth (bottom seven) with 26 points (eight wins, two draws and nine defeats), six points adrift of the play-offs or 13 clear of the relegation zone, which still contains Stansfeld and Hythe Town.

“I feel like it was only one side that was ever going to win the game. I thought we totally dominated it to be fair,” said Anderson, who was without centre-half Robbie Bissett (holiday) and goalkeeper Serine Sanneh (dislocated thumb).

“I feel like we should’ve been more goals ahead in the first half.  Second half, it was a professional performance.

“The gave me a thousand percent.  Energy, effort, heart, bragging rights, I suppose, if you want to say that.  Deep down, it’s great. It’s great because it’s made a lot of people’s Christmases, who like support Rusthall but for us obviously we’ve lost the last two in the league. We needed to bounce back.  We needed the three points today (after losing 5-0 at Fisher last weekend).

“We have ambitions to try and reach this season. We might reach them, we might not but we’re going to try our very best to do so.

“I felt like only one team came here to win today. I felt like Tunbridge Wells came here to stop us beating them and I just felt they were too defensive.”

Tunbridge Wells were without Rory Ward, who was serving a two-match ban after scoring in and being sent off in their 3-1 home defeat to Windsor & Eton in The FA Vase Third Round two weeks ago.

Jack Gallagher (hamstring), Matthew Black (hamstring) were ruled out and centre-half Tom Penfold was playing despite suffering from flu.

Jacob Feasey (ACL), Lucas Murrain (working in Doha, Qatar), Nathan Moseley (ACL) were also ruled out.

Tunbridge Wells manager Steve Ives admitted: “I think first half we were way below an unacceptable level in terms of just the basics of work-rate, effort, quality on the ball and to be honest I think as it approaches half-time, I was thinking if we get in at one-nil down, we would’ve done quite well.  As it was, we didn’t manage to and I felt Rusthall were pretty good value for a two-nil lead to be completely honest.

“That said Trevor (McCreadie) had his one disallowed for allegedly a foul by Tom and Joff’s (Jonathan Shea) free-kick has been ruled out, even though the ref told him he was ‘alright to take it’, so as much as we wouldn’t have deserved it based on our performance, it could so easily have been two-all, I guess.

“Just the basics (were missing),  We were umming and ahhing on the touchline whether tactically we got it wrong, whether a formation change might help but we looked at our list that you kind of make of points to bring up with the boys and most of them are just human qualities of working hard and having a bit of desire and I just felt Rusthall were more up for it than us.

“I think they were more aggressive in the press than us. I thought they ran around and worked harder than us, unfortunately I thought our quality on the ball was really poor. We just kept giving the ball back so don’t necessarily think it’s a tactical problem. It’s just a bad day to have a bad day, a little bit I said to you against Windsor & Eton.”

The start of the game was played at a very slow tempo.  Tunbridge Wells lacked width, playing with a midfield diamond and lacked desire during a poor first half performance.

Rusthall created the first opening after 109 seconds when centre-half Daniel Blunn played a short free-kick to James Miles who switched the ball out to high left-back Rahman Kareem, who cut into space and lashed his 30-yard drive high and wide from a central position.

Tunbridge Wells goalkeeper George Bentley flicked away Kirby’s low cross from within the right-channel and Fares’ from the left-hand side of the penalty area, as Rusthall started the game on the front foot.

“The way they set up, so they set up with a back four and a diamond in midfield and two up top, so they’re quite defensive and Chris Lawal just sitting in front of the back four so we had to bide our time,” explained Anderson.

“We felt like a strength of ours would potentially be getting down the wings and putting the ball in the box.

“Those two occasions, Bentley’s flapped at it on both. I don’t know. We should have more people in the box in those scenarios, like anything, it’s a derby, it’s freezing cold, it’s (the day after) Boxing Day, so you’re not going to come out and hit the ground running and someone’s going to score after three minutes. That stuff doesn’t happen in these games.”

Ives added: “Yes, he flicked away a couple, done quite well. Just pushed them away from the danger area.”

Tunbridge Wells offered very little threat in attack. If you keep right-winger Regan Corke quiet, you keep the whole team quiet and more of their players’ need to step up take the game by the scruff of the neck – and they should have done better with a well-worked corner (14:34).

Corke drilled a low corner in from the right towards the edge of the penalty area but holding midfielder Christopher Lawal drilled a low first time right-footed drive harmlessly wide of the goal from 18-yards – which summed up the away side’s lack of quality.

Ives agreed, adding, “He’s just had a swing at that, hasn’t he? It almost went back to Regan didn’t it to be fair.  He’s just had a swing of his boot there, you can’t really blame him for that.

“I think we were pretty much non-existent to be honest. You’ve just got to give Rusthall credit and say they’ve done their job really well but it’s hard to remember a lacklustre first 45 minutes from us to be honest. A bad time to have it. I can’t really put my finger on why that happened, to be honest.”

Anderson replied: “We were basically playing people out of position in the back four and I felt like we nullified their threat and I felt like their threat was just Regan.

“Regan’s a very good player and he’s very quick and they can go long as quick as possible and you have to clear your lines.  They have players in their team who want to play football but they don’t collectively, if that makes sense?

“I feel like they have some good players, one or two players in their team, where I feel like they can control the game and yes, when we played them in the Vase, there was one player (Corke) who stood out and he basically won them the game.”

Both sides were cancelling each other out and Rusthall’s Joshua Reid – who slotted in at right-back before he suffered a hamstring injury just before the interval – cut in from the wing towards the corner of the penalty area before lashing his right-footed shot high over the crossbar from 20-yards (20:35).

Rusthall created their best opportunity to score (24:29) when Kirby switched the ball out to high left-back Kareem, who easily cut inside Jonathan Shea before cracking a right-footed drive just over the crossbar from 25-yards out.

“He had a couple and that’s what I’m saying,” explained Anderson.

“in the first half with Reidy playing out of position at right-back today, but it was something that we looked at because of how they played when they came to us in the Vase. It enabled us to basically have two-on-one with the wide men and you can then push Rahman forward.

“I don’t know if they played that against other teams, so they played it against us, so we felt like they were going to do the same.”

When asked if losing to their neighbours in The FA Vase gave his players’ extra motivation to claim the three points here today, Anderson replied: “No, no no! I think it was more we lost against Fisher. We deserved to lose against Fisher.

“I just felt like today, at times, probably for 90 minutes, even in the second half, I felt like we created more chances. We were the team, I felt like on the counter-attack or even when Yassin got on the ball, I felt like we had chances in the second half to extend our lead.”

Rusthall kept knocking on the door and Miles and Frank Griffin linked up in midfield before the ball was worked out to Kareem, who found winger Louie Clarke with good movement but he lacked composure inside the box after being played in behind Tom Penford but drilled his left-footed shot over the top of the near-post from a tight angle.

“Louie’s movement is key for us. He’s having a really good season. We thought we played to that strength there,” added Anderson.

Rusthall went close following their first corner – Tunbridge Wells won the corner count by five to three.

Clarke floated in his left-footed corner from the left and Bentley used his left-hand to flick the ball away and Rusthall centre-half Louis Anderson hooked his right-footed volley just over the crossbar from the corner of the six-yard box from a tight angle.

“He (Bentley) flapped at that one as well.  I’ve watched, he’s not that comfortable on crosses.  I felt like he may have had a bad game today, so I’m not judging him but he flapped at that and I felt like that was an opportunity.  Louis was disappointed at half-time and said ‘he should’ve done better,’” added the Rusthall manager.

Tunbridge Wells played out from the back from the resulting goal-kick and it proved costly as they gifted the ball away just outside the corner of their penalty area and Rusthall deservedly took the lead with 31 minutes and 49 seconds on the clock.

Bentley, Penfold and Lawal failed to follow the game plan and lost the ball to a pressing Kirby, who then played in a low cross from within the right channel towards the unmarked Fares, who swept his right-footed shot underneath Bentley into the centre of the goal to score his fifth goal for the club this season from eight-yards.

“The boys were saying it was a really hard finish because it’s windy and he’s had to control the finish and yes, it’s Yassin.  Yassin. Big occasions. The boy pops up,” said Anderson.

“We have a lot of boys through this season who we’ve had previous seasons, who hopefully, on a big occasion now until the end of the season, like they have done so far, will step up and make things happen.

“He’s great – he loves it here but whatever’s happened when he went (VCD Athletic, struggling against relegation in the Isthmian League South East Division), that’s their problem.”

Ives added: “Let’s be honest, it kind of felt as the game went on, they were the most likely to score, can’t deny that. A lot of that was just playing off our silly mistakes. Yes, it wasn’t really too much of a surprise when Yassin scored to be honest. It was a dreadful one from our point of view.

“I think it went through Bents’ legs. It came from us playing out with no real conviction or tempo on the ball and they’ve just picked us off and no disrespect, I don’t even think it’s a good finish. It’s pee-rolled through his body. I think we were the architects of that one, as much as them, to be honest.

“It wasn’t a pattern we’ve never worked on. I don’t know. Half the team have gone high expecting a long kick and it was just a real mess and people not taking responsibility.”

Tunbridge Wells midfielder Shea – who plays on the right of the midfield diamond – was seeing plenty of the ball during the first half and he delivered a good set-piece delivery towards a high Rusthall back line but a foul from Penfold in the build-up and Matthew Charles’ whistle was blown before striker Trevor McCreadie clinically drilled a first time right-footed drive across the keeper and into the bottom far corner.

Lawal’s handball appeals fell on deaf ears as once again Tunbridge Wells lost possession inside their defensive third and Griffin slipped in the central striker Charlie Clover, who slipped as he was shooting and his right-footed shot inside the penalty area rolled into Bentley’s gloves for a comfortable collection.

Shea delivered another quality set-piece delivery into a crowd of players into the Rusthall penalty area but Lawal steered his free-header deflecting past the near-post for a corner.

Rusthall produced a well-worked move that gave them a deserved two-goal lead, with 43 minutes and 8 seconds on the clock, courtesy of Kirby’s eleventh goal of the season.

The Rustics swept the ball from right-to-middle-to left, which resulted in a clinical right-footed angled finish from the attacking midfielder, who plays behind central striker Clover, with Farres (left) and Clarke (right).

Clarke played the ball from the right wing into Clover, who switched the ball out to Kirby, who easily cut inside the returning Tunbridge Wells right-back Matthew Astle and then centre-half Ryan Hine before placing his shot across the diving Bentley into the bottom far corner from 18-yards.

“He’s phenomenal. He’s one of the best number 10s, I’ve worked with in all of my managerial career and he’s a pleasure to manage,” said Anderson, when asked about Kirby.

Ives added: “Matty’s making his third debut for us today, having returned from Haywards Heath and I thought he done well on the whole. He’s up against a very good player in Yassin and we knew he was going to have his work cut out.

“Just noticed a few times actually, we were going to mention it at half-time that we felt he was a bit too early on occasions to creep out wide, which sort of opened up the corridor between him and Hinsey. They hadn’t really managed to exploit it until that point but it was a very good pass, it was a very good ball and yes the guy just got on the inside of Matty and he’s finished it ok actually. He took it quite well.”

Tunbridge Wells were punished for producing a lacklustre first-half performance – unacceptable for the Rocks Derby.  The Wells sprung a surprise 1-0 win here in The FA Vase First Round in October but were miles off it and failed to turn up for 75 minutes of this game today and Rusthall proved that they are serious promotion candidates.

Both manager’s were asked their thoughts at the interval, respite from the bitterly cold weather outside.

Ives revealed he read his side the riot act.

“To be honest, it was really just challenging people to show the basic levels of effort and desire that you expect in any game of football, let alone a derby.

“I did feel like there was a response in that respect. I thought we showed a bit more intent and a bit more passion in the second half but I said to them at the end there’s nothing really to pat yourselves on the back. That’s just the basics that we should’ve started any game of football with let along against your rivals with 1,208 people watching.”

Anderson added: “Obviously, Josh Reid got injured just before half-time, so we were sorting that one out.  Jesse (Hammond) has come back so it was great to have Jesse back. He’s been out for a very long time with a groin problem. I thought he did ok second half, obviously fitness is going to play a part.

“At half-time, we kind of said like we felt so far in control in the first half and we probably should’ve been three-nil up.

“But then we said you either kill the game and we win this two-nil and it’s done and we’ve won the derby or we go and get the third and then possibly the fourth but we knew they have to come out and spaces might become available but I didn’t feel like they actually came out at us, so spaces didn’t become available, so then we’ve had to sit in and basically just be patient and hopefully create something out of nothing.”

Ives rallied his troops during the interval and they came out and bossed the possession for the first 15 minutes of the second half but they lacked quality in key areas of the pitch, although holding midfielder Lawal was the driving force to their good play.

Hammond came on for Reid, slotted in at right-back, while Kareem switched sides from left to right-back.

“I thought the change in output from a lot of the boys from the first half to the second half was massive,” admitted Ives, who suffered his first derby defeat to Rusthall.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think Chris has a great first half but he was miles better in the second half, same for Joshua McCarthur-Nolan, same for Regan Corke, same for Mo Alaka and D’Armando Lawrence, that’s at the top of my head.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think our centre halves played well in the first half. I thought they were much better in the second half.

“You’ve highlighted Chris but you can almost make the same sort of comment about most of the team. I thought it was chalk and cheese. It was so disappointing that we’ve put in that first half performance but have a bit of grace and say well done to Rusthall.”

Age appears to be creeping up on the 31-year-old McCreadie, who just doesn’t look the same prolific goalscorer than he did during his first spell with Tunbridge Wells, as he was often isolated and lacked threat.   He was replaced in the 69^th minute by Rhys Bartlett, who just didn’t look like adding to his three goals so far this season, as Rusthall’s two centre-halves Blunn and Louis Anderson had an untroubled derby.

“Trev, he had the ball in the net and it’s been ruled out. I don’t think he’s had any clear chances other than that. He’s tried to link up the play for us the best he could but to be truthful we weren’t firing as an attacking unit,” admitted Ives.

“I don’t think it’s on any one player. I thought when Rhys came on, I thought he gave us good energy. I think he won a few headers. He did what he could but I thought both our centre-forwards were feeding off scraps.”

Corke and D’Armando Lawrence (who should have asked Santa for an alarm clock as he turned up at 13:44 today) also failed to impress and Lawrence was lucky not to be red-carded for shoving two hands at Griffin in a second-half spat.

Tunbridge Wells just kept giving the ball away inside their defensive third and Shea was the guilty party in the tenth minute of the second half as Griffin fed Clarke in behind and his low cross from the right channel was poked past the post by Clover at the near-post, as Tunbridge Wells’ centre-half Ryan Hine shut the gate.

Lawal drove straight down the heart of the pitch and he cut onto his right-foot and his rasping drive was palmed up in the air by debutant goalkeeper Reece Hobbs before comfortably catching the ball.

Hobbs – who has started seven games for Isthmian League South East Division side Margate this season – was signed on dual-registration terms as number one goalkeeper Serine Sanneh dislocated his right thumb while playing in the Baller League, where he picks up £400 per game, which is a more than he gets playing in the ninth-tier for Rusthall.

“I think Serine’s out for four to six weeks. I’ve been told by the doctors, so hopefully we’ll have him back then. He’s had it glued and stuff like that and then it’s recovery,” revealed Anderson.

Anderson added: “We’ve got Reece on a dual-registration from Margate. Ben (Greenhalgh, Margate’s player-manager) was really helpful there and as you saw today, he didn’t look out of place. If anything, he was really good.

“It’s hard over the Christmas period to even contact people, trying and get a keeper in on Christmas Eve was very difficult.

“I felt like he gelled with the boys really well. He hasn’t met the boys. He met them for the first time today and to keep a clean sheet in a derby, he’s had a great game.

“I mean, my stats man, he recalls all shots. He said that was the first shot on target on the hour, so that’s how much I felt like we dominated.

“Second half, Chris Lawal came into the game. He’s a great player and like I said they have certain individuals’ in their team who want to play and certain individuals who don’t and he wanted to play.

“They kept possession but I just felt like it was in the middle of the park. I didn’t feel like we were over-stretched or panicking.”

Lawrence drew a foul from Kirby just outside the corner of the Rusthall penalty area and Shea placed his right-footed free-kick across Hobbs to find the bottom far corner from the free-kick but referee Matthew Charles had not blown his whistle and the goal didn’t stand (13:05).

Shea had a second bite of the cherry, this time trying to curl one into the top far corner, and his right-footed free-kick from the angle was pushed over by Hobbs, diving high to his left (13:50).

Reflecting on Tunbridge Wells one real chance in this derby, Ives said: “It wasn’t a bad save. I felt it was crying for someone just to make a run across the goalkeeper’s line and maybe just get a touch on it – but they didn’t and he’s dealt with it well.

“I think he had to deal with one pretty soon after that as well didn’t he.

“Making his debut, on a dual-reg from Margate. I don’t feel like we’re really none the wiser whether he’s a good goalie or not because we haven’t made him work hard and fair play to him, he’s had a clean sheet and he’s had quite a reasonably comfortable afternoon but I’ll say that’s more on us than them to be fair.

“It was more effort and more commitment and I think territory wise we had more than our fair share but to be honest we didn’t look like scoring a goal.”

That was as good as it got for Ives’ men as Rusthall controlled the rest of the game and ran out comfortable winners.

Holding midfielder Griffin released Clarke on the counter-attack, who played a one-two with Kirby before cracking a right-footed shot on the angle (as Tunbridge Wells’ left-back Muiz Alaka slid in with a strong challenge) and the shot was comfortably caught by Bentley at head height.

It was evident as early as the 75^th minute that Tunbridge Wells were not going to score, as Rusthall created late chances to win the game more comfortably as it was and for that Ives issued an apology to the red side of town.

“I feel like our first half performance didn’t really give (our fans) too much to get behind us on. I think we were a lot better in the second half. Yes, It’s disappointing to lose but we have already won here this season, they are third in the League, we are 13th and I think sometimes people have to have a little bit of perspective about what they expect from us.

“I don’t think the first half was a good representation of the football club but I thought the second half we tried. We were just unable to break the door down on this day.

“They probably had a point to prove. They got battered by Fisher last week. I’m sure losing here in the Vase, if ever anyone needed any incentive to turn up, it's probably them today and I thought they looked a bit hungrier so for that we apologise – that’s not acceptable that first half.”

Fares broke down the left and his drilled cross-shot was poked away by a sliding Alaka inside the box and Fares teed up Miles, who fizzed his low right-footed drive just past the foot of the near-post from 25-yards.

Griffin swung in the home side’s third and final corner from the left and Blunn came up from the back to flick his shot looping over the crossbar (42:29).

With all 10 substitutes now on the pitch, Rusthall sub winger Jaevon Dyer raced down the left and centred for Clover but the 11-goal striker saw his right-footed shot trickle across Bentley and past the foot of the far post.

“I thought Charlie Clover had a phenomenal second half. I thought he had a great game, the way he led the line. He was strong against two big boys. Tommy Penfold is a good player on the ball. He wants to play.  I felt Charlie, Louie Clarke up there and Yass caused them all sorts of problems, which was pleasing,” added Anderson, who’s side remain unbeaten at home in the League.

“We came here, you’ve got to take all the distraction away. It’s great for the fans. I’ve had so many fans say to me ‘you’ve made my Christmas’, so that’s great.

“The thing what’s different, I feel like it’s been made big, Rusthall was a small club and yes granted, Tunbridge Wells have had the better of results over Rusthall but I feel Tunbridge Wells worry more about Rusthall than Rusthall worry about Tunbridge Wells now.

“I feel like today was more we need to bounce back from Fisher. We need three points.  I feel like they turn up, their thing was ‘can we stop Rusthall’s momentum?’ Can we beat them at home? Unfortunately, for them, they didn’t, great for us.”

Jamie Coyle’s Whitstable Town also won their derby against Faversham Strike Force 2-1 in front of a crowd of 1,077 at Belmont Road in their away game against their tenants.  There were also wins for Larkfield & New Hythe (5-2 at home to Snodland Town) and Holmesdale (2-1 at Chislehurst Glebe).

The Oystermen remain at the summit with 50 points from 20 games, while the play-off places contain Larkfield & New Hythe (45 points from 22 games), Rusthall (37 points – 11 wins, four draws and three defeats), Bearsted (37 points from 20 games) and Holmesdale (32 points from 23 games).

The other three sides in the top eight are Punjab United (31 points from 20 games), Sutton Athletic (30 points from 20 games) and Snodland Town (30 points from 19 games).

Anderson takes his side to Snodland Town next Saturday.

“I’m happy, I’m happy. Like I said the aim at the start of the season was to do better than we did last season. We finished sixth last season. At Christmas we were nowhere near third last season. We’ve got a good momentum going,” said Anderson.

“That’s the aim, to try and get play-offs mor more.  Like I said to you (last season), I don’t think we were ready last year. We didn’t win this game last season (two 1-1 draws).

“We’re ready now but I looked at it as a great season (last year) baring in mind we were bottom of the League on four points in October and to finish sixth was incredible enough and it’ll be like we’re in dreamland if we get in the play-offs.

“But this season, I feel like, the fans as well, we can’t take results for granted.  It's three points today, bragging rights but we put that to bed now as players and management and we need to move on.

“Snodland is another tough game – if you’re asking me do I think we’re ready? Yes and that’s why I haven’t used (as many players’ as our League rivals) because I’m very cautious of who I bring into this group because I want a tight group and I want to be competitive.

“Look, we’ve got a real another tough game.  They want a response (from losing their derby to Larkfield) next week and it’s up to me and my management team to now motivate the boys to get another three points away to Snodland, which will be hard.

“We’ll see where we are come the end of the season. We’ll take one game at a  time and we’ll go from there.  We're hoping to achieve some really good things this season."

Tunbridge Wells are without a game but welcome Phoenix Sports to Culverden Stadium on 10 January.  Jake Goodman’s side are sitting in tenth-place tonight on 28 points – seven wins, seven draws and eight defeats) following their 1-1 draw at Corinthian today.

“I think the League’s so tight isn’t it. Some of the boys were just reading through some of the results. I think there always seems to be games every week where you sort of raise an eyebrow when you hear the score and today was no different,” said Ives.

“I think there are a little pack of teams that are starting to win more than they lose and at the moment we’re not quite there are we?

“We’ve already beaten Phoenix 4-1 at their place and they’ve had a change of manager subsequently. They’ve put a seven day in for one of our players (Lawrence), who’s thankfully turned it down.  They’ve obviously got significantly more financial resources than us, fair play to them.

“It’s a tough game. They are no mugs. There’s no easy games in this League and I’m sure they’ll look at us and think it’s a game that they can get points from and we’ll be looking at it hoping to do the double over them, so yes just hope, I could do without the week off if I’m honest but it is what it is.”

When asked what it will take to turn his side into serious play-off contenders, Ives replied: “How much are you giving me? I think some of it is consistency isn’t it? Rusthall had a few players missing today, so you don’t want to keep putting out that card but I think if you had a consistent 11, it will help.  If we had the full-depth of the squad, it would help and then I think sometimes you’ve got to have the wind behind you. When you’re winning it comes quite easily sometimes and we’re still not in horrendous form but we’ve got back-to-back defeats now, which I can’t remember happening too often this season, one of them was in the Vase.

“I don’t know Steve. We’ve just got to keep chipping away. I think if we play like we did in the second half, we’ll pick up points. If we play like we did in the first half, we’re going to start looking over our shoulder to be honest.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got no divine right to win any game of football, especially against a good side like Rusthall and they were better than us today weren’t they, so can’t really have too much to grumble.”

Meanwhile, Rusthall will have home advantage over Tunbridge Wells in the Challenge Cup Quarter-Finals.  The two home ties against The Wells has generated  around £20,000 in match-day revenue for the Rustics’ with one midweek date to come.

Rusthall also travel to Sutton Athletic in the Kent Senior Trophy Quarter-Finals next month.

“We’re trying to win games so if we can do that, we have Tunbridge Wells and we have Sutton, two tough games. We’ll try to tick them off and try to get results, which is going to be hard.  Tunbridge Wells will come here and want a response to this performance,” added Anderson.

“It will be lovely if the fans’ keep coming and come each week. We’re going to need them.  There were more Rusthall fans than there were Tunbridge Wells here and I’m just slightly gutted that it was so cold that it was kind of a quiet atmosphere, but that’s fine. They’ve witnessed a dominant performance by Rusthall today.”

Looking ahead to their third visit to Jockey Farm this season, Ives replied: “It’s a Quarter-Final of a cup. I feel like most sides will probably fancy they can win it and both sides will know they can lose it if they’re not on it so it should be an interesting one.

“It will be fantastic to make a cup final at the very least and once you’re in the final, it’s not fun if you lose it.

“I feel like we’ve got a genuine chance of winning that cup and then the League it really comes down to just finish the highest that you can, where that is for us, sometimes I watch us and I think we can make the play-offs. Some days I watch us and think we’re going to disappear into midtable mediocrity.

“There’s probably a band of about six or seven of us, maybe more, who win one, draw one and lose one and it’s really hard to get your head round, I suppose.

“To go on a consistent run, now that’s an aspiration – to go 10 games where we actually turn up and play the best we can and if we lose, we lose because the other team were better than we were – that would be nice.”

Rusthall: Reece Hobbs, Joshua Reid (Jesse Hammond 45), Rahman Kareem, Frank Griffin, Daniel Blunn, Louis Anderson, Yassin Fares (Jaevon Dyer 82), James Miles (Arun Suman 87), Charlie Clover, Jack Kirby (Jack Low 90), Louie Clarke (Ayodeji Owoeye 89).

Goals: Yassin Fares 32, Jack Kirby 44

Booked: Louis Anderson 40, Charlie Clover 81

Tunbridge Wells: George Bentley, Matthew Astle, Muiz Alaka, Christopher Lawal, Tom Penfold (Ryan Coltress 84), Ryan Hine, Joshua MacArthur-Nolan (Lewis Allan 84), Jonathan Shea (Deshon Carty 75), Trevor McCreadie (Rhys Bartlett 69), D’Armando Lawrence (Matthew Dunmall 84), Regan Corke.

Booked: Jonathan Shea 42, Regan Corke 51, Deshon Carty 79, D’Armando Lawrence 81, Ryan Coltress 90

Attendance: 1,208
Referee: Mr Matthew Charles
Assistants: Mr Tony Rawlings & Mr Daniel Geary
Observer: Mr Gerry Kehoe