Sevenoaks Town 1-3 Beckenham Town - The Velocity Cup and Kent Senior Cup should be played later on in the season, says Sevenoaks Town manager Marcel Nimani

Sevenoaks Town 1 – 3 Beckenham Town
Location	Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX
Kickoff	25/09/2024 19:30

SEVENOAKS TOWN  1-3  BECKENHAM TOWN
DFDS Kent Senior Cup First Round
Wednesday 25 September 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from Greatness Park

SEVENOAKS TOWN manager Marcel Nimani says it’s bizarre that the Velocity Cup and Kent Senior Cup are played in September after being knocked out of two cup competitions and playing in three in the space of eight days.

Beckenham Town, meanwhile, parted company with manager Darren Anslow by “mutual consent” last Thursday.

The former Hollands & Blair coach took over last November and the Eden Park Avenue outfit finished second-from-bottom in the Isthmian League South East Division last season, having picked up 28 points (seven wins, eight draws) from their 38 league games.  The club escaped relegation as they were handed a reprieve.

Anslow was in charge for 39 games in all competitions, winning 11, drawing eight and losing 20 with a 28 percent win ratio.

Anslow left the club sitting top of the Isthmian League South East Division table and the club appointed centre-half Jack Holland, 32, as caretaker manager for Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Merstham, with fellow centre-half, Robert Carter (assistant manager), Billy Walton (coach) and Harry Gamble (coach) forming the rest of the management team.

MONDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 – BECKENHAM TOWN FINALLY ISSUE A CLUB STATEMENT 11 DAYS AFTER ANSLOW’S DEPARTURE:
“Darren Anslow has resigned from his position as manager of Beckenham Town FC.  Coaches Sam Clark-Keen and Bradley Pritchard have also left their roles.

“We thank Darren, Sam and Bradley for their efforts during the last two seasons and wish them all every success for the future.”

Beckenham Town will travel to National League South side Tonbridge Angels in the Kent Senior Cup Second Round in October after clinical first half finishing defeated their league rivals on a miserable wet night at Greatness Park.

Henry Griffin scored twice in 121 seconds as the away side scored from their first two chances, before attacking midfielder Jamarie Brissett scored from a stunning emphatic free-kick to score his ninth goal of the season.

Sevenoaks Town scored a last-gasp consolation from substitute Jefferson Aibangbee, notching his sixth goal of the season.

Reflecting on tonight’s County Cup tie, Walton said: “Really, really good performance from the boys. They carried on from where they left off on Saturday and most of the season really.  They’ve played like that so yes I was pleased to come here and beat Sevenoaks, who are a really good footballing side.

“We nullified them in the way that they wanted to play and we generally took control of the game and really went for it when we had to.  We were clinical up front when we got the chances. It was a really, really good performance all around from everyone.”

Sevenoaks Town made six changes from Saturday’s FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round exit at the hands of Leatherhead (1-3), who also knocked the Oaks out of The FA Cup, while Beckenham Town made four changes that beat Merstham in Holland’s first game in caretaker charge.

“We rotated, we had a lot of rotation in our side.  I think this is our sixth week where we’ve played two league games a week and tonight I felt that we had five starting eleven players out of the squad,” said Nimani.

“But I have to say I honestly can’t reflect and be critical of any of the players’ on the pitch. I felt for the first 30 minutes we started very well, tactically we were spot on, how we wanted to contain them.

“It’s just that if Ayo (Majekodunmi) scores his chance, it could’ve been a completely different game.  Then they get a goal. Their second goal is obviously very disappointing from our perspective. I’ve just spoken to the ref and he’s just explained the reason but from my perspective the referee could’ve managed that a lot better. He just had to play to the whistle and they don’t score the second it’s a completely different game.

“Just moments went against us in the first half and when you’re 3-0 down it’s extremely difficult – but we were productive.

“I felt they had one chance and scored three goals, two free-kicks and one open play gaol.  We had, you could argue, three chances and we don’t go and score ours and that’s the conclusion of the first half.”

Sevenoaks Town’s front three produced a sweeping move as they created their first opening inside the opening seven minutes.

Rodney Eruotor (right) played the ball into central striker James Jeffrey, who played it to left sided striker Gael Kilbea, who cut inside but took too many touches on the edge of the box and his right-footed shot from 16-yards was comfortably gathered by Beckenham Town’s Sri Lankan born debutant goalkeeper Vinith Murugamoorthy, 21.

“My front three worked hard off the ball and I felt on the ball they were a threat and very creating and yes good performances,” said Nimani.

“It’s great pattern, it’s very impressive pattern of play and we spoke about if we were going to be successful tonight, we need to be one touch, quick touch football. We did it all perfectly.”

Walton said: “Comfortable save. They’re a very good footballing side on this surface. They pass the ball around, compliments to the manager. He gets them playing a certain way.  You know I like that style of football myself.

“It was one of those moves where you’re not going to stop them all the time but we limited them to those chances and that was one of the chances that they had.”

When asked about Murugamoorthy, Walton replied: “I think Vinith was one of Darren’s people, who Darren knows, who Darren brought in.  I am really, really impressed with him. He’s a really, really good keeper and he did pull one of the best saves you pay your money and go, a flying save in the second half. It was a great save and I’m really pleased for the lad, a very quiet unassuming lad.”

The first half was played at frenetic pace and there was plenty of noise coming from both sets of players, despite the Kent Senior Cup failing to interest the football public of Sevenoaks and Beckenham as only 66 of them attended.

Sevenoaks Town missed a glorious chance to take a sixteenth minute lead.

Wanogho rolled a back-pass to Murugamoorthy, who swept a ball back towards Wanogho, who was pressed by Kilbea on the touchline and the striker cut into the box and put it on a plate for central midfielder Ayomide Majejodunmi, who took a touch inside the six-yard box and the keeper made a big save with his feet.

Nimani said: “It was a good press. We wanted to press them in the wide areas, so he timed his press very well. He was successful from the press, created a good chance, could’ve perhaps had a better execution at the end.

“Ayo’s been on good scoring form (two goals) at the moment so I would’ve bet my house for him to score but on that occasion he didn’t.”

Sevenoaks Town created a half-chance from a set-piece when left-back Salim Futa delivered a high hanging free-kick with his left-foot and holding midfielder Joshua Wisson’s looping header was comfortably caught by Murugamoorthy.

Beckenham Town grabbed the lead with a clinical finish with 24 minutes and 54 seconds on the clock, as Sevenoaks Town’s recalled right-back Danny Divine often opened the gate, before Ryan Sawyer came off the bench to replace him and put in a vastly resilient performance after 74 minutes.

Griffin played a one-two with striker Steven Townsend down the left and cut into the box before clinically placing his left-footed shot across the advancing keeper Liam Northwood to roll the ball into the bottom far corner from 15-yards.

“Henry’s a young lad, who’s been with us for a couple of years. He hasn’t had a lot of opportunities. He’s been coming on 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there. Tonight he got his chance and he took his two goals really well,” said Walton.

Nimani admitted: “Story of our season against Beckenham.  A very good team, they’ve been clinical in three games and that’s why they’ve scored those goals and you have to give credit to them.”

Beckenham Town doubled their lead just 121 seconds later when Townsend’s quickly taken free-kick caught the home side cold and Griffin’s left-footed shot from a tight angle took a nick from within a crowd of players as the ball found the bottom far corner.

“I think it got a slight deflection on his shot but there again he’s in the right position which we’re asking him to do, is to get forward into the opposition’s penalty area.  A little touch from Steve put him in and he got his shot off and scored and I’m glad it didn’t rain like this when we were playing,” said Walton, as he was being interviewed underneath the cover with the rain pelting down from above, before deciding to continue the interview from inside the clubhouse.

Nimani added: “When it doesn’t go your way, it doesn’t go your way. We could’ve been better prepared for it.

“I will say, I think the referee could’ve managed the situation better. That situation didn’t need to happen but it did happen and you can only talk about the things that are under control and I felt we should’ve been better switched on.”

Northwood made his only save of the game in the 35^th minute when winger Tyler Anderson played the ball in from the left and Townsend was caught by Sevenoaks Town’s centre-half Jack Bath.

Northwood lined up a four-man wall for Brissett’s rasping right-footed free-kick from 28-yards and used his outstretched right hand to comfortably palm the ball over the crossbar from the centre of his goal.

“Dare I say, I can’t talk about their goalkeeper but it was close enough to him to palm it over but a great strike. The main thing, make the goalkeeper work,” added Walton.

Beckenham Town were now confidently passing the ball on the deck on a slippery artificial pitch at this stage and grabbed their third goal with a sublime piece of quality with 39 minutes and 50 seconds on the clock.

Beckenham’s high right-back Freddie Nyhus lost the ball to Sevenoaks Town’s central midfielder Michael Sarpong, who then tussled with Brissett in the middle and was booked for the challenge.

Northwood lined up another four-man wall and could do nothing about the third goal as Brissett drilled a sublime right-footed free-kick around the wall and rising into the top right-hand corner from 28-yards to give clinical Beckenham Town a commanding three-goal lead going into the break.

“I mean, what can you say? When you hit a ball like that, perfect,” hailed Walton.

“You ain’t got no chance unless you’re standing right behind it. It went right in the far corner and that’s why you pay your entrance fee to come and see a goal like that.  I’m pleased for the 10,000 people that was here to see it in the rain!”

Nimani added: “It’s just an individual brilliance isn’t it. It’s individual brilliance on a wet surface, on 3G. When you give him that situation to shoot from a player like his quality, that’s written for it to go in.”

Murugamoorthy was called into action on the stroke of half-time when Wisson fed Jeffrey, who cut towards the by-line and his left-footed drive across the keeper was superbly pushed around the post by Murugamoorthy’s strong left-hand, diving low to his left.

“James worked hard, he got himself in goalscoring positions. He hit the target, it’s just unfortunate it didn’t go in,” said Nimani.

“As a striker, all you can ask is to be in the right positions and he was in the right positions. The luck just wasn’t on his side today.”

Walton swiftly added: “There again, another great save from Vinith. He’s asserted himself really well the lad.

Both were asked their thoughts at the interval.

Nimani said: “Do you know what, it’s a very bizarre scenario. I actually said to them I’m actually not critical but I am critical if I walked into this changing room and I see a defeated attitude.  You owe it to yourself to go and win the half, you owe it to yourself to maintain all of the things that you did off the ball, the press, the shape and the creativity was there and I tasked them to go and win the second half an they went and won the second half.”

Walton added: “Nothing much really. We thought we were in total control of the game. You’re 3-0 up and you just try to emphasise don’t get sloppy, don’t take your foot of the gas, don’t let them back in it, keep doing what you’re doing. 

“You’re playing really well, try to keep possession a bit more and take your chances if you get a chance when they come along but most of all keep possession of the ball, keep it tight.”

Nimani explained the reasons behind making a change in between the sticks as Northwood was replaced by Jordan Perrin at the interval.

“There’s nothing performance based. We agreed to do 45 (minutes) each goalkeeper just because we wanted to give Jordan some time, so it would’ve happened anyway.  You can’t be too critical. There’s not much Liam could’ve done for any of the goals.”

The quality of the football during the second half deteriorated the longer the game went on, as Beckenham Town did the damage in the first half.

Anslow’s Beckenham Town claimed two League wins over Sevenoaks Town, winning 5-0 here on 31 August and claiming a 4-3 win at Eden Park Avenue on 10 September.

“I can’t answer for Sevenoaks but I thought it looked like they thought the game was done and so did we at that stage,” admitted Walton.

“It’s the third time we’ve played them this season and beating them the two times before. I think it was in their minds ‘we’re never going to win this game’, so the game just really did peter out.

“It’s fine for us, it was a chance to give a few lads a chance to see how they got on. They did alright when they the three youngsters came on, so I was well pleased.”

Nyhus  - a left-footed high right-back – floated the away side’s fourth of five corners in from the right, the ball was cleared out to Brissett, who cracked a right-footed hooked volley over the crossbar from 20-yards, inside the opening three minutes.

Beckenham left-back Akheem Belford whipped in a free-kick towards the far post and Townsend had a second bite of the cherry on the edge of the box and Perrin made a comfortable save into his midriff and down on his knees.

Player assistant-manager Carter came off the bench in the 56^th minute and took the captain’s armband from Holland, as Beckenham town switched to a back-three of Carter, Holland and Wanogho.

Sevenoaks Town missed a glorious chance to pull a goal back in the 66^th minute.

Wisson took a quickly taken free-kick down the heart of the pitch and Majekodunmi split open Holland to put Jeffrey through on goal but his left-footed drive from 15-yards was threatening the ladies in the tea hut behind the goal than the top left-hand corner.

“In 10 other situations James will score that. It just wasn’t meant to be for him tonight,” admitted the Sevenoaks manager.

Less than a couple of minutes later, Sevenoaks Town created another chance when Majekodunmi hit a right-footed rasping drive from 25-yards, which was tipped over the bar by Murugamoorthy, who performed well on his debut.

As the rain continued to lash down, Sevenoaks Town continued to knock on the door and Murugamoorthy dived to his right to tip Majekodunmi’s right-footed drive around the post – after centre-half Adejola Laman played the ball to him along the deck – although the low shot appeared to be flashing wide of the left upright.

Sevenoaks Town pulled a goal back, three minutes and 20 seconds into stoppage time, when Aibangbee picked the ball up, drove into the penalty on a solo 20-yard run before placing his right-footed shot across the keeper to find the bottom far corner of the goal.

“We built up well and it went to Jefferson and some brilliant quick feet from Jefferson, past the goalkeeper, past two defenders and slotted it home. Jefferson doing what Jefferson does,” added Nimani.

Walton added: “That was our fault, a bit of tiredness. We had total possession of the ball. I think Steve Townsend got sloppy, instead of putting it in behind them, they were all camped on the half-way line, little Freddie Nyhus was in for a ball over the top but Steve decided to doodle on the ball and keep it and keep it and keep it and eventually they took it off him and slipped the lad through and you know he was going to bury it with like two seconds to go.”

Looking ahead to their trip to Longmead Stadium to play Jay Saunders’ Tonbridge Angels in the next round, Walton said: “National League South side, that’s what we said to the boys, it’s a good reward for us if we get through. Play down there and pit your wits against a National League South side.

“We haven’t had the greatest run in this cup I don’t think. Last year we got beaten in the first round so hopefully this year we can go down there and put in a performance. I’m sure we can. I think the boys will pick themselves up for that game and look forward to it.”

Beckenham Town travel to newly-promoted side Erith Town on Saturday.  Adam Woodward’s side are in fourth-place in the table, having picked up 13 points from their first six games in the eighth-tier.

“It will be good to go and pit our wits against Woody. Little Alan Foreman’s there, who I know quite well. I know Woody really well,” said Walton.

“It will be a tough game. They won 5-0 at Hythe last week, so they’re scoring plenty of goals. We’ve got to go there and we’ve got a good side so we’ll go there and give a good account of ourselves and I’m sure it will be a nice derby, it's a derby game.”

When asked about being top of the table, Walton replied: “As I’ve said to you may times you can be top January, February, March. As long as you’re top in May that’s when it counts.  I don’t care if you’re top this time of the year or in two months’ time.

“I’m sure the boys, we want to be in the pack and we want to do well and if we can be in this position at the end of the season, then lovely.”

Sevenoaks Town are next in action next Tuesday, 1 October with a trip to Broadbridge Heath, currently in thirteenth-place with six points from four games.

Nimani said: “I’ve had a chance to watch them play. I’ve had an insight on what the conditions on their home turf is so it’s going to be a very difficult game to today. We’re training on Saturday and we’re going to prepare rightly for it.

“I’ve just said to the boys, we’ve got 36 league games to come and if we play like that in those 36 league games we stand a very, very good chance of finishing in a respectable position.

“I’m pleased with the performance, I’m pleased with the effort and I’m pleased with the shape and I’m pleased with the productivity.  We just need to be a bit more clinical.

“I would say within the club objective, we are well within our club objective at the moment. In terms of a personal and team targets, I do think we’re perhaps two points short of where we ought to be.  I am happy where I am. I think we’ve had a good start and we’re building something here.”

This was Nimani’s 13^th game in charge of Sevenoaks Town (five wins, two draws and six defeats) – six of them have been League games.

Nimani believes the League Cup and Kent Senior Cup should take place later on in the season.

“I still don’t understand why we have it so early on. I think if we’re to have it later on, the competition will have better quality. I would’ve loved to have fielded my strongest team tonight.  Now I’m going into the rest of the season, I’m only in one Cup left.  If I’m out of that Cup (Velocity Cup), then I’ve got no cup competitions. It’s just bizarre.

“I don’t understand why the Velocity Cup and the Kent Senior Cup is so early on.  I also think the Kent Senior Cup should be played on Saturday’s.  It’s such a prestigious competition, why is it played in midweek?

“Kent Senior Cup should be for Saturday’s. Teams then field stronger teams on Saturday, the competition takes more priority, just look at the league below, the Kent Senior Trophy is always played on Saturday’s and teams take it more seriously.  There’s greater build-up, better attention. Kent Cup should be played on Saturday’s.

“We had three cup games in one week. We won one of them. Our target was to stay in one of the three, so we reached our target but three cup competitions in eight days in September, why?

“The Kent Senior Cup should be done later on, even the Velocity Cup.  I started the Velocity Cup in September, I played two rounds in September, Phoenix on the 4^th and I went to Ramsgate last week. It’s just no need for it.

“It gives the competition a better stance to be more entertaining.  The Velocity Cup is a fantastic competition, the Kent Senior Cup, growing up playing in the Kent Cup is such a privilege, it’s our county’s FA Cup. It should be played on Saturday. It should be played later on in the season.

“I didn’t want to be out of the Kent Cup tonight. The only reason I made the changes I did was because I was forced through injuries, playing too many games. I didn’t want to be out of it today, I generally wanted to win the game.

Nimani revealed that Warren Mfula, Ollie Gray, Jahmal Howlett-Mundle and Sammy McLeod stayed at home – lucky them, the weather was horrendous!

Sevenoaks Town: Liam Northwood (Jordan Perrin 46), Danny Divine (Ryan Sawyer 74), Salim Futa, Joshua Wisson (Paul Driver 84), Adejola Laman, Jack Bath, Gael Kilbea, Ayomide Majekodunmi, James Jeffrey (William Efambe 74), Michael Sarpong (Jefferson Aigbangbee 54), Rodney Eruotor.

Goal: Jefferson Aigbangbee 90

Booked: Michael Sarpong 39, Ayomide Majekodunmi 42

Beckenham Town: Vinith Murugamoorthy, Freddie Nyhus, Akheem Belford (Robert Carter 56), Abbas Agora (Conor Driscoll 53), Mudiago Wanogho, Jack Holland, Henry Griffin, Tom Hever (Dominic Morgan-Griffiths 77), Steven Townsend, Jamarie Brissett (Lucas Gnerile 75), Tyler Anderson.
Sub: Kelvin Hernandez Mejia

Goals: Henry Griffin 25, 27, Jamarie Brissett 40

Booked: Robert Carter 66, Jamarie Brissett 71

Attendance: 66
Referee: Mr Mitchell Bush
Assistants: Mr Alan Budden & Mr Jack Smith