Sevenoaks Town 1-1 Burgess Hill Town - I think once the train gets rolling, a lot of people are going to be in trouble, warns Sevenoaks Town coach Adam Flemming

Sevenoaks Town 1 – 1 Burgess Hill Town
Location	Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX
Kickoff	01/11/2022 19:30

SEVENOAKS TOWN  1-1  BURGESS HILL TOWN
Isthmian League South East Division
Wednesday 2 November 2022
Stephen McCartney reports from Greatness Park

SEVENOAKS TOWN coach Adam Flemming insists his side will keep notching up points and keep climbing the Isthmian League South East Division table after being held to a draw by equally impressive side Burgess Hill Town.

Jay Lovett’s side took the lead through Martyn Box’s far-post glancing header for his fourth goal of the season but Sevenoaks Town equalised just 105 seconds later through a quality strike from winger Fumnaya Shomotun.

“I think it was a fair result from what I saw today,” said Flemming.

“I thought Burgess Hill down well. We had bright moments but I think we killed ourselves a little bit in the final third but it’s one of those things.

“It sounded like gaffer (Harry Hudson) was happy in points in terms of our outcomes that we wanted to get from the game.  I think the goal came against-the-run-of play but I think we responded really, really quickly off the back of that, which would then put ourselves in a position to be able to win the game.

“I thought we had good moments when we got in the final third a number of times when we got the ball wide and we got some crosses into the box but at the end of the day we didn’t take the chances that were presented to us.

“Burgess Hill had a couple in the second half as well, Tyler McCarthy made a good save and they hit the bar and we had a good block in the box as well on the back of them hitting the crossbar.”

Sevenoaks Town remain in sixteenth-place (bottom five) in the table with 11 points from eight games, seven points clear of the relegation zone that contains Corinthian and Faversham Town, while Burgess Hill Town leapfrog over Haywards Heath Town and Hythe Town into thirteenth-place in the pecking order with 12 points from their 10 league outings.

Both sides played an attractive style of football on the deck on a wet and windy night at Greatness Park, with Burgess Hill Town creating an opening after 118 seconds.

Connor Tighe put in a cross from the right and Sevenoaks Town’s right-back Oluwadamio Olorunnisomo (who is good in the air) headed the ball away from inside his penalty area, while being challenged in the air by Box.

Burgess Hill Town’s left-back Dan Cadman then played the ball into Box, who fed central midfielder Lewis Finney, who let the ball roll across him before hitting a right-footed drive high and wide from 25-yards.

Lovett’s men were dominating the possession early on and were a threat down the right with Sevenoaks Town’s left-back Karn Miller-Neave opening the door.

The away side called Sevenoaks Town’s 24-year-old goalkeeper Tyler McCarthy into a save inside 12 minutes.

Diminutive right-back Brad Santos threw the ball into attacking midfielder Tighe, who cut the ball on to his left-foot before unleashing a left-footed angled drive from 25-yards, which was pushed towards safety by McCarthy, diving to his left before the home side cleared their lines.

“That’s Tyler’s job really and we back Tyler to make any save that comes towards his goal,” said Flemming.

“He gives us a little bit of stability in terms of if we want to play out, he’s got good range. There’s nothing he can’t do with a football so it’s like having an (outfield) player in goal and obviously he can use his hands quite well as well.”

It was a night for shooting from distance and visiting goalkeeper Tommy Reid was twice called into action in the space of 57 seconds.

McCarthy (who has good distribution) launched a big kick up field with his right boot and this released impressive left-winger Joshua Bohui, who cut inside and cracked a right-footed angled drive towards goal from 22-yards, only to be beaten away by Reid.

Shomotun then found himself in a central position and his right-footed drive from 25-yards skidded off the wet artificial pitch and Reid dropped down to his knees and allowed the ball to bounce out of his grasp and Sevenoaks striker Freddie Parker couldn’t pounce on the loose ball inside the box.

“It was raining so the surface would have been wet and it was windy so he’s pulled off two (good) saves,” added Flemming.

Reid was more assured in the 17^th minute when Miller-Neave played the ball into Parker, who had his back to goal, spun Kieran Rowe before cracking a left-footed rasping drive towards the roof of the net from 25-yards, which was pushed over by Reid’s two outstretched hands.

“Freddie gives us power, he gives us strength. He gives us a target to hit,” replied Flemming, when asked what the two-goal striker gives the team.

“I think he’s been a little bit unlucky this season with the amount of goals that he’s scored. It’s only been the two goals but Freddie, who is a kid I had at youth level at Cray Wanderers, I know him quite well and I know that he’s very, very frustrated with the amount of goals that he has scored so far.

“But at the same time performances have said otherwise so it’s not like he’s not performing because if he wasn’t performing, he wouldn’t be in the team.

“I think he’s been reliable in possession.  I think he’s giving us a little bit of a presence in terms of our front line.  I think he’s just been a little bit unfortunate this season and I think once he does start scoring, then they’re going to be like London busses.”

Eight-goal talisman striker Roy Gondoh is close to recovering from his injury that he sustained during the Oaks’ 2-0 defeat at Ebbsfleet United in The FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round on 15 October.

“A couple of weeks, I reckon,” revealed Flemming.

“He pulled his hamstring against Ebbsfleet in the first minute. He is a miss but he's been an ever-present in the changing room and on the side of the pitch driving his team-mates on so he’s still around.  He just can’t give himself as much as he can in terms of tying to perform on the pitch but he’s in and around it and he will be a great addition to have back once he’s fit.”

Both teams played out from the back and Parker dropped deep inside his own half but had his pocket picked by Tighe, who fed nine-goal striker Dan Perry, whose right-footed angled drive from 30-yards flashed across McCarthy and just past the foot of the far post.

However, Burgess Hill Town deservedly took the lead with 20 minutes and 56 seconds on the clock, through some direct play.

Santos found himself in the channel and he cut the ball back to right-winger Max Miller, who hit a first time cross from just outside the corner of the Sevenoaks box towards the back post where an unmarked Box glanced his header into the near corner from a couple of yards out.

“Tyler put his hand up, he wasn’t happy with the situation. A few of the other boys thought they could’ve stopped it at source as well,” said Flemming.

“Any cross that comes into the box, you want to be the first person who gets contact on it but sometimes those things happen. Tyler put his hand up there.”

However, Sevenoaks Town swiftly went up the other end and Shomotun scored on his home debut.

Central midfielder Bradley Wilson rolled the ball out to the winger, who shifted the ball past right-back Santos on the outside and cracked a sublime left-footed screamer across the keeper and into the top far corner from 15-yards.

Flemming said: “I asked him when he came off how good was the goal? He said, ‘it was a very good goal.’  He said he caught it very well.  I’ll wait for the veo to come out tomorrow.”

The coach was delighted with the character shown from his players to hit back straight away.

“We lost a lot of good players who have been with us from the start of the season and they’ve performed well against teams that we’ve played from leagues above and these things can happen, seven-day approaches do come in and it shows that we’re doing the right thing, most importantly, to help these boys put on and further their careers.

“So bringing in new boys and make them fit into the system and blend them into the team, we’ve done well to do that so far and it shows that with the boys that are currently here and the boys that have been added to the team, to bounce back after conceding the goal as quickly as we did, it shows that they’re fitting in well.”

Sevenoaks Town went close to taking the lead when Miller-Neave played the ball into Parker, who spun centre-half Josh Spinks and drilled a right-footed shot just over the crossbar from 25-yards out.

Burgess Hill Town went direct and should have taken the lead within the opening seven minutes of the second half.

Spinks hit a long ball over the top of Miler-Neave to release Miller down the right and into the channel.  He cut the ball back to Santos, who whipped in a first-time cross and the ball was headed away by Sevenoaks Town’s centre-half Matthew Weaire.

However, Tighe pounced on the ball and drilled a right-footed shot into the pitch and McCarthy spilt the ball and the ball bounced up and Perry’s looping header kissed the crossbar and Sevenoaks survived.

“It was a moment of madness,” admitted Flemming.

“Those crosses came into the box that are low and hard are going to be difficult to deal with, with it being wet and windy and we managed to deal with the first one and it was a good crack to be fair and the ball did move and Tyler got as much on it as possible and it did fall to the striker who did hit the crossbar and obviously to our delight.”

When asked about the central-defensive partnership between Weaire and Lexus Beeden, Flemming replied: “We’ve got two warriors back there and they’re going to command their back line and the line in front of them to make sure we don’t concede as many chances as possible.

“At the same time you don’t want to concede any shots because law of averages one will go in at some point. They scored from their second opportunity (on target) of the game.

“It’s nice to keep a familiar back four with the goalkeeper as well. They work as a unit.  They’re quite close-nit in the changing room so it’s always good that stats (keeping seven clean sheets in 20 games) backs the good stuff that they’re doing on the pitch.”

Reid pulled off another fine save to frustrate Sevenoaks Town further.

Last defender Spinks had his pocket picked by Bohui, who burst forward and drove into the penalty area and his left-footed angled drive from 15-yards was destined for the top far corner, only for the keeper to flick the ball around the post, high to his left.

“I thought it was a great save by the keeper.  He probably wanted to keep that a little bit lower with the surface being how it was but I felt the keeper dealt with it well but you back yourself in a one-v-one situation especially from a player with his quality,” added Flemming.
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Burgess Hill Town were forced to make a tactical switch just past the hour-mark after losing Miller and Tighe to knocks and Santos moved from right-back into central midfield and Reggie Ward came off the bench to slot in at right-back.

Parker fed Bohui, who easily cut inside Ward and stroked his right-footed drive flashing past the near post as the half entered the halfway point.

Lovett’s side upped their tempo and the game was end-to-end the longer it went on as both sides went for the winner.

Sevenoaks Town should have claimed the victory inside the final 12 minutes when Bohui easily cut inside Ward and put it on the plate for Miller-Neave, who nipped in at the near-post (preventing the ball reaching Parker in the middle) and hit a first-time left-footed shot past the foot of the left-hand post from inside the six-yard box.

“I think he got himself a little bit outside of the line of the goal there because he did get good contact on it, so if he was a yard deeper from where he was, it goes in the bottom corner. He made the right area, probably over stepped his mark by a step, which puts the ball beside the goal instead of it,” said Flemming.

Sevenoaks Town manager Hudson changed to a 4-3-3 formation, with Solomon Baugh coming off the bench to join Bohui and Parker in attack.

Burgess Hill Town had a late chance to snatch victory.

Sevenoaks gave the ball away inside their final third but substitute right-winger Charlie Kelly was in a central position and his left-footed drive from 25-yards deflected just over the crossbar.

“I think the last five or 10 minutes of the game it was a little bit frantic because the game really, really opened up because I think both teams wanted to win it,” said Flemming.

“The instructions from the side was making sure we didn’t lose it, trying to win the game, which is the most important thing because the last thing we need, is being exposed at the back trying to score and win the game and finding yourselves in a position where you don’t pick up any points after playing quite well in the game.

“We’ve had that a couple of times this season and we don’t want those things to happen again.”

Hudson’s men welcome tenth-placed Lancing to Greatness Park on Saturday, a side that have collected 15 points from 11 games and beat second-from-bottom side Corinthian 1-0 at home last weekend.

Corinthian’s only league win of the season was a 1-0 win at Sevenoaks Town on 19 October.

“We’re not in a position where we wanted to be, when we were looking at this point at the start of pre-season,” admitted Flemming.

“But at the same time we have been performing the best as we can but I think the pennies just not dropping enough in the final third but listen, it’s going to come.  We’re creating chances which is the most important thing. If we weren’t, then that would’ve been a problem.”

Sevenoaks Town came away from then league leaders Ramsgate with a 4-2 win at the weekend.

“It was a good game. We did take our chances that were presented on Saturday. We scored some well-crafted goals. All good goals that we love to see and those chances that we may have missed earlier in the season, we did take them.

“I think once the train gets rolling, a lot of people are going to be in trouble, I do personally believe so.

“We walk into every game backing ourselves to win regardless of who were playing. We’ve played a number of teams in league’s above us and we’ve done ourselves justice. We just have to look to put as many points on the board as possible, so we go into that (game against Lancing) looking to win the game as always.

“I think we’ve found ourselves in a decent place. In the last three games (since Corinthian) we have picked up seven points after a great FA Cup run.

“I think we’re going to start climbing the table now. We look to go on a run and get some wins under our belt so I promise the boys will keep notching up points and keep climbing the table.”

Sevenoaks Town: Tyler McCarthy, Oluwadamio Olorunnisomo, Karn Miller-Neave, Joe Bingham, Matthew Weaire, Lexus Beeden, Joshua Bohui, Jordy Ndozid, Freddie Parker, Bradley Wilson (Ben Cheklit 78), Fumnaya Shomotun (Solomon Baugh 66).
Subs: Reginald Rose, William Hoare, Bentley Graham

Goal: Fumnaya Shomotun 23

Booked: Karn Miller-Neave 85

Burgess Hill Town: Tommy Reid, Brad Santos, Dan Cadman, Kieran Rowe, Harry Pollard, Josh Spinks, Martyn Box, Lewis Finney, Dan Perry, Connor Tighe (Charlie Kelly 65), Max Miller (Reggie Ward 63).
Subs: Hayden Skerry, Jeff Duah-Kessie, Nic D’Arienzo

Goal: Martyn Box 21

Booked: Brad Santos 38, Max Miller 62, Harry Pollard 68, Kieran Rowe 82

Attendance: 155
Referee: Mr Joe McKay
Assistants: Mr Joseph Gray & Mr Sam Wigington