Sevenoaks Town 2-1 AFC Croydon Athletic - What pleased me the most is that the boys showed quality, says seventh-placed Sevenoaks Town manager Marcel Nimani

Sevenoaks Town 2 – 1 AFC Croydon Athletic
Location	Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX
Kickoff	21/10/2026 19:30

SEVENOAKS TOWN  2-1  AFC CROYDON ATHLETIC
Isthmian League South East Division
Wednesday 21 October 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Greatness Park

SEVENOAKS TOWN manager Marcel Nimani says he was pleased with his side’s consistent performance after deservedly beating managerless AFC Croydon Athletic at Greatness Park to climb into the play-off zone for the second time this season.

The Oaks were better in all departments against AFC Croydon Athletic, as their co-owner Danny Young has stepped into the dug-out and has suffered back-to-back defeats after Danny Kedwell quit the big-spending club last week.

Sevenoaks Town striker Nathan Jeche, 21, rifled in his fourteenth goal of the season to give the home side a deserved first half lead.

Young’s charges came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half and Sevenoaks Town’s right-back Kevin Diomande turned in an own goal at the near-post but within five minutes he drilled in a low shot to beat the keeper at the near post as AFC Croydon Athletic nosedived towards relegation by extending their winless run to seven games and too many of their players not performing on a chilly Wednesday night at Sevenoaks.

The Oaks climbed up five places into seventh-place in the eighth-tier Isthmian League South East Division, having picked up 18 points (five wins, three draws and four defeats).

AFC Croydon Athletic remain in 12^th place with 15 points (five wins, seven defeats) and are only three points clear of the relegation zone.

“Pleasing performance, a consistent performance, I’d say. We’ve been playing like this and it’s just been a matter whichever team is better in the box but I would say overall a consistent pleasing performance,” said Nimani.

“If you look at the Wyscout stats. We’re second in the league in terms of the team that keeps the ball the most and these guys (AFC Croydon Athletic) are third, just slightly behind us but by half-a-percent.

“We work really hard on nullifying their patterns so we can force them to go long, so then we keep the ball and the vast majority of the first half we did that very well.

“You use the stats and you use the technology to guide you towards your objectives. Obviously we have an identity and we build our objective around our identity and our identity is we want to play football by keeping the ball, that’s our identity and then we look at how we keep the ball to be successful with it.

“We use the stats to guide us whether we’re doing a good job or we’re not doing a good job and at the moment we are.”

Isthmian League Director, Neil Pilcher awarded Nimani with the Manager of the Month Award for September and Nimani was pleased that the curse didn’t strike.

“We won! I think as long as you stick towards your identity and you try to do a good job with it, then you eventually reap the rewards,” said Nimani, a PE teacher in his professional life.

AFC Croydon Athletic missed a glorious chance with four minutes and nine seconds on the clock.

Brandon Pierrick Keotcha played the ball in from the right, Eddie Dsane cut the ball back and unmarked holding midfielder James Taylor drilled a first time left-footed drive across the keeper and past the far post.

“Yes, it was just a chance created out of sheer quality of the opposition because of those are their threats because of the level of quality they have in the side.  A quick exchange of passes into the box and really the guy should’ve scored that,” admitted Nimani.

Sevenoaks Town’s man-of-the-match, left-sided centre-half Toluope Jonah pinged a left-footed diagonal out of defence and left-winger Courtney Barrington cut in from the left and teed up Harvey Brand, who took a touch and his right-footed drive from 25-yards in a central position was tipped around the post by visiting goalkeeper Amadou Tangara, diving to his left with 7:55 on the clock.

“Tolu’s outstanding! He’s one of the most experienced centre-halves in the league now, so he’s been a real, real signing for us when we took him on last year and he’s continuing his good run from last year,” added Nimani, who then reflected on Brand’s chance.

“It’s a good move. I think from then onwards all of our patterns of play we’re as we planned them to be and I felt with the exception of toothless finishing, I think if we had been more ruthless with our final product, I think we could’ve gone ahead a number of times.”

The start of this encounter was an open affair and Tamas Amgbaduba launched his second of his six long throws into the Croydon Athletic penalty area and the ball was half-cleared to Jed Borders who reached the by-line and hung over a cross towards the back post.

Jeche played a one-two with Noah Carney inside the penalty area and Jeche’s first time shot was held by the visiting keeper, low to his right.

It was no surprise when Young hooked his poor right-back Finley Marjoram and number nine David Bremang at the interval as Barrington easily cut in from the left on four occasions during the first half, although half-time substitute Cian McCarthy (right-back) kept Barrington in his pocket after the interval.

Tom Borders easily cut inside Rams’ left-back Noah Watson before switching the ball over to Barrington, who cut onto his right-foot and curled his shot around the far post, only just missing the target (13:56).

Sevenoaks Town kept knocking on the door and took a deserved lead with 20 minutes and 48 seconds on the clock.

Jaden Perez played the ball inside to Brand, who switched the ball over to Diomande on the right and his first time cross flashed into the centre of the goal.

Rams' right-sided centre-half Ben Wynter was spun inside the box by Jeche, who clinically rifled his left-footed shot on the turn into the roof of the net from eight-yards.

“Nathan’s got it all at the moment. He can tussle with defenders, he can out-run defenders, he can win aerial duals with defenders and win the battles and in front of goal he’s proving that he’s absolutely got the skills to finish it,” said Nimani.

“Yes, if your stats serve you right, we’ve been spoilt in my time here at Sevenoaks Town with good finishers, so it’s not the goals that impress me with Nathan, it’s that effort that he brings to the side.”

AFC Croydon Athletic then started to gain control in the game and centre-half Luke O’Neill played the ball inside to Taylor, who unleashed a moving right-footed drive towards goal from 35-yards, which forced goalkeeper Jordan Perrin to drop to his knees and use both hands to palm towards safety (26:58).

“I think those sort of shots are more a product of the modern football rather than the quality (of the player shooting),” claimed the Sevenoaks manager.

“Let’s face it, when I played football the ball would never swing. It was just a central shot but because of the balls swing a lot on the wind and made it a bit more difficult than it is but Jordan did really well to react to the ball’s diversion.”

Croydon Athletic’s Watson pinged a long diagonal from his left-back position, which was headed away by Sevenoaks’ left-back Charlie Dickens and Pierrick Keotcha latched onto the ball, cut inside and went very close with a left-footed half-volley, which screamed across the diving keeper and past the far post.

Barrington then spun a very high Marjoram inside the Oaks half and travelled over the half-way line, burst into the penalty area and his deflected drive was beaten away by Tangara at his near post.

Barrington was given four opportunities to score by Marjoram during the first half.

“All great movements, all great entries, lot of entries, all starting because of the way that we build up our patterns of play, which I felt our opponents often struggle to nullify us but we need to be more ruthless with our finishing,” admitted Nimani.

Diomande easily shrugged off Watson on the right, Carney put in a low cross from the right channel and Jeche (with his back to goal and inside the D) laid the ball off to Carney and Barrington drilled his right-footed shot past the post as Nimani’s side went into the warm dressing rooms with a deserved lead.

“Nimani and his management team looked at a screen within their technical area to work out how to snuff out their opponents’ threats before going inside for their half-time team talk.

“Yes, really pleasing (first half performance).  The only thing I will say, the downside of the first half, I felt the last five minutes, no, do you know what, I’m going to give the opposition a bit more credit than this. I think the last 10 minutes of the first half when they were on top of us and that became because we didn’t keep the ball. We started going long and we didn’t need to.

“Once they got on top of us we started to identify some of their patterns and we looked to nullify their patterns.  The message was clear, that we don’t want to drop and defend the lead. The message was clear that we want to be able to keep the ball like we did and the message was very clear that we needed to up our game on those duals because I feel the opposition would come at us a lot more lively in the second half.”

Young got a tune out of his side and they came out with all guns blazing and they should have grabbed an equaliser after 106 seconds.

Left-sided centre-half O’Neill launched a long ball out of defence which sailed over Amgnaduba and put DSane through on goal – beating the offside trap – but his right-footed chip drifted over the top of the far post.

“It was a big moment, yes. I felt like we struggled, if they had an outlet when they caused us problems was their left-hand side, so their left-sided centre-half, their left-back. Long balls over our right side. That was sort of their outlet. We didn’t deal with it but I would expect us to dealt with it better,” added Nimani.

Dickens was cautioned by referee Harry Wood after pulling back winger Josh Williams as he cut along the by-line and substitute wide striker Kadell Daniel drilled his left-footed centre towards the near post, which bounced right in front of Perrin who comfortably gathered down on his knees.

AFC Croydon Athletic deserved their equaliser when it arrived with 12 minutes and 51 seconds on the clock.

The threatening Daniel played the ball into the penalty area to Williams, who took a touch before using his left foot to put the ball across the face of goal and Diomande slid in at the near post to poke the ball into the bottom left-hand corner for an own goal.

“Kevin takes me to two different planets in the space of five minutes but that’s why I love Kevin.  Yes, he takes me to two different plants in the space of five minutes and that’s what he did tonight,” added Nimani.

However, Sevenoaks Town notched their deserved winner (over the piece, rather than at this particular time in the game) with 17 minutes and 27 seconds on the clock.

Jeche burst into life when he hooked the ball from the middle out to Diomande on the right and he burst forward before cutting into the penalty area and drilling his right-footed shot to beat Tangara at his near post from 16-yards to score his fourth goal of the season.

“A lot of the boys that we have is we’ve created a system that suits their attributes. I think that’s our greatest success. We’ve built patterns around Kevin.”

Diomande is often a high right-back and Nimani was asked about his role within his team.

“Kevin can do both but the problem with Kevin is we ask him, Kevin can defend if you ask him to defend or he can attack when you ask him to attack.

“But it’s a bit unfair on him because I ask him to do both at the same time, so he has got to manage both attributes at the same time. It’s difficult for him but he does it really well. I wouldn’t want anyone else in that role.”

Croydon Athletic enjoyed plenty of possession as Sevenoaks Town soaked up the pressure.

Taylor reversed a pass inside to Pierrick Keotcha who curled his right-footed shot towards the top right-hand corner from 25-yards, which saw Perrin fly to his left and comfortably catch the ball with both hands.

“Just a standard save from Jordan but I’m very pleased to see Jordan making those saves so soon after his long injury. He had a broken foot in pre-season so this is only his third game back now,” added Nimani, who was asked to reflect on his side’s second half performance.

“A lot of good character, a lot of grit. I feel we showed a really good defensive shape. I think we shut the shop very well when they had the ball. We still had a great danger on the counter-attack I felt and we still had better chances in the second half.”

Seeing James Jeffrey sitting on the bench until the 59^th minute raised eyebrows but he teed up Jeche, whose right-footed low drive was comfortably gathered by Tangara between his legs - and substitute Ayomide Majekodunmi broke away and called the busy visiting keeper into diving to his right to parry (45:34).

“JJ is good. He’s slightly different. We want someone to be that direct and straightest runner. JJ is more inverted so JJ gives us more possession in the second half when JJ’s been coming on when there’s a bit more space, he helps us control the game better and that’s what he’s done again,” explained Nimani.

Croydon Athletic lacked quality to get in behind a resilient Sevenoaks back-four and a pressing Barrington was penalised for fouling McCarthy and Daniel tried to score with a speculative left-footed free-kick from the right flank some 40-yards from goal which sailed past the near post which proved to be the last kick of the game.

“I felt second half did they edge in terms of possession? But I still felt that they didn’t really create much with it.  They missed those long balls over the top, when they caused us a bit of a problem but during open play, even though we were in defensive shape, I felt our counter-attacks, we were more than happy.

“What pleased me tonight is the fact that last time we were in the play-offs with momentum, we lost two games on the bounce and then we’ve reacted really well from what was a horrendous second half performance at Crowborough (losing 5-2 on 10 October) and we’ve now won two on the bounce, so what pleased me the most is that the boys showed quality."

An impressive Sevenoaks Town can be proud of their performance against a club that have a large budget.

AFC Croydon Athletic are sliding down the table and could be inside the relegation zone in a matter of weeks unless they appoint a new manager that can stop the slide.

Hastings United (28 points from 12 games) sit at the summit and the six sides in the play-off zone tonight are South Park Reigate (24 points from 12 games), Erith Town (23 points from 11), Faversham Town (22 points from 12), Whitstable Town (21 points from 11), Margate (21 points from 13) and Sevenoaks Town.

Sevenoaks Town have a blank Saturday before they travel to newly-promoted side Horley Town on Saturday 31 October.

Horley have picked up 10 points from their 12 games and extended their winless run to six after their 3-2 home defeat to surprise-package Erith Town last night.

Steyning Town (12 points from 12 games), Crowborough Athletic (10 points from 10), Horley Town and Eastbourne Town (nine points from 12 games) are in the drop zone tonight.

“I’ve not seen much of them play yet but to me they come across a side, depends on what version you get. If you get the good version of them and if they’re on it and professional they’ve beaten the top end teams and they will do you. If you perhaps get the standard version of them, you might stand a chance,” said Nimani.

“We’ve got a 10-day break. We don’t really want to focus on that. The boys have got a gym session on Saturday as a unit and the boys can recover and we’ll start fresh on Wednesday and prepare for Horley.

“I think it’s early. When we get to halfway through the season maybe we can have a look at which side of the table we’re fighting for.

“But I will add it’s quite an ugly league this year. Everybody can beat anybody, so in this league you can take glory or pay the consequences of relegation in the space of three weeks.

“Aspirations is ‘let’s get to 48 points’, which is what we need to stay in the league.  When we get to 48 points we can review the next target. Once we get to 48 points then we can look at where we can go from there.”

Sevenoaks Town: Jordan Perrin, Kevin Diomande, Charlie Dickens, Harvey Brand, Tamas Amgbaduba, Tolulope Jonah, Courtney Barrington, Jed Borders, Nathan Jeche (Max Davidson 87), Jaden Perez (Ayomide Majekodunmi 79), Noah Carney (James Jeffrey 59).
Subs: Harry Brooks, Evan Readshaw

Goals: Nathan Jeche 21, Kevin Diomande 64

Booked: Nathan Jeche 45, Charlie Dickens 56

AFC Croydon Athletic: Amadou Tangara, Finley Marjoram (Cian McCarthy 46), Noah Watson, James Taylor, Ben Wynter, Luke O’Neill, Josh Williams, Jordan Johnson-Palmer (Jack Paxman 65), David Bremang (Kadell Daniel 46), Eddie Dsane, Brandon Pierrick Keotcha.
Subs: Toby Bower, James Dunne

Goal: Kevin Diomande 58 (own goal)

Booked: Jack Paxman 90

Attendance: 186
Referee: Mr Harry Wood
Assistants: Mr Tom Murray & Mr Leigh Newby

Match Duration:
First Half: 46:59
Second Half: 49:37