Sevenoaks Town 4-1 Tunbridge Wells - We've had a little bit of the rub of the green, admits Levett

In front of their largest crowd this season, Sevenoaks Town won the local bragging rights, courtesy of two goals apiece from skipper Lee Hales and fellow midfielder Adam Marsh.

Carl Cornell’s nineteenth goal of the season just five minutes before the break wasn’t enough for Tunbridge Wells, who went on to enjoy plenty of second half possession, but they couldn’t fight back from being 3-1 down at the break in what was an impressive first half performance from the hosts.

“We’re pleased with the result, because we’ve played well in the last few games, performances have been decent,” said 42-year-old Levett, who lives in Horsmonden and runs the Welling United Academy.

“I think we’ve been unlucky against Hythe last week and played very well against VCD Athletic but we haven’t converted it into points, so we said to them tonight that performances have been good enough and we just need to get a result and to be fair to the boys they done well tonight in terms to get a result.”

Tunbridge Wells boss Martin Larkin, who suffered a 5-1 home defeat when the two sides last met (in the Kent League Cup) last November, admitted tonight’s defeat hurt him.

He said: “Of course it does, it’s a derby game, it’s a league game, any game, you get beat it upsets us.  We’re a proud bunch and we’ve not performed tonight.

“The damage was done in the first half.  I thought we dominated the second half, but we made the wrong choices in the final third but we’ve gifted them three goals.  

“They’ve got pace out wide and down the middle, there’s some good players playing for them.  They’re a decent side but I just don’t feel we were threatened by their play.  We’ve very much gifted those three goals.”

Sevenoaks, who were wearing their away strip of green and white hoops, had the better of a frantic first half and Jon Lord’s right-footed drive from 25-yards was beaten out by visiting goalkeeper Michal Czanner, who was relieved to see Rob Quinn’s follow up clear the crossbar.

Tunbridge Wells’ midfielder Andy McMath played an excellent hooked pass to release Jon Pilbeam bursting down the right and after cutting inside left-back Chris Davis his left-footed shot was blocked at the near post by Sevenoaks keeper Dan Bygrave.

But Sevenoaks drew first blood, taking the lead after 15 minutes.

Marsh released striker Jack Jeffrey down the right and his driven cross found Hales lurking at the far post and his first time swept shot gave Czanner no chance as the ball nestled into the back of the net.

Sevenoaks almost doubled their lead following their fifth corner of the game when Hales’ flag kick from the right was met by a near post header by Quinn, which was saved at the last second by Czanner.

Sevenoaks were full value for their two-goal lead after 35 minutes, which stunned Tunbridge Wells.

A ball over the top but straight down the middle should have been bread and butter for central midfielder Sam Phillips, but his poor header backwards towards right-back Jason Bourne (who was yards behind him) was intercepted by Marsh and he burst towards goal and clinically slotted the ball past an exposed Czanner with his right-foot.

Levett praised both Hales and Marsh for stepping up to the plate in such a big game, taking their goalscoring tallies to five and six goals for the season.

“Adam’s been threatening to score for the last few games, it hasn’t quite fallen for him,” said Levett.

“Lee Hales is quality in midfield, he keeps the ball for us mostly, although he could’ve kept it a bit better in the second half.

“In the main Lee Hales has done very well for us, he’s a very good player technically on the ball.  If you want to have boys that want to get the ball and Lee’s clearly one of those and he chips in with goals as well.  He’s got a sweet strike and so has Adam Marsh.  We spoke about it before the game about getting on the score sheet and he’s done it today so I’m really pleased for him, both of them.”

But Tunbridge Wells pulled a goal back five minutes later, following an excellent move.

Another fine pass from midfield by McMath saw him sweep an inch-perfect right-footed pass, which cut open Sevenoaks’ two central defenders (Lord and Quinn) to Pilbeam, who went on and cut the ball back from the by-line and Cornell swept a right-footed shot past Bygrave to give the visitors’ belief that they could recover from a disappointing first half display.

“Andy McMath is a good player,” said Larkin.  “He’s whipped it out wide, Jon’s got in behind and Hooley’s (Cornell) taken it well.”

Cornell has been one of the finds of the season and Larkin insists the striker is staying put at Culverden Stadium.

Larkin said: “He’s an exceptional footballer, but I think he enjoys being here.  He’s working with us, we enjoy working with him.

“If clubs come in for him they won’t be the first ones that do.  He’s more than happy staying here with us.”

But that joy was short-lived as Sevenoaks went up the other end and regained their two-goal cushion in the 44th minute.

Marsh was left unmarked on the edge of the penalty area for Hales’ corner from the left and it didn’t surprise anybody when the ball found it’s way to the number 7, who drilled a low right-footed shot, which took a couple of deflections in a crowded penalty area and Phillips was adjudged to have got the final touch before the ball found the net.

Levett was pleased with the way his side played during the first half.

“We tried to play.  I think they go early up to the front men, which to be fair I thought their front two men  were decent,” he said.

“You can understand why they bypass their midfield but we like to play through midfield.  We spoke about it after the game our front men need to keep the ball better and we need to work on that to retain possession because second half it kept coming back!

“We’ve got areas of weaknesses that we recognise that we need to improve and if we want to be a decent side we need to work on those areas.  Upfront we need to work on our movement.” 

Reflecting on the second half, Levett explained why he changed his tactics.

“When we watched them play they’re an counter attacking side,” he said.  “They like to suck teams in and hit them on the break and we knew that’s what they do and we spoke about dropping off a little bit deep in the second half and we hit them on the break - do to them what they wanted to do to us.

“I wouldn’t say we were hanging on, but if they had scored the second one it would’ve be game on!  But we managed to get the third and fourth so it sort of killed the game.

“There was a period in the second half there where they did look quite threatening and on another day they go in and it’s a different game.  We’re aware of that.  We got a little bit of the rub of the green.  To be fair the last few games we’ve had no luck at all so we’ll take that luck.”

Tunbridge Wells had to score quickly in the second half and they almost pulled a goal back when McMath’s corner from the left was headed back across goal by Perry Spackman but off-colour Keelan Mooney nodded the ball into Bygrave’s arms.

Sevenoaks should have wrapped the game up when a cross from left-back Davis found Richard Stevens unmarked at the near post but the former Corinthian and Maidstone United striker powered a header over the bar when well placed.

Sevenoaks keeper Bygrave was forced into making a fine low save to his right to prevent Alex Rich from flicking a shot into the bottom far corner, after McMath played a low ball across the penalty area from the left hand side.

Tunbridge Wells were dominating the second half, with Sevenoaks content to soak up the pressure and hit their local rivals on the break.

Mooney wasted a good opportunity at the far post in the 75th minute, when he met Bourne’s cross with a cushioned header, which was comfortably caught by Bygrave.

Sevenoaks hit their opponents on the break when a diagonal ball was expertly brought under control by Stevens, who was hogging the right touch-line, and his ball inside for Jack Gibbons saw the central midfielder crack a dipping right-footed drive from 30-yards, which only just cleared the Tunbridge Wells crossbar.

But despite Tunbridge Wells creating the better second half chances, it was Sevenoaks that wrapped the game up with a fourth goal in the 89th minute.

Substitute Cash Henry reached the by-line and cut the ball back to Hales, who smashed a low first time right-footed drive past Czanner inside the bottom corner.

Tunbridge Wells boss Larkin, meanwhile, admitted his side lacked any cutting edge in the final third of the pitch.

“We didn’t play badly, we’ve gifted them three goals,” he bemoaned.  “Second half going forward we were excellent until 30-yards from goal and we haven’t made the right choices there.  That comes from rhythm and time and when we click we are very good, when we don’t we need to figure out a Plan B to work with.

“We want to keep the ball and we want to play with it because that’s what we’ve got the players for.  We just need to deliver now.  We’ve talked them up quite a bit as a group and now we have to deliver starting (away to Corinthian) on Saturday.

“We’re happy with what we’ve got, we’re happy to work with them. There’s some very, very good players in there but they need to deliver.  If they don’t then we’ll have a chat on Saturday.”  

Sevenoaks Town: Dan Bygrave, Joe Minter, Chris Davis, Mark Axcell, Jon Lord, Rob Quinn, Adam Marsh (Joe Wood 88), Jack Gibbons, Jack Jeffrey (Cash Henry 73), Lee Hales, Richard Stevens.

Subs: Shaun Blythe

Goals: Lee Hales 15, 89, Adam Marsh 35, 44

Tunbridge Wells: Michal Czanner, Jason Bourne, Tom Davey, Sam Phillips (Drew Crush 46), Scott Whibley, Perry Spackman, Jon Pilbeam, Andy McMath, Keelan Mooney, Carl Cornell, Alex Rich (Jack Harris 83).

Subs: Andy Boyle, Steve Ashmore, Rob Wells

Goal: Carl Cornell 40

Booked: Perry Spackman 41, Andy McMath 45

Attendance: 112

Referee: Mr Christopher Myatt (Dartford)

Assistants: Mr Lee Judd (Tunbridge Wells) & Mr Danny Geary (Maidstone)