Sevenoaks Town 1-2 Sheppey United - I just felt they were so much better than us and our players' mindset was really poor with poor preparation and professionalism, says Sevenoaks Town manager Marcel Nimani

Sevenoaks Town 1 – 2 Sheppey United
Location	Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX
Kickoff	07/10/2026 19:30

SEVENOAKS TOWN  1-2  SHEPPEY UNITED
Go Cardless Kent Senior Cup Second Round
Wednesday 7 October 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Greatness Park

SHEPPEY UNITED coach Steve Aldridge says his side have got a good chance of silverware after reaching the Kent Senior Cup Quarter-Finals while Sevenoaks Town manager Marcel Nimani criticised his players’ preparation and professionalism for their poor start to the game.

George and Ian Batten handed striker Oghosa Williams, 21, his debut, having recently signed him following his release from their league rivals Margate and the former AFC Greenwich Borough and Whitehawk striker scored a first-half brace as Sheppey United controlled the first half at Greatness Park.

Sevenoaks Town put in a vastly-improved performance on a chilly night of 10 degree temperatures and pulled a late goal back through substitute winger Noah Carney.

The Oaks made four chances to their side that lost 3-1 to Craig Stone’s Ashford United at the weekend, while Sheppey United made six from their 2-0 home defeat to Chertsey Town in The FA Cup Third Qualifying Round.

“I thought it was a good performance from us,” said Aldridge, who was put forward for post-match media duties.

“We rotated the squad and we’ve had a lot of games and the idea was we think we’ve got quite a decent squad there in terms of some depth and we want to make sure that those players have the opportunities to show what they can do.

“We’ve rested a couple of players who have played a lot of minutes this season but it shows the depth we’ve got and it gives the gaffers’ a nice little headache and that was the message before the game really. We are rotating the squad around, we are trying to keep people fresh, give people minutes, give the gaffers’ a headache, so when it comes to League games they’ve got a decision to make.”

Sevenoaks Town manager Marcel Nimani admitted: “A game defined by a poor start. I just feel the opposition, in that first 20-25 minutes, they were just so superior to us.  I thought they controlled the game better than us. I thought they kept the ball a lot better than us.

“I just thought their three central midfielders were far better than our three central midfielders and you could pick holes all over the place.

“I just felt they were so much better than us, overall in the first half but particular in those first 25 minutes.”

But the Ites’ showed their strength in depth and they created their first opening following their second of seven corners, with seven minutes and 40 seconds in.

The impressive, central midfielder Ben Clark, who covered every blade of grass before leaving the contest at the interval with a hamstring tweak, floated in a great corner from the right and centre-half Ethan Cole’s bullet downward header brought a great save from recalled goalkeeper Jordan Perrin, who dived to his left and used a strong left hand to turn the ball behind.

“That’s another thing we work on a little bit in training. It’s difficult at the moment because we only train once a week. We’ve played Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday, Tuesday or Wednesday almost every week this season, so we’re trying to get as much as we can into Thursday’s training session.  We work a bit on the set-pieces and it’s just another toy in the arsenal,” explained Aldridge.

Nimani added “Incredible save! That was an incredible, incredible save. It’s good to see Jordan back for a starters but for him to come back with such a prestigious save, its positive, yes.”

Clark played the ball inside to Alfie Hilden, who played the ball out wide to left-winger D’Jean Spencer, who cut in to drill his right-footed angled drive just over the crossbar from 30-yards, before some fine defending from Sevenoaks centre-half Tamas Amgbaduba denied a certain goal (14:40).

Holding midfielder Jack Palmby entered the Sevenoaks half of the pitch before playing Williams in behind and the striker – who scored 38 goals for AFC Greenwich Borough in the SCEFL First Division last season in his breakthrough season – skipped past the advancing keeper but his rolled shot was cleared off the line by Amgbaduba, who showed desire to get back to his goal-line.

“That’s what Jack can bring us. He’s very composed, very calm on the ball. He’s got good vision, slotted a nice ball in and it’s an unfortunate clearance,” added Aldridge, who was asked what former Bearsted holding midfielder Palmby brings.

“Palms has done very well since he’s come in. I think one of the things that we’re very impressed with is how calm he is on the ball. He enables us to sort of build. I think you saw in the first half how he would get the ball off the back four, very clam, just spreads it, draws people in, plays the ball at the right time and allows us to advance up the pitch, so we’re pleased with him so far.”

Nimani added: “I think that action just determines how much better at superior they were than us in that first 25 minutes and we were just picking up every second. Technically they were better than us and that resulted in us being really poor technically, under playing passes, getting caught in possession and they capitalised on them.”

Sheppey United were playing out from the back, with many attacks starting from left-sided centre-half Cole, who also produced a resilient performance alongside Harlain Mbayo.

Sheppey United took 31 minutes and 23 seconds to make their breakthrough, with Williams scoring his first goal for the club at the second attempt.

Cole drilled a long ball down the line to release the impressive Clark, who charged down the left and put it on a plate with a great cross towards Williams at the back post.

Williams’ initial left-footed shot looped up, spun back before he hooked his left-footed shot into the bottom near corner at the second attempt from inside the six-yard box.

“Yes, he said it himself, he’s kind of got a little fortunate with that first goal. He’s not made a great contact with the first touch but he managed to get the second one in but he shows his quality with the second goal – it’s a great finish for the second one,” said Aldridge, who was then asked why Williams has been signed.

“Just a little bit of competition. We’ve got Cookie (nine-goal Michael Salako) up front, Shaquille Gordon is in the squad, OG (Williams) can play up front, he can play out wide I believe. It’s just a little bit of competition.

“I think we’re playing a lot of games so there is that perspective of getting a little bit of rotations.  Cookie’s played a lot of minutes.”

Nimani admitted his side were the first (covered by this website this season) to be caught out by one of the close-season Law changes.

“Well, I have to say and I don’t want to make it, because I think they were worthy of their win but this is the bit where the Rules let the game down a little bit,” said Nimani, who really knows football Laws are not rules.

“I understand the introduction of the rules if a player goes down you have to keep him out for a minute but what happens if the injury is genuine because we were down to 10 men, so Sheppey found a spare man because we were down to ten men because Harvey (Brand) was out and that’s the reason why they managed to play their way into our box because we were a man down at the time.

“The frustration part of it is Harvey went down injured because their player kicked Harvey in the toe. The referee missed the foul. Harvey’s injured, so he’s called for our physio to come on, so our physio’s treated him for a foul, which should’ve been ours.  The referee didn’t see the foul then we’ve got penalised, down to 10 men because of the rule and they went and scored, so that bit is frustrating.

“Again, I don’t want that to be a point where I feel that’s the reason why Sheppey scored because I think they were worthy of their lead in that first part of the first half but that was a fact why they scored that goal.”

Sheppey United deserved their two-goal lead when it arrived with 36 minutes and 14 seconds on the clock.

Once again they played out from the back before the ball was worked to Spencer, who hurt his hamstring as he stretched while being closely marked to produce a sublime left-footed through ball, which split open the Oaks defence and Williams smacked a sublime left-footed half-volley just a couple of yards inside the box, which screamed over Perrin’s head and nestled into the top right (far) corner.

“It’s a great through ball and it started from the back. If you look at the goal, we passed the ball quite nicely and managed to switch it across the side and it’s a great through ball into OG and the finish is fantastic.  He’s seen Jordan Perrin off his line and he’s just had a little loft,” said Aldridge.

Nimani added: “What a terrific finish! If he scores that sort of finish again, I’ll hold my hat to the guy – but yes, a great finish!

“It wasn’t just the finish that was brilliant, it was the movement. I was really disappointed with my centre-half. We’ve just watched their analysis, so the shape, the line was too deep and if the line would’ve been higher like we instructed, then I don’t think they would’ve got that sort of space but nonetheless, a great move from Sheppey, a great finish from their man.”

Sevenoaks Town were putting in a lacklustre performance by this point but they showed plenty of desire to claw themselves back into the game before the interval.

Quiet pair Nathan Jeche (striker) and Jordon Ababio (right-winger) linked up in and around the Sheppey penalty area before Ababio cut the ball into the box towards winger Freddie Nyhus, who had his back to goal before laying the ball back to attacking midfielder Jed Borders, who cut onto his right-foot and smacked the crossbar from inside the D.

Nimani said: “Just fine margines. A bit of quality there. I have to say I think we were the dominant team in the second half. We were far better in the second half but weirdly enough I thought we attacked their goal better in the first half but we had two great chances to score.”

Aldridge added: “That was a decent strike! I think we’re a bit fortunate in a way. I think we just switched off a little bit.  Sometimes substitutions do that. You get a little bit of disruption in the flow and what’s disappointing for us, it’s hit the crossbar and he’s almost played a one-two and we haven’t reacted. Fortunately, the follow-up wasn’t there.

“Sevenoaks are a good side. We’ve seen in terms of some of their league performances and that they’re doing reasonably ok in the League.  We knew that we were going to go up against an organised side, a side that likes to battle but we were confident when it comes to the way we play football.  We like to pass the ball about. We want to keep the football and I think if we keep the possession of the football, it makes it hard for our opposition.”

Sheppey United’s 23-year-old goalkeeper Harley Earle produced the Save of the Season, 53 seconds into stoppage time.

Cole tripped Nyhus, as he attempted to cut across him in the middle of the pitch and referee Richard Joss awarded Sevenoaks a free-kick some 30-yards from goal.

Nyhus drilled his left-footed free-kick towards the top right-hand corner and Earle dived high to his left and used a strong left hand to claw the ball out, bringing acclaim from Aldridge and gasps of appreciation from the small crowd of 125.

Aldridge said :”That was a fantastic save! When he took the free-kick, I’m thinking ‘goal’ and that’s what Harley brings to us. He’s a fantastic goalkeeper, brave as anything in terms of going out and collecting but his shot-stopping as well is fantastic and the way he’s got across there and got his, clawed it out off the line essentially and put it around the post – fantastic save!”

Nimani simply added: “Just a good save form the keeper. I thought it was a great free-kick and it was matched by a great save.”

Sheppey United called Perrin into making a comfortable low save with the last action of the first half.

Substitute winger, Danny Leonard, delivered a quality free-kick from the right towards the back post where Mbayo came up from the back to steer his downward header towards the near-corner, which Perrin gathered between his legs.

Both teams then retreated to the recently built warm changing rooms.

Nimani said: “We had to pick on the players, the three boys in midfield weren’t tight enough, so they had to be told.  I thought in possession we were very poor and I thought they were better in possession and we got the shape a little bit better and I thought we were fine second half, I thought we were much better.

“We always get a reaction. We just needed to re-organise and the players needed to be a bit more professional,” added Nimani, who was asked what was missing from his side on a chilly October night.

“Poor preparation, professionalism in the first 20 minutes. The mindset was really poor. I thought we were second to everything in the first 25 minutes.

“The players’ let themselves down. It was difficult. It’s something to do with lifestyle. A lot of our boys are actually quite young lads. A lot of our players are sort of in their first part of their career (job wise) and they’re matching working in London, travelling. They’re learning (about playing midweek non-league football). I don’t think any of them mean to be poor as they were but it just goes to show the last 20 minutes, they gave everything.”

Aldridge added: “There was a lot of good praise in terms of how well we played but the message really was ‘we’re 2-0 up and actually go out there and defend the clean sheet and you’re through to the next round.’

“We had to take Clarky off, which was a bit of a precautionary. We moved Dylan inside, it’s not his natural position, so we knew we maybe concede a tiny bit of possession but Dylan’s a great player no matter where you put him.

“But realistically the aim was not to concede and just to defend well. We still had a number of chances, maybe we should’ve taken one.”

Sheppey United hit Sevenoaks on the counter-attack (4:56) when Palmby crossed the halfway line down the middle of the pitch before playing the ball out to Leonard on the right and he cut the ball back to Hilden, whose first-time drilled shot from the edge of the penalty area flew just over the crossbar.

Sevenoaks Town’s width during the second half came from very high right-back Kevin Diomande and when Nimani made a triple substitution in the 57^th minute, Courtney Barrington just didn’t replicate his outstanding wing play that he produced during the recent 5-0 home win over Eastbourne Town.

James Jeffrey cut inside in midfield and fed Nyhus, who worked the ball out to Diomande, who controlled the ball before drilling a low right-footed angled drive towards the bottom far corner from 20-yards, which was comfortably held by Earle, low to his right (6:28).

“Yes, it was a good move, built on athleticism wasn’t it? It’s quite difficult to do anything different there, so it was a good attempt but it was a poor finish,” admitted Nimani.

Aldridge added: “They’re a good side. We know they’re a good, well-organised side. We had a discussion early in the second half about how they were playing. They were sort of moving towards three-at-the-back when they were on the ball and starting pushing the full-backs up high.

“We decided to let them have the ball in and around the box and just defend in our banks and it worked well.  Unfortunately they scored towards the end but we held on.”

Diomande drilled a long ball down the line to release substitute winger Carney, who cut in from the right and clipped the top of the near post after his cross from within the channel took a nick (16:35).

There was a hint of controversy when referee Richard Joss blew his whistle and awarded Sheppey United a penalty (22:18) when Sevenoaks’ recalled left-back Max Davidson challenged Adjei-Hersey inside or outside the corner of the penalty area.  However, assistant referee Darren Kempson overruled the decision but Davidson was to become the only player cautioned during this frenetic clash.

Aldridge said: “I thought it was a penalty! It looked like the contact started inside the box and the way that Dylan’s travelling, he’s just ended up landing outside.

“The ref gave the penalty, apparently the linesman’s over-ruled it ‘said it was outside’. From what I was told, it was very much in the area. It will be interesting to see it back but ultimately OG’s probably disappointed because he went straight to the ball to pick it up, just would’ve possibly got his hat-trick.

“It’s not affected the game, so that’s the thing that we can take from that, is a positive.”

Nimani’s response was inevitable.

“From my dug-out., I saw that was out. It’s so frightening, it’s so worrying that the referee gave the penalty. Well done to the lino by the way!

“It’s so worrying that the referee is 50 meters closer to where I was, for him to give that as a penalty. Wow! What a poor decision!

“You don’t really want to judge people on judgement calls because subjective calls because you think that’s human but how can you think that was a penalty? The guy’s outside the box. Nobody was in the box (other than my goalkeeper).”

Sevenoaks Town knocked on the door during the final 15 minutes and missed a decent chance.

Borders slipped the ball along the artificial turf (which benefited from the days rain) and Diomande showed desire to run down the line and keep the ball in play, before splitting the defence to put Jeche though on goal and the quiet striker took a touch inside the box before dragging his right-footed shot across Earle and past the far post.

Nimani said: “Yes, just had to hit the target there, which was disappointing but it was a great move up until that point. He rolled and turned the defender very well.”

Aldridge added: “Again, that shows the threat that Sevenoaks have.  They’ve got some good players; they brought Courtney Barrington on as well. We know he’s a dangerous winger but I go back to our defending. I thought we defended quite well.”

Sevenoaks Town scored a consolation goal with 42 minutes and 14 seconds on the clock, however.

Jeffrey and Jeche both linked up inside the Sheppey half before Carney ran straight down the heart of the pitch, beat three Sheppey players before clinically placing his right-footed shot past Earle to score from inside the D.

Nimani said: “Just a good individual goal, wasn’t it? Good movements by that point because they’ve got two goals ahead by that point. You have to give a lot of credit to Sheppey, I thought they shut the shop really well in the second half. 

“I thought they defended really well in the second half and for all of the attacks that we had, I thought they had the answer defensively, so credit to them, so it just goes to show the brilliance of Noah to get that goal because they were set defensively very good.”

Aldridge added: “Good finish, possibly we could’ve got a better foot in to maybe stop him from getting forward.  Maybe put that down to some tired legs towards the end of the game. Maybe made it a bit nerve-wracking slightly but even though they got the one goal, we’ve got confidence in our players and confidence in Harley. I don’t think we said on the sidelines thinking ‘it’s gone 2-1, we’re now in trouble.’

“The one slight negative you can take on the night is awe didn’t keep the clean-sheet but on the whole, lot’s of positives to take.”

When asked about joining Chatham Town in the Quarter-Finals of the Kent Senior Cup after Kevin Hake’s side beat Gillingham 3-0 last night, Aldridge replied, “For us, it’s great. I mean we’ve done very well in the cups this year. Obviously, we were knocked out of The FA Trophy by Deal, got knocked out of The FA Cup the other day by Chertsey. We’ve come away from that FA Cup game a little bit disappointed because I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves against a team in the League above, so now we’re out of those two cups, it leaves the Velocity and the Kent Senior Cup.

“Cup runs are good. It gives us the opportunity to rotate the squad, gives us the opportunity to keep people happy, give people minutes and now you get into the Quarter-Finals, you look at it and we’ve got a good chance of silverware, potentially, so it’s something to look forward to as much as the importance of the league.”

Sevenoaks Town return to Isthmian League South East Division football on Saturday with a trip to bottom-side Crowborough Athletic.

The Oaks are sitting in tenth-place in the table with 12 points (three wins, three draws and three defeats), while Sean Murggeridge’s side were knocked out of The FA Cup by Wimborne Town last weekend.

Sevenoaks Town are just two points adrift of the play-offs and only four points clear of the relegation zone. The Ites, meanwhile, are five points adrift of the play-offs – with games in hand – and just a point above the drop zone.

“I think they’re bottom of the table because they’ve played less and they’re spending a lot of their performances on cup competitions, so I’m not sure that’s a reflection on their talent on the pitch because they’re going to be tough, as a lot of teams from higher leagues have found when they’ve gone there,” warned Nimani.

“So we have to play slightly different to what we played tonight and we have to bounce back.

“It’s just a very competitive league. It’s going to be a long competitive season. Within seven days if you’ve got three games you could hit the relegation zone or you could hit the play-off spot. It’s just a long competitive season and you’ve got to be prepared emotionally and physically for it.

“I mean, our performances are fine. We did lose today. Are we going to hit the hights of Eastbourne on a regular basis? I think that’s quite unrealistic. You’re never going to hit those sort of highs on a regular basis.

“We’ve got teams above us who are spending three or four times the fortunes that we are that didn’t hit those highs, so the performances are fine.

“You have to give credit to the opposition. I think they were a good side and it’s just a game of two halves. I think they were better than us in the first half and we were better in the second half. When they were better, they scored two. When we were better, we scored one.  Goals change games and we didn’t score enough today.”

Sheppey United, meanwhile, welcome second-placed side Hastings United to Holm Park on Saturday.

The Ites are in fifteenth place in the eighth-tier division with nine points from three games.

“Hastings have done well but at home we’ve got confidence. We’ve played very well, very, very well recently and the thing we reflected on at the end of today’s game is we are a very new squad. We’ve only had three or four players from last season stay so since July we’ve had a lot of turnover,” explained Aldridge.

“The squad are a very close nit group. They get on really well on and off the pitch and that’s showing in the way that we’re performing.

“The early games, it’s learning a new style of football. It’s learning to play with each other and I can only see that from going from strength-to-strength.

“Our League performances recently, in terms of picking up, hopefully we can continue that against Hastings but make no mistake it’s a difficult game. They’re doing well and they’ll probably come to us thinking it’s a chance to get three points. We’ve got to match our work-rate as we’ve been doing and try to get those three points.

“The League table is interesting. We were having a little chat the other day and I said exactly that.  You look at the League it’s actually quite tight. Ok, some teams have played more games than others. We’ve played six, which is the least in the league with the amount of cup games we’ve had, obviously we’ve got games in hand but obviously you’ve got to win those games in hand.

“So we go into those games looking up rather than looking down, of course and I think the way that we’re playing and the way we’re performing, it gives us that kind of momentum. At the same time, we’ve got to make sure that we’re not complacent with things.”

Sheppey United are halfway through playing two games a week and Aldridge was quick to praise Sam Stone for her work in getting players off her treatment table and out on the pitch during this hectic part of the campaign.

“It’s tough on the boys’ legs. It’s tough in a training aspect because we only get the Thursday. We normally train on Tuesday and Thursday (evenings) and this week we’ve had no training because the scheduling means we couldn’t really arrange a training session because we’ve had a Wednesday game, so we just move into Saturday without training this week.

“We can’t complain because it’s Tuesday’s for a reason because we’ve been successful and that’s only a positive for us.

“Sam does a great job, she gets the lads well looked after and some of the boys have come back a little bit quicker because of the treatment she’s been able to provide so credit to her because we have had a lot of games. That’s caused a few muscle injuries but we try to manage that as best we can and we give people a rest every now and then.”

Sevenoaks Town: Jordan Perrin, Kevin Diomande, Max Davidson, Harvey Brand (Jaden Perez 57), Tamas Amgbaduba, Tolulope Jonah, Freddie Nyhus (Courtney Barrington 57), James Jeffrey, Nathan Jeche, Jed Borders, Jordan Ababio (Noah Carney 57).
Sub: Archie Howard, Wayne Muganiwah

Goal: Noah Carney 88

Booked: Max Davidson 68

Sheppey United: Harley Earle, Joseph Ganiwa, Simon Kabamba (Mohammed Dabo 72), Jack Palmby, Harlain Mbayo, Ethan Cole, D’Jean Spencer (Danny Leonard 39), Ben Clark (Kaelem Sobhee-Turner 46), Oghosa Williams (Michael Salako 72), Alfie Hilden, Dylan Adjei-Hersey (Joshua Wisson 83).

Goals: Oghosa Williams 32, 37

Attendance: 125
Referee: Mr Richard Joss
Assistants: Mr Leigh Newby & Mr Darren Kempson

Match Duration:
First Half: 49:57
Second Half: 48:04