Sheppey United 9-0 Eastbourne United - It's really important that nobody gets carried away because of the scoreline today, says record breaking Sheppey United boss Kevin Watson

Sheppey United 9 – 0 Eastbourne United
Location	Holm Park, St Peters Close, Queenborough Road, Halfway, Sheerness, Kent ME12 3BD
Kickoff	16/08/2025 15:00

SHEPPEY UNITED  9-0  EASTBOURNE UNITED
The Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round
Saturday 16 August 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Holm Park

SHEPPEY UNITED manager Kevin Watson says it’s really important that nobody gets carried away with the club’s record FA Cup victory after humiliating lower-league Eastbourne United during his side’s perfect performance at Holm Park.

Anthony Storey’s side opened their campaign by beating Isthmian League South East Division side East Grinstead 4-1 in The FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round two weeks ago before opening their ninth-tier Southern Combination League Premier Division with a couple of one-goal defeats to relegated Steyning Town and Forest Row and arrived for their record FA Cup defeat in sixteenth-place in the table.

Watson’s men, meanwhile, beat Metropolitan Police 3-1 at the first stage of the competition before beating opening their Isthmian League South East Division campaign with a 4-0 home win over Ashford United and a 4-2 loss at Herne Bay in midweek.

Eastbourne United’s players put in a Sacked in the Morning type performance as the floodgates opened after only 170 seconds, as the Ites romped to an emphatic 7-0 lead at the interval.

Striker Rolando Onu, wingers Jacob Lambert and Danny Leonard all scored as Sheppey United raced into a 3-0 lead inside the opening 16 minutes, before Lambert and Ono both went on to score their hat-tricks to make it an embarrassing 7-0 lead at the break.

The second half played out as you would expect with Eastbourne United’s players playing for professional pride, with Sheppey United adding just two further goals, with Leonard’s sublime chip making it eight.

Talisman striker, Daniel Bradshaw, 34, had to wait until the 51^st minute to come off the bench and he had a penalty saved at 8-0, before getting his name on the scoresheet with the last kick of the game. 

That one was for you, Ernie!

“Look, the objective in cup competitions naturally is to progress to the next round and we’ve achieved that, so regardless of the scoreline, we’ve done that,” said Watson during the post-match press conference held within his office.

“There’s no additional benefit is there really of goal tallies, goals for, goals against etc.  We’ve kept a clean-sheet, which was pleasing.

“At half-time we obviously made some changes and we was really pleased with the second half in terms of the professionalism.

“Regardless of expectations, it (the second half performance) was what we wanted. We gave some clear messages at half-time in terms how we wanted the players to play and conduct themselves, so I suppose the first half everybody will look at that and think it’s a better performance. From a management perspective, equally the second half was as good because of the simplicity and professionalism of play.”

Storey’s decision to start with three central defenders backfired as his side were already 3-0 down by the time he changed it to a four, with Anthony Thomas (left) being cut to shreds by the outstanding, dominant pair of Leonard and Onu.

You have to ask what holding midfielders Henry Yorke-Johnson and former Ashford United man Rhyle Ovenden were doing inside the Sheppey United half as they failed to track the run of Sheppey United’s holding midfielder Eitel Moumi-Goueth, who ran untracked from his midfield role before sprinting down the right wing with the ball (the awful Anthony Thomas kept on opening the gate).

Moumi-Gouetth fizzed in a low cross from within the right channel for Onu to rifle a first time right-footed shot into the roof of the net with a clinical finish inside the six-yard box.

“The phase of play leading up to that was pleasing. It was dynamic, it was quick and the quality and the timing of the cross and then Rolando being in the right place and then execute the finish,” said Watson.

“I think when you play teams that in geographical location as such, in terms of not being in the SCEFL Prem or in our League, we know less about them so today was just focusing on ourselves and how we conducted the game.

“In a sense we’ve assembled this squad.  Less than half the players were here last season, although some have played for the club previously, so this is a constructive journey for us and we’re learning all the time and we need to learn from today both positive and there’s still going to be aspects of today’s game, which we identify, which we need to work on.

“It’s really important that nobody gets carried away because of the scoreline today. We didn’t get carried away when we beat Ashford. We didn’t get carried away when we beat Met Police.

“We’re fully aware that this season there’s going to be some moments that require us to have resilience and togetherness when things aren’t going so well, so I want the club to enjoy today. I want the players to enjoy today, absolutely they should celebrate that. We’ve got another game on Tuesday.”

Onu played the ball inside to Billy Bennett, who played a first time pass to feed Leonard, who cut into the box, brought the ball under control before dinking his right-footed shot across keeper James Broadbent, who dived to his right and pushed the ball behind for a corner (6:09).

Anthony Thomas allowed the dominant Leonard to weave his magic before cutting the ball back for Sheppey’s left-back Archie Johnson to lash his left-footed drive over the crossbar from 18-yards, before Broadbent made a rare save.

Onu played the ball out to the right and Lambert (Eastbourne’s wing-backs Mufaro Huchu and T’yano Wilson were too open and failed miserably to try to defend and help out their over-run defensive team-mates) cut into the box and clipped his left-footed shot straight at Broadbent in a one-v-one (7:31).

“Ironically there were spells in the first half where we had some really good opportunities again and that is something that we have spoken about,” said Watson, who was manager of Cray Valley who won 7-0 at Badshot Lea in The FA Vase Second Round in November 2018.

“We have been a team to date that are creating opportunities and our conversation rate, there’s going to be times in the season in some tight games where we won’t have as many opportunities and we need to make sure that we’re not wasteful of them and take full advantage.”

Sheppey United doubled their lead and this one-sided FA Cup tie was effectively over with only eight minutes and 22 seconds on the clock.

Lambert swept the ball out to Johnson, who played in Onu in behind and Leonard clipped the underside of the crossbar at the near-post and Eastbourne’s players failed to react and Lambert rolled the ball into the net from three-yards out.

Watson said: “Really good run from Archie and then good weight of pass, good timed run from Rolando, so again pleased with that goal and all the goals, are you going to go through all the goals? I don’t know if I’ve got a comment on all of them.”

Lambert switched the play to right-back , Oluwadamilowa Olurinnisumo before Lambert put the ball back into the middle and Olurinnisumo’s overhead kick from 12-yards bounced up and was comfortably caught by the visiting goalkeeper.

It was only then when Storey opted to switch to a back-four with Yorke-Johnson (right-back), Koby Farrell (centre), Ollie Hyland (centre) and Anthony Thomas (left), all failing miserably to prevent the humiliation.

Watson said: “We didn’t know what way they’d set up. They started with a three and then after a while they converted back to a four.

“Like we said to the players before, regardless of what formation other teams are playing, we’ll try to get information on that players need to recognise in game how they can adapt and because we was on top of the game at that point, then you can exploit that left-back more.”

Sheppey United’s third goal arrived with only 15 minutes and 54 seconds on the clock.

Centre-half Tamas Amgbaduba played the ball out of Sheppey’s defence, Moumi-Goueth was allowed by Eastbourne’s non-existent midfield to cross over the half-way line before splitting open weak link Anthony Thomas yet again.

Leonard latched onto the low through ball and Broadbent rushed out to narrow the angle, made an initial block but Leonard pounced on the loose ball cut past the keeper and swept his right-footed shot into the bottom near corner of the empty goal.

“Danny follows up well. Danny’s quick. He’s scored another goal, which was a couple of games ago, when he followed in from someone else’s strike, so we anticipate those opportunities really well,” added Watson.

Sheppey United remained patient and went close to scoring another following their second of seven corners in the 26^th minute.  Eastbourne’s corner count column was zilch!

Olurinnisumo played a corner short to Leonard, who put in a cross and Billy Bennett stabbed a low pass into the box and the ball was cleared out to central midfielder David Opoku, drilling his right-footed shot screaming just past the foot of the left-hand post.

Jack Samways and Josh Thomas were guilty of more woeful defending within their left-channel, as Sheppey United scored their fourth goal, timed at 30 minutes and 54 seconds.

Moumu-Goueth and Bennett linked up down the right, before Moumi-Goueth rolled the ball in behind to release Leonard close to the by-line, putting it on a plate for Lambert to tuck home from four-yards.

“Again, Jacob’s got a good goalscoring record,” said Watson.

“We’re going to talk probably a lot today about the attacking sense because there were so many gaols and we’re going through them now.

“That starts further back in terms of the defence getting the right shape and lots of our goals will come through from phases off the pitch, so we’re talking about the end points now aren’t we?

“But up until that point what we would’ve had from the base of midfield is creating opportunities to get on the forward space. We would’ve had defensive players’ choosing the right passes and the right weight of pass etc and then those attacking players, their job is to make the decisions, good finishes, good crosses, etc.”

The excellent Sheppey United romped to a fifth goal with 35 minutes and 15 seconds on the clock and at this stage you looked over at the stadium scoreboard to see if it has double digits (it does!).

Bennett’s fine left-footed pass was played in behind slow centre-half Hyland and Onu’s emphatic finish was drilled past Broadbent into the far corner from 12-yards.

Watson said: “Look, Rolando strikes the ball extremely well. We’re still working together. What’s really good about the players, Rolando included, is that they’re keen to learn, so we’re giving them information all of the time and they’re taking it on board and trying to do it.

“Certainly Rolando’s finishing, when he’s in certain areas, he’s got an instinctive to get in there, just as Dan Bradshaw has got that as well, so we’re quite fortunate to have both of those options (in attack).”

An abacus was now needed when Watson’s men scored their sixth goal – and we only had 39 minutes and 6 seconds on the clock!

Ites’ goalkeeper Harry Brooks played the ball short to centre-half Lex Allan, who slipped the ball through the middle (past Eastbourne’s non-existent midfield) and Bennett cleverly dummied the ball and let the ball run through to Lambert, before releasing Leonard in behind Anthony Thomas before fizzing in another low cross for Onu to tap into the net with a first-time shot for his first career hat-trick and his fifth goal of the season.

Watson was asked how would he want his players to react if they were suffering a six-goal humiliation instead.

“Suppose in a sense of pride, the reality is at 6-0 down, you’re unlikely to get back into the game, to win the game, that’s the harsh reality of the scoreline with the minutes left and we kind of came to terms with that,” said the former Herne Bay boss.

“I suppose if you’re in that situation on the receiving end, it’s about looking at the character of your players, in terms of who’s chucking the towel in, or who’s not trying and people still trying to do the right things.”

Referee Ismail Isik pulled out his only yellow card of the game for Farrell for his penalty box foul for the outstanding Onu and Lambert notched his hat-trick by sending Broadbent the wrong way with a clinical right-footed penalty, which nestled into the bottom right-hand corner as the hosts scored goal number seven with 42:34 on the clock.

“Again when you get penalties, it’s probably the right decision. You still have to convert penalties. We’ve missed one today. It’s similar against Ashford when they had their goalkeeper sent off. People talk about those moments in a sense of if the teams had been hard done by, you still have to get in those positions so it was a good, calm collected penalty from Jacob, as we would expect,” added Watson.

There was still time for Broadbent to actually make a save (46:09) as playmaker Bennett played the ball inside to Moumi-Goueth, who stroked a 30-yard drive which bounced once and was comfortably saved by the visiting keeper.

Watson brought on centre-half Tyler Hatton, holding midfielder Medy Elito and attacking midfielder James Bessey-Saldanha at the interval and six minutes later on came Dieko Falade and Bradshaw, as Allan, Opoku, Lambert, Moumi-Goueth and Leonard watched the remainder of the game from the dug-out.

“It’s just about being professional, being humble, showing no arrogance and simplicity, what got us to the scoreline and trying to maintain that,” said Watson.

“We made changes at half-time didn’t we? We made three changes and then we made two changes only six minutes after that.

“We would’ve potentially made five changes at half-time but you’re always got at the back of your mind, if somebody gets injured, you haven’t got that fifth sub, so it’s good to get 16 players on the pitch involved today.

“The message was just quite simple about keeping things simple, enjoying the occasion by doing the right things and nobody trying to make the game about them as individuals.”

Sheppey United bossed possession at the start of the second half and they notched goal number eight with only four minutes and 51 seconds on the clock.

Bessey-Saldanha (who gave Sheppey United the lead during their 4-1 home defeat to Walsall in their televised First Round tie here on Friday 3 November 2023) dropped deep before clipping a long ball sailing over the head of terrible Anthony Thomas, feeding Leonard and he notched his third of the season with a sublime right-footed 20-yard chip over the onrushing Broadbent dropping into the empty goal, as Eastbourne United conceded eight goals in a FA Cup tie for the first time.

Watson, who then immediately subbed Leonard, said: “Lovely timed ball. Look, Billy played another lovely ball for Dan Bradshaw’s goal as well and Danny Leonard has got that quality and composure to finish that because it wasn’t an easy finish.

“The goalkeeper was coming out quickly. He had to wait and weighted over the goalkeeper’s head quite well.  You expect Danny in those positions to finish that.”

Eastbourne United created just the ONE goalscoring chance and it arrived with 11:03 on the clock.

Wilson and Anthony Thomas linked up down the left, the ball was worked over to Farrell, who was in space some 30-yards from goal and the centre-halves’ right-footed drive bounced into Brooks’ gloves for a comfortable save.

“I think the professionalism side of it pleased me,” said Watson, delighted with the clean sheet and limiting their opposition to just this chance.

“We’ve worked on things at training on Thursday and I think both of those things were implemented today, so as long as me and Tommy (Osborne, my assistant manager) are giving messages and the players’ are taking on board and trying to implement in play, that’s what we’re asking for at this stage.”

Watson pushed Olurinnisumo higher up the pitch during the second half and Broadbent was called into action just past the hour-mark.

Falade’s left-footed pass was played in behind Hyland to feed Bradshaw close to the corner of the penalty area on the right hand side before he teed up Falade and he skipped past three defenders before cracking a rasping drive, which was caught by Broadbent at his near-post.

Eastbourne United’s players were by now playing for personal professional pride and Broadbent denied Bradshaw getting his name on the scoresheet from the penalty spot (27:11) after Olurinnisumo was brought down by Wilson inside the penalty area.

Bradshaw’s right-footed penalty was stroked towards the bottom right-hand corner but Broadbent dived low to his left and used a strong left hand to frustrate the Sheppey United talisman striker.

“Look, Dan’s confident and if a penalty comes along, he’ll take it. To be fair, it was a good save by the goalkeeper,” said Watson.

“Dan’s hit the target quite firm to the goalkeeper’s side but credit to the goalkeeper, it was a good save.”

Broadbent made a morale boosting two-handed save (37:33) to deny Falade scoring with a rasping left-footed drive, as the final 10 minutes was played at a slow tempo.

Bradshaw finally got himself on the scoresheet, as Sheppey United scored their ninth goal with the last kick of the game with 44 minutes and 46 seconds on the clock.

Eastbourne United’s substitute central midfielder Ethan Neves lost possession to the brilliant Bennett in midfield and he played a sublime through ball to release Bradshaw and his right-footed drive from 25-yards nestled inside the bottom left-hand corner, although the goalkeeper got his fingertips to the shot.

“Throughout Dan’s career, goalscoring has been a big aspect hasn’t it.  That’s what he’s been renowned for and when he gets time on the pitch, you always fancy him to score,” said Watson.

“It was a really taken goal, good combination play, a great ball from Billy, a good weight of pass and a good finish from Dan.”

Watson describes this as a “transition period” for the club following the sad passing of Ernie Batten.

“I’m really pleased for the club today in a sense that will be a good day for the fans. It will be a good day for the committee members and the board and we’re through to the next round,” said Watson.

“The FA Cup is a club thing isn’t it, in a sense of it’s for the club. You’re not going to win the competition are you, so there’s financial rewards for the club (£2,569 in prize money for two wins, while Eastbourne United have banked £1,606 for a win and a defeat).

“It also gives the players a chance to play in rounds when it’s quite exciting – but you’ve got to get to that point don’t you.

“Every season there’s probably only a couple of club’s at our level that make it to the First Round proper every season and the League we’re in has got a good track history of doing that across the country.

“Sheppey United experienced it a couple of season’s ago didn’t they, a live televised game and that’s great but what everybody needs to put into perspective, those things don’t come around often do they? Promotions don’t come around often. FA Cup runs don’t come around that often, so you’ve got to take advantage of it when it does.

“We’re going to get back to the League aren’t we at some point and that’s the bread and butter and it’s a really difficult competitive league and you look at the league table now, there’s some club’s that haven’t picked up many points in the first couple of games that you’d expect to, so that will change.

“The League table’s not worth looking at in detail in this moment in time. All we need to focus on is gradual improvement.”

Watson takes his side to Herne Bay for their second meeting this month to contest a Kent Senior Cup Preliminary Round tie on Tuesday night.

Liam Friend’s eighth-placed side came away from Broadbridge Heath with a goal-less draw in the division’s only league game of the day and Watson has promised changes at Winch’s Field.

“We’ll take every competition seriously. There will be some changes for the game absolutely because there’s players’ that need minutes and there’s players that need some rest.

“The fortunate thing is whilst we’ve got a squad of 16 players and we’ve got a couple of young players on the periphery, we don’t feel that there’s competition for places and we will still field a competitive side and yes it will be a good game.”

Watson was asked about his aspirations for the season ahead and the finances that he is working with at last season’s seventh-placed finishers.

“Fortuantely from our early discussions, the club have been realistic about where we’re at and we want sustainability as a club and the taboo subject is about finance and we’re realistic that we’re not as competitive as other clubs with that respect,” said Watson.

“What we want to do is assemble a team that are here for the right reasons and we think we’ve got that and now we’ve assembled that it’s about working on that team and seeing how many winning performances we can put in and the by-product of that, how many points we can get.

“But there’s not been any talk of league positions or totality of points. Mine and Tommy’s focus is the project is leading to longer-term but our focus is very short-term in terms of what can we improve for the next game because it is a newly assembled squad.”

Sheppey United: Harry Brooks, Oluwadamilowa Olurinnisumo, Archie Johnson, Eitel Moumi-Goueth (Dieko Falade 51), Lex Allan (Tyler Hatton 46), Tamas Amgbaduba, Jacob Lambert (James Bessey-Saldanha 46), David Opoku (Medy Elito 46), Rolando Onu, Billy Bennett, Danny Leonard (Daniel Bradshaw 51).
Subs: Adam Molloy, Tommy Linkson

Goals: Rolando Onu 3, 36, 40,  Jacob Lambert 9, 31, 43 (penalty), Danny Leonard 16, 51, Daniel Bradshaw 90

Eastbourne United: James Broadbent, Mufaro Huchu, T’yano Wilson, Ollie Hyland, Koby Farrell, Anthony Thomas, Henry Yorke-Johnson, Rhyle Ovenden, Oliver Hull, Jack Samways (Ethan Neves 73), Josh Thomas.
Subs: Dominic Creese, Bailo Camara, Anthony Storey

Booked: Koby Farrell 42

Attendance: 300
Referee: Mr Ismail Isik
Assistants: Mr Piotr Zachwieja & Mr William Sanderson