Tonbridge Angels 1-2 Hastings United - We just lacked a little bit of ruthlessness to punish those opportunities, admits frustrated Tonbridge Angels' Under 18 manager Dominic Welsh

Tonbridge Angels 1 – 2 Hastings United
Location	Longmead Stadium, Darenth Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent TN10 3JF
Kickoff	16/09/2024 19:45

TONBRIDGE ANGELS  1-2  HASTINGS UNITED
The FA Youth Cup First Qualifying Round
Monday 16 September 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from Longmead Stadium

TONBRIDGE ANGELS manager Dominic Welsh says he was feeling frustrated after his side were knocked out of The FA Youth Cup at their first hurdle by Hastings United.
 

The Angels took a ninth minute lead courtesy of an own goal from Hastings United’s goalkeeper Harry Howes before Marc Gall’s side claimed the victory by the 33^rd minute, courtesy of two goals from their impressive left-winger Arsham Mavali, 17.

Hastings United beat Southern Combination Premier Division club Newhaven 3-0 at The Pilot Field to reach this stage of the competition.

This was a shock victory for Hastings United, going by where each club is in the football pyramid at first-team level.  Tonbridge Angels are in third-place in the sixth-tier Vanarama National League South, while Hastings United are in sixteenth-place in the seventh-tier Isthmian League Premier Division.

“Frustrating, that’s probably the key word,” said Welsh, 25, the manager of the club's Isthmian League Under 18 side.

“I felt for the majority of the game, we were in good control bar the 10 minutes we concede two goals. I thought we started the game well, got ourselves 1-0 up, controlled the game.

“But I think their first goal stopped a bit of momentum and then after that we lacked a little bit of control in the game, that was the key for us.

“Second half we did really well, just couldn’t find the back of the net, just frustrating really.”

When asked what it meant for the boys to play in The FA Youth Cup, Welsh replied: “I think you can see at the end of the game, we were getting frustrated because they know that time is running out but for these boys it’s an opportunity for the first-team manager (Jay Saunders) to come and watch, opportunities for them to showcase what they’re capable of on a bigger stage than what they usually would, so it’s tough for them but it’s all a good learning curve.”

A poor clearance from Howes put his centre-half Ollie Palmer in trouble and he committed a foul on Tonbridge Angels’ attacking midfielder MacKenzie Richardson.

Richardson stroked a right-footed free-kick towards goal from 22-yards, which was comfortably saved in Howes’ midriff after 128 seconds at Longmead Stadium.

“The start of the game was good, even apart from the goal. We had some shots that didn’t really test the goalkeeper, they were quite comfortable but we got in some really good positions, forced a few mistakes. On another day we may punish one or two of them and extend our lead,” said Welsh.

Hastings United went close following their first attempt in the seventh minute, following the first of their four corners.

Left-back Tyrone Miotshwa delivered a right-wing corner with his right-foot towards the back post where Mavali ghosted in at the back post to sweep his right-footed half-volley just past the foot of the near-post.

Tonbridge Angels deserved their lead with a well-worked goal with eight minutes and 47 seconds on the clock.

Richardson drilled a sublime long diagonal out to pacey right-back Nayan Grant, who easily cut inside Mavali inside the final third before right-winger Fiachra Pritchard whipped in a great cross towards the unmarked Richardson in the centre of the box.

The 16-year-old powered his header against the underside of the crossbar, the ball kissing the shoulder of goalkeeper Howes before nestling in the top left-hand corner of the goal.

“I think the linesman (Byron Beard) said it’s come of the goalkeeper but really pleased with the goal,” said Welsh.

“It’s a pattern of play that we’ve worked on in training and we’ve looked at with Pritchard coming inside and Nayan being the over-lapping run and in fairness it’s a really good header from MacKenzie.

“It kind of fell behind him and managed to direct it goalbound and sometimes you need a little bit of luck to get yourselves ahead.”

Hastings United were causing their own problems by playing out from the back and their right-back Joe Clifford was pressed inside the box and winger Ollie Thompson stole the ball from him before laying the ball to striker Callum Fincham, who swept a left-footed shot towards goal, which was comfortably held by Howes, low to his left.

“We had limited information on what Hastings were going to offer but from what we did know we felt they were going to be quite direct, so early on we tried to let them pass it because we felt that was going to give us a good opportunity to win the ball back, which I felt we did in the first five or 10 minutes,” explained Welsh.

“We just lacked a little bit of ruthlessness to punish those opportunities.”

Palmer travelled over the half-way line before playing the ball into Mavali’s feet, who found a pocket of space in the middle and cracked a right-footed drive from 35-yards, which bounced into the hands of Tonbridge Angels’ goalkeeper Andrew Norburn for a comfortable save in the fourteenth minute.

Hastings United restored parity by scoring a three-man equaliser with 24 minutes and 51 seconds on the clock.

An unpressed Palmer launched a long ball out of defence which released left-back Miotshwa within the channel and he played the ball inside to Mavali, who took a touch inside the box before drilling his left-footed shot into the left-hand corner from 16-yards.

“I mean it’s a disappointing goal for us personally to give away, probably a lack of concentration, communication between the two lads on our right-hand side but it’s a really good finish from their lad and from their point of view, it’s a well-worked goal as well,” added Welsh.

Hastings United grabbed the victory with 32 minutes and 6 seconds on the clock, with a controversial penalty awarded by referee Jack Smith.

He spotted that Tonbridge Angels’ left-back Noah Millis had fouled Hastings’ winger Archie Baker just inside the corner of the penalty area in an off-the-ball incident, as the ball was played through the penalty area and into the right-channel.

Mavali sent Norburn the wrong way, by clinically placing his right-footed penalty into the bottom right-hand corner.

Welsh said: “I’m going to sit on the fence on this one.  I saw it and I’m not sure about it yet sometimes when players try to get in front of players they put their arm across and I felt at the time that the lad may have gone down a bit softly.

“The linesman (Samuel Girt) didn’t flag, he was quite close to it, which sometimes indicates that he didn’t have a good view but the referee is the man in charge and he’s given it, so we just have to get on with it.”

The two goals knocked the stuffing out of the home side and Hastings once again lost the ball by playing out from the back with Palmer the guilty party but Richardson failed to capitalise, taking a touch before stroking a right-footed drive towards the bottom right-hand corner, which was comfortably held by Howes, low to his left.

“I think it’s a little bit of the story of the evening, comfortable save for the goalkeeper, locked into his midriff,” added Welsh.

“There’s no excuses from us but we’re missing a natural number nine today. Our normal number nine  (Harry Barton) was concussed from Thursday evening so couldn’t play.

“Callum’s done a great job up front today, he’s worked really, really hard but number nine’s have that natural instinct of finding the net and not having that, it's no excuses from us because we created enough but on another night someone with a real striker’s instinct might just get us through.”

Welsh was asked for his thoughts going into the interval.

“Interestingly, it was more of the same. Don’t get too frustrated. We felt in that 10-minute period of conceding the two goals we lost a bit of control with our own game. We got a little bit flustered with what the other team were doing and as a team we like to try to control the game, dictate the tempo of the game and we lost a little bit of that.

“So at half-time it was kind of settle the game down, try to make more passes to get the rhythm a little bit, which when we came out I felt we did and we nullified a lot of their threat by looking after the ball a little bit better.

“We spoke about getting more bodies in the box, which I’m not sure whether we did, we’ll watch it back and we’ll have a look.”

Tonbridge Angels created their first opening of the second half (4:46) when Pritchard’s hooked pass released Grant, who cut inside Hastings central midfielder Oliver MacDonald before space opened up but the impressive right-back’s dink from 25-yards was comfortably gathered by the busier of the two goalkeepers.

Hastings United left two players back (MacDonald and Miotshwa) for their third corner of the night just before the hour-mark.

Mavali swung the ball in from the right, the ball was cleared out to MacDonald, who drilled his left-footed drive harmlessly wide of the right-hand post from 30-yards, with plenty of bodies in front of him.

Norburn shouted ‘keepers’ and failed to gather Mavali’s fourth corner of the night from the left and Hastings’ centre-half Jack Freeman steered his header past the near-post.

Grant charged down the right and reached the channel before cutting a low cross into the box but left-winger Ollie Thompson lacked composure inside the box and swept his shot past the foot of the right-hand post.

Grant, who has pace to burn, was the stand-out performer for Tonbridge Angels tonight until his was forced off in the 81^st minute with an injury to his left calf.

The impressive 17-year-old right-back - who has two caps for Bermuda's under 20s - would benefit by continuing his football education by being loaned out to either Tunbridge Wells or Rusthall (Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division) or Crowborough Athletic (Southern Combination Premier Division) in the ninth-tier of English football - but on tonight's performance he may be playing in the higher divisions in the future.

“Nayan’s a good lad, he’s direct, he’s really athletic and he was a real threat down that right-hand side tonight,” said Welsh.

“Nayan’s got a really good future ahead of him, If he can implement some better decision making at times in his game but he’s got all of the attributes to be at a really good decent level, full-back/wing-back, he impacted the game well tonight.”

However, the decision to hook Hastings centre-half Freeman in the 67^th minute to bring on Lennon Powell to play him at right-back and switch Clifford from right-back to partner Palmer at the heart of defence gave the home side the momentum to dominate the remainder of the game.

Tonbridge Angels produced a slick three-man move in the final 17 minutes involving Gallacher and Pritchard, which saw the ball played inside to Alfie Gilder, the holding midfielder, who clipped the outside of the top of the far post from 35-yards.

“Without sounding like a broken record, it was that, it was frustrating,” said Welsh.

“Sometimes you come away from these games disappointed and feeling like you’ve not done enough but we feel like the only thing missing in that half is a little toe into the corner, coming off someone’s knee to go in or something like that, it didn’t fall tonight.

“Again, on another night, it hits the other side of the post and ends up in the net.”

The Angels kept knocking on the door and sixteen-year-old substitute Robert Penham played the ball into the centre to fellow substitute Ashton Lucas, who swept the ball towards the unmarked Pritchard, who drilled his first time right-footed volley past the near-post from the corner of the six-yard box, as another example of lacking composure inside the box when it really mattered.

Mavali was not much of a threat during the second half but he exploded into life on the counter-attack, beating three players (centre-halves William Brett, Gallacher and right-back Grant) before cutting onto his right-foot and trying to curl his shot into the top far corner from 18-yards, only for Norburn to make a comfortable save.

“Firstly, I thought their 11 (Mavali) was a very good player. I thought he caused us lots of problems, especially in the first half.  We nullified it a little bit second half but when you’re pushing for goals towards the end, you’re always going to leave yourself vulnerable,” added Welsh.

“It was a good, comfortable save from Andrew, who has been on the bench for (Isthmian League South East Division side) Sevenoaks Town and he’s now the number two goalkeeper for our first team here and he’s been on the bench in the last couple of weeks as well.”

Central midfielder Adam Larkin was pushed up front as Tonbridge Angels played an attacking 4-1-2-1-2 formation but they lacked the quality in front of goal to force a penalty shoot-out.

Seventeen-year-old Hastings goalkeeper Howes got down smartly low to his right and used a strong right-hand to turn Pritchard’s angled drive around his near-post after the winger cut into the box from the left (43:30).

“Again, a good opportunity, a really good opportunity and I think that one, If I’m right, came from our hard-work of winning the ball back and being aggressive, pressing,” said Welsh.

“He possibly maybe could’ve looked up and squared it across the goal but I’ll probably have to watch that one back, without being too critical of Fiachra but he’s hit it well and the goalkeeper’s made a solid enough save.”

When asked whom of his squad are knocking on Saunders’ first-team door, Welsh replied: “We’re really lucky here. Jay gives good opportunities in training so quite a lot of the lads on show tonight have trained with the first team and ultimately it’s up to them when they get there to prove that they are good enough and they can hold their own.

“We’ve got a lot of lads out at the moment at other clubs. Our captain tonight Adam Larkin has been really good for Crowborough Athletic so for these lads trying to get to that next step, there’s a big gap between under 18 football and our first team so it’s about trying to bridge that gap with dual-registrations/loans to try to make sure that when thy do step up, they’re really.”

When asked what his side will get out of tonight’s FA Youth Cup outing in front of 96 fans, Welsh replied: “Loads of learning. I mean ultimately tonight and tomorrow they’ll be disappointed.  Once we go through the footage with them of where we could be a little bit better I think learning is key at this age.

“Winning is great and we want to win and we teach lads having that winning mentality because in men’s football that’s what you need but they’re here to learn, so the little bits that didn’t quite fall for us, the goals we conceded, we work with them to make sure that they don’t happen again and next week we try to finish off some of the good moves that we created.”

Tonbridge Angels: Andrew Norburn, Nayan Grant (Colin Drake 81), Noah Millis, Alfie Gilder, William Brett, Jack Gallacher, Ollie Thompson (Ashton Lucas 74), Adam Larkin, Callum Fincham (Robert Penham 67), Mackenzie Richardson (Teddy Cooney 64), Fiachra Pritchard.
Subs: Max O’Neill, Joshua Hanson, Ashvir Banwait

Goal: Harry Howes 9 (own goal)

Booked: Teddy Cooney 77

Hastings United: Harry Howes, Joe Clifford, Tyrone Miotshwa, Harry Thompson (Rian Varghese 90), Ollie Palmer, Jack Freeman (Lennon Powell 67), Arsham Mavali, Oliver MacDonald, Seb Kane (Taylor Field 84), Charlie Scarles, Archie Baker.
Subs: Logan Woodhurst, Roman Spats

Goals: Arsham Mavali 25, 33 (penalty)

Booked: Lennon Powell 85

Attendance: 96
Referee: Mr Jack Smith
Assistants: Mr Byron Beard & Mr Samuel Girt