Tonbridge Angels 1-7 Charlton Athletic - It's just an embarrasing end to our season, admits Warrilow

TONBRIDGE ANGELS  1-7  CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Kent Senior Cup (sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com) Final
Wednesday 1^st May 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Longmead Stadium

TONBRIDGE ANGELS boss Tommy Warrilow says he feels embarrassed and angry after his side capitulated to Charlton Athletic, who walked off with the Kent Senior Cup for the first time in eighteen years.

Tonbridge Angels last won this competition 38 years ago when they won it for only the second time in their history, although they went down to a defeat to Bromley in the 2007 Final at Hayes Lane.

But Charlton Athletic were given more of a tougher test by Ryman League trio Chatham Town, Herne Bay and Thamesmead Town en-route to this year’s final, eased to a clinical 7-1 demolition in front of the Angels’ largest crowd of the season.

It was the most one-sided Kent Senior Cup Final since Welling United (Conference South) beat Whitstable Town (Ryman League Division One South) 6-1 at Park View Road on 16 April 2009.

Charlton Athletic took twelve minutes to open the floodgates when Jordan Cook bundled the ball over the line from close range, before the title-winning development side doubled their lead only 67 seconds later when striker Michael Smith scored the first of his four goals.

Irish central defender, Kevin Feeley glanced home a third from their only corner of the game to give Charlton Athletic a comfortable 3-0 lead going into the break.

Tonbridge Angels’ produced a fight-back which lasted three minutes when attacker Mark Lovell scored his eleventh-goal of the season, but then the game went downhill for the home fans in the 806 crowd.

Warrilow described his side’s woeful second half defending as “schoolboy” as Smith, who has been out on loan to Accrington Stanley and Colchester United this season, helped himself to a second half hat-trick and even Sonny Miles got in on the act by scoring an own goal.

The Angels completed their Conference South campaign in sixteenth-place, only just beating the drop in their penultimate game of the season, but tonight’s defeat clearly hurt Warrilow.

He said: “I’m embarrassed mate really – 7-1 is ridiculous!  I don’t want to punch holes in it all. Charlton are a good professional side, knocked it about well but we seemed to lose our discipline. 

“The goals that we’ve let in tonight a lot of them are ridiculous schoolboy defending. I think we’ve given three in the second half through back-passes.

“I’m not saying that we deserved anything out of the game, but I didn’t expect us to go out and finish the season like that!

“It’s not a pre-season game. It’s 30 years’ since we’ve won something and I’m sure that will get drummed around us, but it was embarrassing at the end because some of the goals we’ve let in we’re schoolboy errors.”

Charlton Athletic arrived in Kent as under 21 development league division two champions, and the gulf in class in front of goal was clearly evident.

Tonbridge Angels created a couple of early openings, which they didn’t take and got punished for it.

Striker Frannie Collin picked the ball up before bursting past three defenders to reach the by-line close to the corner flag, before whipping in a cross for target-man Mikel Suarez, but he couldn’t direct the ball goalwards whilst being under pressure from Charlton right-back Harry Osborne and visiting keeper Nick Pope gathered the loose ball.

But the Conference South side squandered an excellent chance to take the lead inside the opening six minutes when central midfielder David Ijaha picked up a loose ball, cut the ball on to the right foot and stroked a right-footed drive from 25-yards, which bounced once into Pope’s gloves.

But Charlton Athletic proved the difference between full-time and semi-professional football by almost scoring every time they ventured forward.

Charlton Athletic opened the scoring inside 12 minutes through a cleverly taken free-kick routine, which left Warrilow speechless afterwards.

Morgan Fox stroked a free-kick to the right-hand side of the wall to free Bradley Jordan down the right and his low centre flashed across the face of goal for Cook to turn in from close range.

A clearly cheesed off Warrilow said: “Are we going to go through all of them? No! I’m not going to go through them all there! Just bad goals! I’m not going to go through all seven of them!”

Charlton Athletic doubled their lead when left-back Fox played the ball up field and striker Joe Pigott – who had a successful loan spell with Bromley towards the back end of 2012 – headed the ball down across goal and Smith drilled a right-footed half-volley past Worgan from fourteen-yards.

Tonbridge Angels kept hold of the ball and created a decent chance in the 25^th minute.

Ijaha played the ball out to Nathan Green on the left and he whipped in a cross into the penalty area for Ollie Schulz to make a untracked run into the box to send a towering header towards goal, which forced Pope to back-peddle to catch the ball above his head.

Charlton Athletic scored their third goal in the 27^th minute to kill the game off, following their only corner of the game.

The only thing Tonbridge Angels won all night was the corner count – 10 to 1.

Fox cracked a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which deflected on its way past the far post and trotted over to take the resulting corner from the right. He swung teHehe corner swung in towards the near post and Feely’s glancing header sailed towards the far post and crossed the line despite Henry Muggeridge’s desperate attempt to clear the ball off the line.

Muggeridge, who had a trial with Charlton Athletic in the summer before joining Tonbridge Angels, has scooped the club’s supporters’ player-of-the-year award.

“I’ll be honest, I couldn’t have named one this year because I think everyone’s been hit and miss,” admitted Warrilow.

“If you went through the crowd and asked eight or nine people you’d probably get five or six different scenarios so I think that’s the root of the problem. We’ve not really had no-one consistently performing on a week-to-week basis.”

Tonbridge Angels’ 21-goal striker Collin, a former professional at Gillingham, forced himself into the penalty area before hitting a right-footed drive, which was blocked by Fox at the near post, before a Lee Browning’s cross from the left was flicked towards goal by Lovell, which deflected off Feely and looped narrowly over for a corner.

It may have been men against boys – but the boys came out on top!

Warrilow made a change at the break and introduced Ollie Bankole into the game, switching Miles to right-back, Muggeridge on the right wing and Lovell up front with Collin.

Tonbridge Angels pulled a goal back within 109 seconds into the half – a goal that turned out to be a consolation.

Browning swung in a corner from the left which was cleared out to Tom Davis on the edge of the penalty area.  The midfielder played a clever pass to release Bankole in behind the defence and the youngster took a couple of touches before dragging his shot across the face of goal with his third before Lovell slid in at the far post to stab the ball over the line from three-yards.

Warrilow said: “We started the second half brilliantly, but then we gave them a goal to make it 4-1!

“At 3-1 you think brilliant, we’ve got one straight away. We’ve had another couple of chances but then they’ve got the fourth goal.

“A good start to the second half. Not being funny, how long was that for? Three minutes and they went up the other end and got the fourth which gave them a three-goal cushion.”

However, any hopes for a lifeline vanished when Charlton Athletic regained their three-goal lead in the 50^th minute.

Cook’s cross from the right fell to Pigott, whose low right-footed shot was blocked by Worgan’s feet, diving low to his left at his near post, but Tonbridge fell asleep in the second phase.

Moments later, Pigott retrieved the ball down the left and whipped in the ball and with his back to goal Smith turned and rifled a first time shot into the top far corner.

Muggeridge fed the ball to Ijaha who whipped in a cross into the box, which was dummied by Lovell at the near post for Bankole to hit a first time right-footed shot, which screamed agonisingly wide of the far post from 12-yards.

Muggeridge then cut the ball back but Bankole lacked composure and lashed a first time shot high and wide with his right-foot.

Charlton Athletic had a goal ruled out for offside when Jordan Cousins’ bullet header straight down the middle of the pitch was latched onto by substitute Ade Azeez, who finished well, but the offside flag saved the Angels.

Tonbridge Angels then fell apart as dominant Charlton Athletic went for the kill.

Fox’s hanging cross from the left was dropped by Worgan and Smith took a touch before rolling a right-footed shot towards goal but Schulz was well positioned to clear the ball away from inside the six-yard box.

Charlton Athletic’s fifth-goal arrived in the 73^rd minute when Ijaha committed footballing suicide with a horrendous back pass which gifted possession to Smith, who won the ball before an exposed Worgan on the edge of his box, before hooking a right-footed half-volley into the empty net.

The only player in a blue shirt that can come out of tonight’s game was the ever-willing Bankole, who attempted a diving header to meet Muggeridge’s cross from the right, but only just failed to make contact with the ball.

Warrilow agreed and said: “Ollie’s done brilliant for us. I said to the boys in there, all the lads that have won this and done this and played that, he’s come into the last two games with no ego at all and we’ve got a kid there who has showed them how to perform tonight.”

Charlton Athletic made it 6-1 in the final twelve minutes, by which time the home faithful had seen enough of a painful end to their side’s campaign.

Smith found himself on the by-line and drilled in a corner towards the edge of the six-yard box where Miles sliced his clearance over his head and the ball looped past Worgan into the near corner.

Charlton made it seven in the final two minutes when another horrific backpass, this time by Miles was latched onto by man-of-the-match Smith who dinked the ball past the advancing Worgan, sprinted around him before slamming his right-footed shot into the empty net from two-yards.

Warrilow was full of praise for four-goal hero Smith, who worked well with Pigott throughout.

“The two boys up front, we knew about the boy Pigott (from his time at Bromley), but I thought they were a handful tonight. They worked well together, scored goals, good finishes as well.

“Some of my boys want to be pros and I’ve told them these boys are not even in first team’s anywhere and that’s the level you’ve got to try to get to and they’re in every day (training) doing it so I expected people to be like that.

“I’ve got a lot of time for Charlton, they’re good people down there. They’ve got some good youngsters there, which we’ve obviously made a note off tonight.”

Referee Paul Kelly appeared to take pity on Tonbridge Angels and blew the final whistle without playing a single second of injury time.

Warrilow said: “I don’t want to go through all seven because all seven, no disrespect, I’m trying to think of a well-worked one. They’re all long ball and a second ball and a free header and three back-passes. It just beggers belief. We didn’t deserve nothing out of the game. It’s just embarrassing to finish off the season with a result like that!

“It does matter to me tonight! I’m embarrassed about the result and I’m not happy with the lads but that’s it now. I won’t see them again, perhaps that’s a good thing for them!”

A reflective Warrilow admitted his side let down their fans on a bitterly disappointing night – especially surrendering the trophy to a club outside of the county.

He said: “We didn’t give them a lot to cheer about.  What can you say? We’ve had a disappointing season. We’ve stayed up, which is great, but like I said to you the other week, I don’t want to go through football seasons and end up on a 7-1 drubbing in a cup final and turn round and say yes we stayed up. That’s not acceptable or good enough for me.”

Charlton Athletic lifted the Kent Senior Cup in only their second season back in the competition and must take credit for taking it seriously. 

Warrilow now starts to decide which players will be released and retained ahead of the club’s third season in Conference South.

Striker Collin has been linked with their league rivals Sutton United, while there’s speculation that Miles could join Kent League neighbours Tunbridge Wells.

When asked whether Collin will stay at the club for next season, Warrilow replied, “I’ve got to speak to Fran. I don’t know. There’s a few of them that I’ve got to speak to.  We’ve spoken to a few boys. We’ll be perusing that over the next couple of weeks or so. I’m sure there will be clubs interested like every year in the lads. When you have a poor year the vultures swoop so people might go.

“It’s not been a very enjoyable season, but it’s one you learn from. I’ve learnt a lot this year and I’ve learnt a lot again tonight – you never stop learning!”

Tonbridge Angels: Lee Worgan, Henry Muggeridge, Nathan Green, Lee Browning, Ollie Schulz, Sonny Miles, Mark Lovell (Danny Walder 86), David Ijaha, Mikel Suarez (Ollie Bankole 46), Frannie Collin, Tom Davis (Aaron Gayle 77).
Subs:  Matt Harden, Brett Milham

Goal: Mark Lovell 47

Charlton Athletic: Nick Pope, Harry Osborne, Morgan Fox, Semi Ajayi, Kevin Feeley, Jordan Cousins, Bradley Jordan, Courtney Harris, Jordan Cook, Michael Smith, Joe Pigott.

Goals: Jordan Cook 12, Michael Smith 14, 50, 73, 88, Kevin Feely 27, Sonny Miles 78 (own goal)

Booked: Bradley Jordan 34

Attendance: 806
Referee:  Mr Paul Kelly (Walderslade)
Assistants:  Mr Kevin Walsh (Sittingbourne) & Mr Daniel Bonnywell (Herne Bay)
Fourth Official: Mr Constantine Hatizdakis (Bromley)