Tunbridge Wells 1-3 Kingstonian - I'm certainly disappointed that we've let three goals of that nature in, however, I do accept you can't be gift-wrapping things for him, says Tunbridge Wells boss Steve Ives

Tunbridge Wells 1 – 3 Kingstonian
Location	Culverden Stadium, Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9SG
Kickoff	22/08/2026 15:00

TUNBRIDGE WELLS  1-3  KINGSTONIAN
The Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round
Saturday 22 August 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Culverden Stadium

FRUSTRATED Tunbridge Wells manager Steve Ives says his players cannot gift-wrap goals for a striker in the calibre of Eddie Simon, who has scored back-to-back FA Cup hat-tricks for Isthmian League powerhouse Kingstonian.

Tunbridge Wells reached the First Qualifying Round for the first time in four years after their 1-0 win at Godalming Town, while Sott Harris’s Isthmian League South Central big-hitters thrashed Hastings United 4-1 at Short Lane, Stanwell.

Simon, 30, who scored 10 goals down the road for National League South side Tonbridge Angels last season, will not score an easier hat-trick than he did during the first half at Culverden Stadium today, with goalkeeper George Bentley on the verge of being dropped by Ives for his awful, costly first half performance.

Tunbridge Wells kept plugging away in the second half and pulled a goal back through attacker Rhys Bartlett, who notched his second goal of the season.

Kingstonian went into the tie sitting in thirteenth-place in the eighth-tier Isthmian League South Central Division table, having been held to a couple of draws by AFC Portchester (0-0) and Ascot United (3-3).

Tunbridge Wells sat in fourth-place in the ninth-tier Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table, having been held to a 3-3 draw at home to Faversham Strike Force, before losing 3-1 at Larkfield & New Hythe and then thrashing Chislehurst Glebe 6-0 on Tuesday night.

“We’re playing a team from the League above who beat Hastings 4-1 in the previous round, so I think we’ve got to be realistic about what our expectations should’ve been,” said Ives.

“We came here full of confidence after an exceptionally good performance on Tuesday at home to Glebe and the game prior to Glebe we played Larkfield away, where we basically gifted Larkfield three goals and to be honest if felt like déjà vu in that respect even in the manner of the goals was very similar.

“As I said to the boys after that game, you’re fighting an uphill battle if you’re going to let three goals in, in any game of football.

“Now credit where it’s due, Kingstonian have got a very, very good forward line but I just think the chances we gave them were unforgivable really.”

Kind of added insult to injury that the hat-trick hero is a former Tonbridge Angels footballer, who showed a gulf in class between the two teams.

“I wouldn’t say he’s had to work particularly hard for two of them. Fair play to him. You’ve got a guy of that calibre in your front line, you’re going to expect him to take eight out of 10 chances, whereas in the second half, we’ve had numerous good opportunities to put the second one back and our finishing hasn’t been anywhere near as ruthless as his. Maybe there’s something to be said about that as well,” added Ives.

But Kingstonian’s goalkeeper George Hill was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers, making five saves while Bentley conceded three of the six shots that he faced and the finger of blame will point firmly in the direction of the under-fire 25-year-old goalkeeper.

Ninth-tier Tunbridge Wells had a couple of entries into the Kingstonian penalty area but they switched off defensively, as Kingstonian grabbed their lead with their first attempt on goal, with five minutes and 16 seconds on the clock.

Assistant referee Thomas Webb bizarrely waved his flag despite Tunbridge Wells wide striker Regan Corke being inside his own half at the time of receiving the ball (after initially starting inside the K’s half) but referee Benjamin McDonald waved play on.

The ball was worked to impressive winger Stan Flaherty, who was played in behind Tunbridge Wells’ right-back Jerome Wilson and put it on a plate for Simon, to rifle his first time shot into the roof of the net from inside the six-yard box, as the two Tunbridge Wells centre-halves Lennon Minihane and Tommy Penfold failed to track his run.

“I think we’ve obviously ball-watched. That goal is not that clear in my mind if I’m honest but it just seemed like a player in blue had way too much space in our box,” admitted Ives.

“That one really of the three, it just felt like we haven’t marked in the box and that was pretty much the crux of that one but to be letting goals in that early, it’s just not what you want is it?”

Tunbridge Wells striker Hayden Marshall put in a low cross from within the left-channel towards the near-post where Jamie Splatt (who plays on the left of three centre-halves) slammed the door shut to deny Regan Corke (11:22).

Kingstonian were gifted their second goal with 11 minutes and 44 seconds on the clock, through Sunday League goalkeeping from Bentley.

The hapless goalkeeper raced out of his penalty area like a headless chicken, had time to drill the ball out of the stadium and into the adjacent school.

But Bentley gave it to Simon on a plate, who couldn’t believe his luck, curling his right-footed shot into the bottom far corner of an open goal from 30-yards.

“Yes, I don’t even think it’s worth talking about the finish there, it’s just an individual error from Bents, isn’t it?,” replied Ives.

“I don’t want to crucify him but also it’s a mistake we have seen before recently.

“On these rock hard pitches it is hard for goalkeeper’s. I get it. If they’re making decisions to come out of their box, which generally speaking we do ask them to do, so I’m not unaware of the fact that it’s difficult but it almost felt like he had plenty of time to deal with that one as well but that’s the thing.  If it’s a split second decision anyone can make a mistake but it did feel like he had a little bit more time to sort of deal with the situation but look yes, it’s exactly the same as Larkfield, we’re like 2-0 down in 15-odd minutes without them really having to work particularly hard for it.

“It was absolutely déjà vu of the Larkfield game, which bear in mind how good we were on Tuesday and how solid we looked and Glebe are not a bad side by the way.  They played pretty well but we just looked determined to not make a mistake or gift a chance whereas unfortunately you’re not going to keep being left off the hook and they have been ruthless.

“I don’t know how many shots on target they had in that first half. It didn’t feel a lot more than three and they have scored three goals.

“I thought their front three were very, very good, very good and quite clearly the plan is to get it to them as quickly as possible and I don’t blame them whatsoever and that forward line is a cut above everything we’ve come up against, even in pre-season.”

With former Crowborough Athletic goalkeeper Cameron Hall sitting on the bench, Ives was asked whether it’s time for a change in the orange jersey.

“I think you have to keep your options open.  Anybody who is absolutely nailed on guaranteed to have any shirt one to 11 has got to be playing out of their skin game in game out.

“I think if your strikers weren’t scoring, you’d probably change it around wouldn’t you? If your defenders were just consistently making the same mistake…

“We keep a spreadsheet of every goal we concede and we have a column where we show how the goal went in, what position on the pitch it happened from, who was primary accountable and who was secondary accountable and we do look.  You can obviously sort a spreadsheet and if we can see a trend developing, we deal with it.

“I’m not going to sit here now and make any statements but I’m just going to say that we have to keep our eyes open and we have to keep our minds open to that fact if people are struggling, any position, you possibly rotate things, wouldn’t you?”

Kingstonian were a threat down the right with right-wing-back Arsen Ujkaj often linking up well with Flaherty as Tunbridge Wells left-back Muiz Alaka put in a poor performance to prevent the regular raids down his side.

Ujkaj had the quality to switch the play to pick out an unmarked Jordan Gallagher, the run from the left-wing-back was not picked up by Tunbridge Wells’ right-back Wilson but Bentley dived to his left to parry the shot to prevent Kingstonian increasing their lead while kicking down the slope.

Simon spun Tunbridge Wells’ holding midfielder Matthrew Dunmall on the half-way line before drilling a long diagonal out to Flaherty, who cut inside Alaka and laid the ball inside to Joel Brown, who drilled his first-time left-footed drive over the crossbar from inside the D during Kingstonian’s spell of dominance.

As if the second goal was bad enough, the woeful Bentley almost gifted Kingstonian their third goal with 24:19 on the clock.

Bentley rushed out of the corner of his penalty area in another head-loss and allowed the outstanding Flaherty to use his left-boot to chip the ball towards the centre of the goal and Bentley was relieved to see the ball only just clear the crossbar.

Tunbridge Wells adopted SIANBall as Wilson launched 11 long throws into the Kingstonian penalty area and visiting goalkeeper Hill was forced into making a diving save (28:46) following Wilson’s fourth long throw.

The ball skimmed off the head of Kingstonian centre-half Darryl Siaw at the near post and Hill dived to his left to push away from inside a crowded penalty area.

“You’ve got to use it, if you’ve got it, haven’t you,” came Ives’ reply about using the long throw on 11 occasions.

“It hasn’t always been effective.  The only problem of having a long throw is you send all the big boys up, is if you don’t get the first header on it, if they get a big strong header before you know it, you’re getting counter-attacked from your own set-piece and were having the same problem with our corner when you don’t clear the first man, so it’s not like it’s some lethal weapon but it can be affective.

“It caused a bit of chaos on Tuesday, so we’ll use it spare. What I don’t want it to become is every single time everybody knows what’s going to happen because then it’s just predictable, so we just have got to learn how to mix it up and when to use it.”

if I had my way I would ban footballers from using their hands to launch the ball into the penalty area – It’s called FOOTball after all!

Bartlett then played a left-footed reverse pass into central midfielder Rory Ward, who had his big moment (29:35) but he lacked composure just inside the penalty area and lashed his left-footed drive high over the crossbar.

The momentum was still with Tunbridge Wells and Marshall and Corke linked up inside the final third and Bartlett’s left-footed drive was beaten away by a diving Hill, as the Kent side looked on course of pulling a goal back.

“You need one to go in, don’t you, to give you a chance,” admitted Ives.

“I wouldn’t say we had a clear-cut absolute sitter in the first half but we were chipping away, we were asking questions. Their keeper was being called upon. There were a few times when they were throwing bodies in and around to sort of protect their goal, as they should do and they were quite good at that to be fair.

“Defensively, maybe not the most mobile but actually pretty solid and pretty resolute and pretty close connected.”

Ward skipped past Joel Brown and fed Bartlett, but he lacked quality close to the penalty spot and his weak shot rolled through to Hill who picked up.

Kingstonian, meanwhile, weathered the storm and Brown switched the ball out to Gallagher on the counter-attack – as Wilson went missing defensively – and Gallagher cut inside and curled his shot around the top of the far post from 25-yards (42:53).

Kingstonian grabbed a match winning third goal with 43 minutes and 39 seconds on the clock.

Splatt used the outside of his foot from inside his own half to hit a long ball, which split open some poor defending from Tunbridge Wells centre-half Lennon Minihane to put Simon through.  The striker easily skipped past the advancing Bentley and held his composure to slot his right-footed shot into the empty goal for the easiest hat-trick of his career and taking his tally up to seven goals for the season.

“One to have another look back at that,” admitted Ives.

“Number one, the timing of it is gutting. You’re kind of thinking at 2-0 down the next goal is going to be absolutely pivotal and if we can get into the changing room in that position and just put a little bit of confidence in the boys then anything could happen.

“That kinda dampens, it pi**es on your bonfire if I’m allowed to say that? The timing of that goal, I’d like to look at it back. I would suggest the cover round from the defence was not fantastic but I personally think Bents could probably come and deal with that, personally.”

Wilson launched his seventh long throw into the Kingstonian penalty area, the ball was flicked on at the near-post by Penfold, Hill clawed the ball away and Alaka stuck out his leg in an attempt to hook the ball into the far corner, only for it to deflect wide.

“We went in at half-time and we said to the boys with the exception of those moments (Simon scoring three goals), I felt generally like we probably played better football but ultimately you’re losing 3-0, so how can you possibly play the better football?” said Ives.

“But I actually thought we moved the ball more consistently and with more intent than them, they just played off our mistakes but that’s legitimate. Like, fair play to them, I’ve pretty much said the same thing. You could almost take my Larkfield post-match comments and run that, it’s almost the same thing.

“We said at half-time, we have had times where we’ve scored three goals in a half before – we done it on Tuesday, so it’s not impossible and it was just vitally important we scored the next one, which we did.”

Despite being bashed for his first half performance, Bentley showed character to perform at the required level after the interval.

Splatt’s right-footed switched diagonal over to Flaherty down the right and he played the ball inside to Brown, whose right-footed drive was kept out by a diving Bentley just 176 seconds into the second half.

Penfold ventured forward out of his central defensive birth and played a big role in Tunbridge Wells pulling a goal back with 12 minutes and 20 seconds on the clock.

Attacking midfielder Elliot Oviawe played a one-two with Penfold inside the Kingstonian half seconds before the decisive finish.

Penfold then slipped the ball along the deck towards a crowd of players on the edge of the Kingstonian penalty area.

Alaka drilled a low left-footed drive towards the bottom left-hand corner, the ball bouncing off the turf before Hill dived to his right to parry and the ball fell kindly for Bartlett to sweep his left-footed shot into the back of the net from the rebound to give his home-town club hope.

“We dd score the next one and actually I thought there was a spell where we were looking pretty good value to get the second,” said Ives.

“I feel like it was well-deserved at that point.  Listening to their dug-out, they certainly were starting to feel a little bit anxious, I think and if we hadn’t scored a goal today, it would’ve been massively disappointing based on the balance of play.

“I’m actually really disappointed we didn’t score more than one based on the balance of play and I’m certainly disappointed that we’ve let three goals of that nature in.

“However, I do accept if you’ve got a guy (Simon) of that quality playing centre forward you can’t be gift-wrapping things for him.”

Wilson’s penultimate long throw was cleared out to Bartlett, who knocked the ball back into the penalty area with his head and the ball was cleared out to Ward, who was left unmarked inside the penalty area bit his left-footed half-volley flashed past the near post from 15-yards.

Tunbridge Wells missed a glorious chance to pull a second goal back (24:38) when Corke rolled a crossfield pass in from the right which went behind Siaw (who plays on the right of the three central defenders) and Marshall had his big moment when latching onto the rolling pass.

One-on-one with the advancing keeper, Mitchell smacked his left-footed shot into Hill’s face after the keeper rushed out towards the edge of his penalty area.

“Hayden’s chance, when he’s hit the goalie in the face. Hayden’s probably tried to be a little bit too clever. He’s a 19-year-old forward, he’s scored in every game he’s played for me so far, so I can’t be too critical,” said Ives.

“Reg has slotted it between their left-centre-half, Hayden’s run off his shoulder, he’s got there before. The keeper’s come out, made himself as big as he can. He’s took one in his face for his troubles. It was a big moment.”

Kingstonian also had their one-on-one chance when substitute attacking midfielder sub Kavell Buckmaster played in Gallagher, whose left-footed dink was comfortably caught by Bentley at head-height (31:23).

“I remember that one and again he recovered. Let’s credit where it’s due, he did make a couple of good saves in the second half.  He kept his clean sheet. I thought his distribution was good, so yes, it’s not all about trying to go in hard on someone because anybody can have a bad 45 minutes in life. It’s how you respond to it and he did respond well.”

Tunbridge Wells had a go – the damage was done in the first half – and Splatt firmly shut the door in Corke’s face.

“Reg was relatively quiet. He’s put that one across for Hayden, which would’ve given him an assist (had he scored).  Jamie Splatt’s a good player,” said Ives.

“It’s interesting, we’re kind of assessing this game and I guess it feels like it’s a game we could’ve won and it feels like you’re kind of interviewing me as if it’s a game we could’ve or should’ve won, where as we do have to be realistic and accept the fact it’s Kingstonian, a big football club, a league above.

“I think the fact that we’re just not all walking away and going ‘oh well, we were expected to get tonked’ shows that there is some potential here but for their point of view, they’ll just put this one behind them and never think about us again and go onto the next round, so good luck to them.”

Kingstonian should have scored (44:01) when Simon switched the ball out to Flaherty on the right, who played Brown on the overlap before putting it on a plate for Flaherty, who pulled his left-footed shot past the right-hand post from 19-yards.

Tunbridge Wells substitute left-winger sub Albert Osigwe skipped past goalkeeper Hill and Joe Smith on the edge of the Kingstonian box, before cutting the ball back for Corke, whose shot was charged down and Ward took too many touches to dig the ball out from under his feet and his shot was comfortably gathered by Hill down on his knees before the referee called time on Tunbridge Wells’ FA Cup campaign for another season, having banked £1,606 in prize money.

“I think it’s the first time we’ve got past the Extra Prelim in the time that I’ve been here, so I guess it’s not particularly big but it’s a little feather in my hat,” said Ives.

“It’s earned the club a few quid. Kingstonian have brought a decent amount of people today, so hopefully commercially it’s been a successful day.

“I think any Wells’ supporters that were here will probably share the frustration of me but also see the positives – it’s a very young side with six teenagers finishing the game.”

ives was without Jack Gallagher (holiday), Ollie Hyland (holiday), George Francis (broken foot), while Ryan Hine left the subs bench despite playing with a pulled hamstring.

Ives takes his side to Ashford next Saturday to play Dan Scorer’s Kennington, before the Rocks derby against Rusthall at Culverden Stadium takes place on Bank Holiday Monday, 31 May (both kicking off at 15:00).

Kennington came away from Larkfield & New Hythe with a 4-1 away win in the only League game played in the division today.

Bearsted (six points from two games), Petts Wood & Holmesdale (six points from two), Larkfield & New Hythe (six points from four games), Kennington (five points from three games) and Tunbridge Wells make up the top five tonight.

“I’m looking forward to seeing Dan. I think he’s an absolute top guy, one of the managers I’ve got the most respect for in our league because every year he’s got to work with limited resources and every year he puts competitive sides out.

“I’m not really looking forward to playing them because they’re a hard nut to crack but from our point of view it’s another game, there’s three points at stake. Why shouldn’t we go and compete for them? It’s as simple as that.

“I know what you’re going to ask me next. And then the derby comes. I think the only problem with it being on a Monday, as much as it’s good. They’ll hopefully get a good turnout, hopefully the weather will be good.

“It just feels like a bit when it’s on a Monday and you’ve played on the Saturday, you don’t really get preparation time because we’ve been preparing for Kennington because you have to play for the next game, so let’s be honest we’ll probably pick up a few injuries or sore legs or whatever, so you’re not really sure what sort of nick we’ll be in but it’s the same playing field for them.

“They’re always good occasions. I enjoy it. Most of the time the banter’s relatively light hearted and I’ve got a smile on my face.

“Quite a few of the boys who are with us now have played through Rusthall’s youth system as well, so it will be interesting.”

With this being the driest summer on record, a dessert of a pitch was expected but there was a lot of green grass on the pitch and Ives praised chairman Scott Bartlett for his investment in the playing surface during the close season.

“They’ve put a lot of money into the pitch and actually you go around and see a lot of pitches and I bet you were (expecting to see a dry hard brown pitch) and fair play, they’ve invested a significant amount, which I was ok with, instead of a playing budget, it’s gone on the pitch.  I haven’t got a  problem with that, it needed to be done.

“I said if we can stop games getting called off that will be a massive one for me.

“The club have helped me out a little bit. I’ve got a slightly bigger budget than last year.  The pitch, they’ve put some hard work into.  

“When I reflect back on last season, to finish tenth with half the budget we had the year before, I know it’s not all about pound notes but it flipping helps doesn’t it and even then we’ve had another summer where one of our best players in Chris Lawal has decided to go (to Rusthall).  Luckily, all of the others have stayed, which has given me a massive boost.

“I wrote down a team of players’ that have left since I’ve been manager - not because they wanted to leave but because of the financial side – it probably be a league winning side, so that’s hard to keep motivating yourself but the boys have stuck with it this year.

“Well, if tenth was a miracle, I don’t ever set out to do anything less than compete. Look, I’ll always tell you we want to compete with the play-offs. I think it’s a tighter league than last year, so for that reason why can’t we be in the mix  We’ve quite clearly got to be more consistent. We quite clearly can’t let three goals in often if we want to do that.

“We’re capable of beating anyone but we’re capable of beating ourselves and that’s one we’ve got to knock out of the armoury.”

Tunbridge Wells: George Bentley, Jerome Wilson, Muiz Alaka, Matthew Dunmall (Toby Crampton 86), Lennon Minihane, Tommy Penfold (Ryan Hine 75), Rhys Bartlett (Albert Osigwe 75), Rory Ward, Hayden Marshall (Ashton Marlyon-Chantler 77), Elliot Obiawe (Justin Somauroo 86), Regan Corke.
Sub: Cameron Hall

Goal: Rhys Bartlett 58

Kingstonian: George Hill, Arsen Ujkaj, Jordan Gallagher (Charlie Bland 77), Joe Smith, Jamie Splatt (Joe Pratley-Jones 90), Darryl Siaw (Bryan Edwards 77), Joel Brown, Reuben Duncan (Jamie Hilton 70), Eddie Simon, Sean O’Brien (Kavell Buckmaster 59), Stan Flaherty.
Subs: Rocky Williams, Jack Connors

Goals: Eddie Simon 6, 12, 44

Attendance: 243
Referee: Mr Benjamin McDonald
Assistants: Mr Thomas Webb & Mr Nathan Jones

Match Duration:
First Half: 47:03
Second Half: 49:56

Long throws into the opposing penalty area: 12
Jerome Wilson (Tunbridge Wells): 11
Jamie Splatt (Kingstonian) 1