Tunbridge Wells 0-0 Stansfeld - It wasn't comfortable, it wasn't pretty to watch, I don't think the people that were here have been well entertained but we're through to the last 128 of The FA Vase, says Tunbridge Wells boss Steve Ives

Tunbridge Wells 0 – 0 Stansfeld
Location	Culverden Stadium, Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9SG
Kickoff	10/10/2026 15:11

TUNBRIDGE WELLS  0-0  STANSFELD
(Tunbridge Wells win 3-1 on penalties)
The FA Vase First Round
Saturday 10 October 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Culverden Stadium

TUNBRIDGE WELLS manager Steve Ives says his side had to go back to basics and earn a clean sheet and brought in five new players to help him grab a place in the last 128 of The FA Vase despite a lacklustre performance.

Ives handed goalkeeper Cameron Hall, 27, his first start of the season, with George Bentley expected to be ruled out for three or four weeks due to an arm injury, while central defenders Oliver Palmer (Hastings United, dual-registration), Ryan Cheek (unattached), central midfielders Lynos Rwodzi (FC Revo, Kent County League Premier), Conor Morrow (Rotherfield, Mid Sussex League Premier), and striker Jeff Duah-Kessie (unattached) have all been brought in.

Stansfeld arrived at a sparse Culverden Stadium sitting in fifth-place in the tenth-tier Southern Counties East Football League First Division table with 17 points (five wins, two draws and three defeats) and with three consecutive wins.  They have lost one in their last eight and came away from Croydon with a 4-1 win last weekend.

Stansfeld beat Metropolitan Police 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw at Imber Court in The FA Vase Second Qualifying Round.

Tunbridge Wells, meanwhile, went into this First Round tie sitting in the bottom four of the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table with nine points (two wins, three draws and five defeats) and on a miserable run of one win in nine games across all competitions and without a win in their previous four (now one win in 10 as today’s result is classed as a draw).

Stansfeld rued some decent chances during the first half but only created two of their six chances on target and the four that they created in the second half were also off target.

Tunbridge Wells created three on target during the whole game, with two off target and it was evident very early on (halfway through the first half in fact) that this game would be settled by a penalty shoot-out.

This was Tunbridge Wells’ sixth penalty shoot-out in The FA Vase and they have now won four of them, while this was Stansfeld’s seventh, with their record now standing at four wins and three defeats.

Frederick Cray and five-goal striker Nana Kufour both missed for Stansfeld, so Tunbridge Wells scraped through 3-1 after seven penalties but the home side’s overall performance over the piece was a side that are scrapping for their lives in a relegation battle if their new players don’t swiftly click when they face promotion chasing trio Bearsted (away, 24 October), SE Dons (home, 7 November) and leaders Fisher (away, 14 November).

“Look, we lost heavily last week (5-1 at home to Phoenix Sports) and that had a serious negative impact on confidence.  You obviously came and watched us miss-fire against Thamesmead as well, so confidence has been low and we did go back to basics really,” explained Ives.

“We just got to be more difficult to score against so the clean sheet is a positive.  Obviously, we’d like to get the job done in 90 but I guess if you’re going to go any distance in the Vase, you’ve got to consider penalty-shoot-outs, so it’s good to get one in our back pocket early on.”

When asked about bringing in new fresh faces into his squad, Ives replied: “Well, basically we’ve got some very talented young lads and we’ve already seen some flashes of brilliance from most of them throughout he season. The problem we’ve had is some of our senior players, some of our core group, have been injured or missing for long periods and we’ve just felt as good as the youngsters are when there’s too many of them on the pitch together, particularly when things aren’t going our way, they have just haven’t got the experience to dig us out some of these holes. I really felt it was important to get some actual experience in.”

Stansfeld manager Billy Shinners added: “Very disappointed. We are the lower League side, however, I thought we showed lots of positives.  Penalties are a bit of a 50-50 chance. I don’t blame the guys for losing on penalties, however, I felt in the first half we should’ve won the game. We had enough chances to kill the game off.

“I’m feeling very frustrated because we’ve come off the back of three wins and today I thought it was another chance to really push on.

“The FA Vase is a great competition for momentum and it really does get your players psyched up the further you go in the competition, so yes disappointed.  Not disappointed with the guys who missed a penalty, more disappointed not taking our chances in the first half.”

There seemed to be more drama pre-match than during the actual game when Eastbourne based referee Owen Radley revealed upon his arrival that one of his assistants (Kirk Ritchie) had pulled his calf while officiating Roffey’s home FA Vase tie last night.

Mr Radley revealed he ‘called the FA Appointments Department three times and messaged them but didn’t receive a reply and left messages in WhatsApp Groups in both Sussex and Kent.’

Tunbridge Wells’ goalkeeper coach Alan Kibby, a qualified referee, who has done a ‘couple of SCEFL games’ and officiated in the West Kent Sunday League, the last time ‘three or four years ago’ offered his services as a ‘last resort’ which didn’t please the Stansfeld management team but were happy with the outcome.

Ives, meanwhile, revealed he messaged a Tunbridge Wells’ based qualified referee Emily Bowen, who arrived at the stadium at 14:48 and it was earlier decided to delay the kick-off to await her arrival with the game finally getting underway at 15:11.

“That just dropped in my lap the minute we arrived,” explained Ives, who arrived after the match referee, at 13:30.

“The referee just said to me one of the linesman hadn’t shown and the powers at be hadn’t been able to provide anyone to step in, so it was just basically on us to find a solution.

“Our goalkeeper coach Alan Kibby is a qualified ref, although I don’t think anybody particularly wanted him doing it, us or Stansfeld.

“Emily (Bowen) is a young lady from the town, she’s heavily involved in refereeing and playing, she does a lot with the Kent FA  and I just thought of her and I just dropped her a message and as it happens she was refereeing a junior game in Tonbridge in the morning and she’s come straight over and massive, massive appreciation to her for stepping in because what we didn’t need is descending into a farce. It didn’t thankfully and she done a good job.

“There’s no benefit in me commenting on that (the referee unable to contact The Football Association to get a replacement official). It’s The FA Vase, it’s a prestigious competition but we are where we are and thankfully Emilly has saved the day.”

Shinners, who was clearly not happy with the thought of Tunbridge Wells goalkeeper coach taking the flag, but in the end was happy with the outcome.

Kibby did insist though that once he was running the line he ‘would be a match official and not part of Tunbridge Wells’ management team’.

“We’re not one to moan too much about things like that. To be fair the girl who replaced done fantastic, she’s fine, really good but it’s quite poor at two o’clock that we still ain’t got a lino in a FA Vase game. It’s important,” said Shinners.

“Speaking to the guys trying to organise it, fair play to them, trying to get a lino in but you can’t even get through to people at the other end, it’s just really not good enough but the girl who stepped in done a really good job, so no issues there.”

Kicking down the slope, Stansfeld controlled large parts of the first half but were profligate in front of goal.

Attacking midfielder, George Porter, 34, who was making his ninth appearance for the club, having previously played for clubs at a lot higher than the tenth-tier, having played in the Isthmian Premier, League One, Conference South, Championship, League Two and National League, but the only contribution he made during the game was launching TWENTY long throws into the Tunbridge Wells penalty area – no other player in our match day coverage has thrown that many long throws into the penalty area!

Porter’s first came in from the right-channel, the goalkeeper punched the ball and the ball bounced off William Cook’s head and went just wide of the right-hand post, with the centre-half holding his head in his hands in despair.

Stansfeld, who don’t pay their players, could never bring in anyone like Porter before and Shinners explained how he has managed to entice him to play.

“He’s our mate, firstly he’s our friend. He’s been a Stansfeld boy believe it or not for years. He’s always been part of the club. As you said, he’s not been playing football for the club, so it’s not like he’s stepping down. He’s a good character for us, a brilliant character, all the boys look up to him and he’s a bit of our mouth on the pitch for me and Joe (Minter, assistant manager).”

When asked about Porter’s record-breaking number of long throws, Shinners replied: “Football’s changed from the Premiership to this level. Long throws are a big part of the game.  Twenty’s a record and really we should be creating more and scoring more chances from it because today we’ve got a big side, so albeit yes Tunbridge Wells are a big side as well. That’s probably why we haven’t scored but like I said, it’s a big part of football now.”

It also proves that non-league managers copy whoever win the Premier League title.  When Manchester City were winning it under now gone Pep Guardiola, almost everyone tried to copy his tippy-tappy playing-out-from-the-back brand and Arsenal won it last season under Mikel Arteta with long throws and set-pieces and IT’S JUST AWFUL TO WATCH!!!

Ives added: “I will congratulate him on that record. I think he was bit lucky to keep himself on the pitch because he had a lot to say.  We defended them well, didn’t we?  We’ve put our head, we’ve put our body, we’ve put whatever we had in front of 20 long throws, plus a succession of corners. I take a lot of heart from that.”

Stansfeld missed a glorious chance with nine minutes and 19 seconds on the clock.

Kufour got in behind Cheek to reach the right by-line and cut the ball back for attacking midfielder Obinna Igwe, who went to pieces inside the box, lashing his first-time left-footed drive over the crossbar from 16-yards whilst unmarked.

“That was our first chance as well, so taking your first chances generally you can really kick on from that,” said Shinners.

“He’s been scoring goals, he’s got a lovely technicality on him so for him to just hit it as hard as he could and go over the bar, it’s a bit out of character for him and the others looked dangerous all game, especially the first half, sorry. That kind of sums it up.  Nine times out of 10 he scores them, he hasn’t and it sums up the first half performance.”

Ives admitted: “I think what Stansfeld are, even last season, ok they went down but they didn’t go down without a fight.  Even in the run-in, they had a little bit of a resurgence.

“They are a close nit group, it’s a good club, good people and to be fair to them after a little bit of a sticky start, I think they would agree in their league they have found their feet.  They put four goals past two teams back-to-back, including Croydon and that means they are full of confidence and they would’ve looked at us and looked at our results and they would’ve fancied it. Let’s be honest.

“We’ve got five people making their debuts today. Cameron Hall hasn’t played this season in goal. That’s a massive ask for that to just come in and gel and just be fluid and flowing.

“So yes, they did have their moments, they’re probably a little bit more established doing what they’re doing at the moment than us but we’ve stopped the rot, which is the only thing that’s important tonight.”

Cray whipped in a cross from the right towards the middle where the unmarked Kufour flicked his header across the keeper and past the far post as Stansfeld dominated the early parts.

Tunbridge Wells also had a long throw – with right-back Jerone Wilson launching eight of them into the Stansfeld box – so this game had a record breaking (for our coverage) 28 of them, which made this game desperate low quality stuff.

Wilson launched a flat throw from the right channel into a crowded penalty area and holding midfielder Ollie Hyland rose and planted his header over (16:55).

“We haven’t used Jerome’s weapon, let’s call it a weapon, is that the wrong way of putting it?  We haven’t used Jerome’s long throw to the effectiveness we should this season and we haven’t really worked on it because we’ve had bigger priorities in training at the moment,” said Ives.

“Jerome was under a lot of pressure and after a little bit of a sticky five minutes, I thought he responded and defended really, really well.”

Tunbridge Wells were lacking quality in getting their talisman Regan Corke (right wing) in the game and central striker Conor Wilford offered no threat whatsoever before he was hooked at half-time due to a mixture of a groin strain and a knock to his Achilles during the first half.  His replacement, Duah-Kessie, was just as bad as he offered nothing to the game.

Tunbridge Wells woke up from their slumber with 29:48 on the clock when Hyland showed composure to spin Stansfeld central midfielder Louis Birch inside the Wells half before pinging a diagonal cross, which was headed away by Stansfeld right-back Glen Bain.

Morrow then cut onto his right-foot and his deflected drive from 30-yards was comfortably held by visiting keeper Charlie Cottrell.

Stansfeld’s third of four corners came in from Bain from the left and centre-half Macey Malyon went up and knocked the ball past the right-hand post at the back stick, with his back to goal.

“Macey and Will both had chances, where two big boys, two centre-halves, good at both heading the ball, you kind of expect them to take their chances and their old enough and uglier enough to say that as well.  No one took the game by the scruff of the neck and put the ball in the back of the net,” said Shinners.

Cook punted a long ball out of Stansfeld’s defence and Cheek opened the gate to let in Kufuour but the angle was too tight for his left-footed half-volley, which flashed across the keeper.

Stansfeld’s holding midfielder Cray had a low drive blocked by Hall’s legs following a set-piece but Stansfeld were guilty of a glorious chance to smash the stalemate with 36 minutes and 26 seconds on the clock.

Cray recycled the ball back into the box from the right, into the middle of the six-yard box and only Cook will know how and why his free header went over instead of in the goal.

“It’s such a difficult one because you are creating chances, lot of positives against a team in the League above, so as a point from that it’s good that you’re creating chances,” said Shinners.

“We’re limited with certain resources and it is what it is. As long as we keep creating chances, we just know eventually they will come and hopefully they’ll come like buses, one after the other.”

The highly-rated Cottrell – who would have been playing in a much higher level but for his diminutive size – pulled off a diving save to thwart the home side.

Hyland fed the impressive Rwodzi, who skipped past Cook and drilled a right-footed 25-yeader, which deflected off Cook and Cottrell dived to his left to push around the post.

“Lynos in the first half, where he got the shot away, just deflected it slightly and the keeper had to push it around the near post. I thought that was probably as near (as we got to scoring so) let’s give their goalkeeper a bit of credit because that’s a good save,” said Ives.

“Lynos is a guy that’s been in the area but he’s been playing up north. He’s been back a few weeks. He’s been playing locally at FC Revo and he’s gone on our radar. Because of the situation we’re in at the moment, we’re always looking at players in the lower league.”

Shinners added: “I think Charlie’s been fantastic since he’s come back to the club. He’s a focal point, been here and done it both for Stansfeld and this level of football and he’s been brilliant. 

“The boys at the back, I think all four of them, that was a complete new back four today and everyone who comes in is just getting stronger and stronger.”

Cheek opened the gate again, as Kufour wriggled his way past a couple of Tunbridge Wells players but Hall came off his line to make the block.

Stansfeld missed again – with the last kick of the half – when Porter launched his eighth long throw into the penalty area, the ball was cleared out to Jack Calvert and the quiet winger sliced his right-footed half-volley wide.

Ives admitted: “I mean, if we’re all going to be honest about it, it was two teams playing 4-2-3-1 going quite direct, trying to play second balls, get the ball wide and get it in the box and additionally they probably used their throw in a little bit more than we did.

“I can’t clearly remember Cam making anything I would call a brilliant save.  That might be my memory though, it might’ve gone selective on me. I can’t remember their goalkeeper making a brilliant save really. We more missed our chances or didn’t have someone in the end.”

Both were asked their thoughts at the interval.

Ives said: “It was just that this game is really tight. They’ve thrown a lot at us. We thought the sun was a bit of an issue. The boys were saying, defending the slope, particularly that throw coming in and the sun was on them, so they might struggle with that.

“I said, ‘you’ve just got to make sure you’re excellent at the basics.  You’ve got to be alert and you’ve got to be switched on. You’ve got to know where your man is, you’ve got to have contact. You can’t switch on until the ball’s gone because I did feel like there clearly won’t be a lot of goals in that game.”

Shinners added: “It was, we are better than then, we have been better than them but we need to respect the pitch because the pitch is a bit of a leveller because it’s not the greatest pitch and the hill.

“It is two halves of football and we just need to keep going.  What I just said to the boys there was that ‘like we won the first half, ignore the scoreline’ but in the second half it was quite fair.

“They didn’t really have any chances, nor did we as much in the second half, so first half we should’ve killed the game.”

The quality during the second half was desperately awful.

Corke – who hasn’t hit the heights that he is capable off this season and let this game pass him by – swung in a corner from the left (12:12) towards the back post where Cheek sent his downward header past the post, putting his head in his hands in despair.

Ives was agonising over his side’s next one. Walker’s fifth long throw was met by Morrow’s free header at the near-post close to the byline and no one in a red shirt was lurking inside the Stansfeld six-yard box, allowing Cray to clear his lines untroubled.

Ives said: “I remember that. Someone’s had to get on the end of that! I think someone’s at the back post there, that’s 1-0 to us.

“Connor Morrow has been playing at Rotherfield. A very good friend of mine is the manager other there. In terms of work-rate, in terms of dedication, I just felt he could bring something to the party.”

A long ball was chased by both Igwe and Rhys Bartlett, who showed composure to snatch the ball off Igwe inside the Tunbridge Wells half before keeping composed to play a left-footed ball over the top to put Corke through on goal but Cottrell came out of his penalty area to head the ball away, following Cook’s headed back pass attempt.

Stansfeld will need to work on their finishing at training next as substitute forward Jordan Patterson cracked a 22-yard right-footed drive off target after Porter stabbed a ball to Alfie Raishbrook on the halfway line.

“It was more cagey, no one really taking chances. We’ve just come off three games in seven days and I just think the pitch, the occasion kind of took over and made it a bit more cagey as the game went on,” admitted Shinners.

“No one wanted to concede that first goal because it was nil-nil but I do think the way the game was carrying on, it was going to end up 1-0 to a team but obviously it didn’t. Nil-nil and unfortunately penalties is how it finished.”

Rwodzi recycled a ball towards the back post from the right and Cheek’s free downward header bounced into the gloves of an untroubled Cottrell as the low quality battle entered the final 10 minutes.

“It’s a game of few chances but what was really important is we weren’t the ones that made the mistake,” added Ives.

Stansfled had a couple of moments to snatch the victory when Ryan Fowler went close with a right-footed free-kick from 28-yards but with Ives demanding ‘more’ from his side.

“He has that quality and when he’s in and around those areas, you’re hoping you hit the target but from where we were, it was unlucky but I don’t think the keeper seemed too worried so maybe it was a bit wider from where it looked,” added Shinners.

But this was the moment that Stansfled should have taken (43:44).

It came from Porter’s penultimate long throw, hurled in beside the corner flag on the right-hand side.  Left-back Mead flicked his free header towards goal at the near-post, the ball sailed across the keeper and cleared the far post too.

“Thinking about it, that was actually probably our best chance in the second half,” admitted Shinnners.

“A great header from Harvey but noone’s took the game by the scruff of the beck and bulldozed it in. That’s what the game lacked really, someone. It didn’t have to be pretty today. It could just be someone to tap it in from a few yards. That’s what the game was missing really.

Ives said: “That’s what I was saying at half-time. That’s what it’s going to come down to. I know who’s man it is, I’m not going to say it publicly but someone’s not stuck to their man near enough and he’s got a header on and on the wrong day that nestles in the top corner and we’re out, so finest of margines.

“It wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t pretty to watch. I don’t imagine the people that were here have been particularly well entertained but we’re through…

“I felt we got a bit edgy because I guess everyone knows the longer the game goes on, it’s going to be settled by one moment, whether that’s open play or penalties.

“I was probably slower than I have been in the past to make subs because I was trying to weigh up what would actually give us more chance of winning. I didn’t want to knock our structure just for the sake of it.  It’s very unusual for me there’s three boys that haven’t got on today, sorry to them but they still get paid and that’s all about being a squad sometimes.”

The arrival of Cheek and Palmer, helped Tunbridge Wells secure their fourth clean sheet of the season.

Ives said: “Cheeky needs no introduction. He’s played for the club before. He hasn’t been playing football for a while. That’s the first time I think he’s laced his boots up for the best part of 18 months. He’s trained with us twice this this week and I think he’s something that is going to put his head or his body on everything, which is exactly what we need.

“Ollie Palmer is dual-registered with Hastings United, obviously Trevor McCreadie is over there as assistant manager.  Ronnie Dolan, Sam Adams, they’re all good friends and they stepped in to allow us to take Ollie, whose come back from a long-term injury, so he needed game time.

“We have conceded way too many cheap goals recently and my highest priority today was to stop the rot and at least be hard (to score against).

“All the training this week (Tuesday night at Culverden Stadium, Thursday night at Leigh Academy, Tonbridge), has been focused on not leaving our goal open to easy shots.

“We’ve got some goal threats, they might not have been firing on all cylinders today, but you’ve watched us long enough to know there’s people in that team who will score goals but it’s just soul-destroying for everyone when you let goals in so easily, so I’m not going to get carried away. It’s one clean sheet but for me it’s a foundation.”

Raishbrook was seen urinating beside a floodlight pylon just before the start of the penalty shoot-out.  You just don’t do things like that in senior non-league football!

Tunbridge Wells captain Bartlett pointed towards the South terrace following the coin toss and Stansfeld went first.

Fowler stepped up first and his right-footed penalty nestled into the bottom right-hand corner, sending Hall the wrong way.

The other player wearing the number 16 shirt also scored, as substitute Rory Ward also found the same corner, also sending Cottrell the wrong way too.

Cray stepped up and his right-footed penalty was beaten away by Hall, diving just right of centre.

Tunbridge Wells took the lead when Duah-Kessie rolled a composed right-footed penalty just left of centre, as Cottrell dropped down to his knees, well-beaten.

Left-footed penalty-takers in non-league shoot-outs tend to miss when this website reports on Cup ties and substitute Luke Almond (who came on to the pitch with 44:13 on the second half clock) placed his penalty past the right-hand post.

Hyland stepped up to score Tunbridge Wells’ third spot-kick, drilling an emphatic unstoppable penalty into the top right-hand corner.

Kufour went to pieces, lashing his right-footed penalty high over the crossbar, as Tunbridge Wells progressed by winning 3-1.

Ives said: “I think it’s the magic of the South Stand because we played Hassocks here a couple of years back and they were top of the Sussex League at the time, going really well and they just went to pieces, literally.

“Their (Stansfeld) first guy scored but after that I don’t know what it is but I’m hoping it’s a lucky charm. I’ll take penalties every game if that happens.

“We got Rory Ward on (in the 82^nd minute) aside from the fact he has got a goal in him and he has got creatively. He’s also our best penalty taker, so I didn’t put him on because of penalties, I put him on because I thought he could win it but I also knew he needed to be on the pitch if it went that way.

“Jeff Duah-Kessie is someone most people that know football at this level would’ve heard off. Again, he hasn’t been playing too much. He hasn’t played at all this season but he knows a few of the boys and his name was put forward. He came and trained with us and he’s a really good guy, really experienced.

“It was a hard game for him to get into but he stepped up and he’s taken the penalty and pretty much introduced himself to the home fans, so I think that mentally just made a big difference today. Because we weren’t comfortable and we were under the cosh at times.”

Ives, who was without several players including Tom Penfold (broken nose), Ryan Hine (work related finger injury/football related knee injury), Jack Gallagher (gluteal strain), Ashton Malyon-Chandler (ankle).

“We made the last 64 every year that I’ve been here, so we’ve got to get through one more round to match that.  The fans will want an away day but me personally I’d want to play here because people don’t like coming here. If it goes to a penalty shoot-out we’ve got the South Stand, so I want someone here.”

Reflecting on the penalties, Shinners added: “Their penalties were very good, so you can’t deny them their penalties and our penalties weren’t very good.

“I think out of the four penalties we took and two missed the target so it’s not even a case where their keeper’s been a hero. We’ve missed the penalties but like I said to the boys afterwards, ‘we didn’t lose the game today on penalties, we kind of lost the game in the first half.’

“Anyone who’s got the courage to take a pen, you’ve got to give them a bit of a clap on the back to do that really.”

Tunbridge Wells host Kennington in the Kent Senior Trophy First Round next Saturday, while Stansfeld face Lewisham Borough at Middle Park Avenue on Wednesday night.

Lloyd Davis’ side are in seventh-place in the table with 17 points following their 1-1 draw at Minster today, level on points with now sixth-placed Stansfeld, who have a game in hand.

“The boys are good, we’ve got a good group, good characters, their all good friends and they’re disappointed now but we’ve got a golden role, six o’clock (forget about the game) and crack on for the next one.

“We’re back at home, we love playing at our home ground. We haven’t played Lewisham but you can see they’re going to be a big, physical side. Yes, it will be a difficult task,” said Shinners.

“We need to go there on Wednesday and really dominate from the first minute, like we did today really, btu hopefully on Wednesday we’ll take our chances when they come!

“I don’t want to look too far ahead but what we’ve seen so far, it’s not been the greatest of starts. Promotion is the aim. I’m not going to say it’s not but there’s also three or four decent teams in the division, probably with more resources than us. That’s football and that’s non-league football and we’ve just got to keep going, one game at a time, one win at a time.

“I think the top four or five teams in this league and probably quite easily hold their own in Step Five.  Step Five is all about momentum. Last year we didn’t have the momentum, hence why we got relegated (with bottom side Hythe Town).

“We deserved to get relegated, however, this year we’ve had a bit of momentum and it quite clearly showed today in the first half. We didn’t fear them and it felt like we were going to come here and get the result but unfortunately we haven’t taken our chances.”

The top eight in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division post-match tonight are Lordswood (22 points from 10 games), Rochester United (22 points from 11), Hythe Town (19 points from seven), Croydon (18 points from 10), Sporting Club Thamesmead (17 points from nine), Stansfeld (17 points from 10), Lewisham Borough (17 points from 11) and Minster (17 points from 10).

Tunbridge Wells: Cameron Hall, Jerome Wilson, Muiz Alaka, Ollie Hyland, Oliver Palmer, Ryan Cheek, Rhys Bartlett, Connor Morrow (Rory Ward 82), Conor Wilford (Jeff Duah-Kessie 46), Lynos Rwodzi, Regan Corke.
Subs: Lennon Minihane, Matthew Dunmall, Albert Osigwe

Stansfeld: Charlie Cottrell, Glen Bain (Luke Almond 89), Harvey Mead, Frederick Cray, Macey Malyon (Ryan Fowler 82), William Cook, Jack Calvert (Jordan Patterson 62), Louis Birch, Nana Kufour, George Porter, Obinna Igwe (Alfie Raishbrook 72).
Sub: Joe Minter

Booked: George Porter 41, Nana Kufour 73

Attendance: 110
Referee: Mr Owen Radley
Assistants: Mr Jonathan Upton & Miss Emily Bowen

Match Duration:
First Half: 46:03
Second Half: 47:32