Kentish Football 
Hollands & Blair 0-1 Knaphill - The buck stops with me, I'm the manager, I'll take responsibility but it was just too much for some of them - I think the occasion got on top of some of them, says emotional Hollands & Blair boss Darren Blackburn
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Hollands & Blair 
0 –
1 
Knaphill |
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| Location | Star Meadow, Darland Avenue, Gillingham, Kent ME7 3AN |
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| Kickoff | 20/08/2025 19:45 |
HOLLANDS & BLAIR 0-1 KNAPHILL
(after extra time)
The Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round Replay
Wednesday 20 August 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Darland Avenue
HOLLANDS & BLAIR manager Darren Blackburn says he will take responsibility for his side’s lacklustre performance after crashing out of The FA Cup after being the victim of a smash-and-grab raid by Knaphill.
Diminutive winger Danny Taylor came off the bench to head home the only goal of a dull Preliminary Round Replay just three minutes before the end of extra time, which was Mike Woolgar’s side only attempt on target to grab a home tie against Hackney Wick in the First Qualifying Round on Saturday 30 August.
The 12th placed Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division side had more enough chances to reach that stage for the very first time in their history but Taylor’s first goal of the season ensured the Essex Senior League outfit will be heading to Woking instead.
“I said to the boys before the game ‘you get what you deserve in football’ and I’m a firm believer in that, you always do. Sometimes you get away with one now and again, we’ve won a couple of games earlier on in the season, which were big wins because we deserved them, so we got what we deserved,” admitted Blackburn.
“We didn’t get the job down there on Saturday (drawing 1-1), although we had several chances, a bit like tonight in the first half.
“You can’t have that much possession in the first 20 minutes and be knocking on the door and not hit the back of the net at any point. When you don’t do that, it’s always going to bite you on the (backside) at some point because Knaphill aren’t a bad side, so you have to respect that, so you have to take your chances when they come along.”
Knaphill arrived in Gillingham sitting in fourteenth-place in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South table with three points from two games and they won 1-0 at Midhurst & Easebourne in The FA Cup Preliminary Round.
Hollands & Blair, meanwhile, pulled off a shock 1-0 home win over Herne Bay at the first hurdle and opened their league campaign with a 1-0 home win over relegated side Phoenix Sports, before losing 1-0 at Fisher on match day two.
The tone was set as early as the 59th second when striker Ian Draycott – who scored the winner against Isthmian League South East Division side Herne Bay – missed a headed chance.
Holding midfielder Reece Gillies played a diagonal out to right-winger Fred Obasa, who beat his man on the corner of the Knaphill penalty area before cutting the ball back for right-back Simon Kabamba to whip in a first time cross which Draycott headed over from six-yards.
“It was a good delivery in, another good move and passage of play but it was what it was at the end of the day. It’s gone over, it hasn’t gone in, so it was just unfortunate,” said the frustrated Blair boss, who was asked what was missing from his players tonight.
“Hard to tell really. I think maybe the occasion got the better of some of the players, which it has done on numerous times now.
“I’ve watched players change from game-to-game. What I will say is some of the players lack, is just consistency. Consistency in their decision making, consistency in their runs, consistency in their support play. What they do in possession, out of it, it’s just, honestly, consistency and we’ve just been going through it in the (dressing room).
“These players can’t get experience without playing but we’ve got a vast amount of our squad which is still quite youthful, under 23s, probably about eight, nine or 10 of our players can actually still qualify, if not more can qualify for under 23s, some under 21s and one or two in the squad, even under 18s.
“Because we’ve been doing well you sort of look at that and think ‘we’re ok’.
“I always worry that a couple of good results at the beginning of the season paper over cracks that I don’t think that’s the case. I just think we didn’t take our chances.”
Blair centre-half Charlie Weston played the ball out of defence and Gillies travelled unpressed over the half-way line before hitting a diagonal out to Obasa, who played Kabamba on the over-lap before Gillies smacked a right-footed first-time drive over the crossbar from 20-yards centrally.
Hollands & Blair were playing on the front foot with Obasa key to their attacking play during the first half but Saturday’s debutant goalscorer disappeared in the second half owing to a lack of fitness.
“Fred Obasa’s not played a lot of football and we’re asking the lads to do 90 minutes on Saturday, coach journey there and back and Knaphill had to make a coach journey here tonight. I think both teams looked a little bit fatigued towards the end of extra time,” admitted Blackburn.
“I think if we’re not creating chances, I would be concerned but obviously we are creating chances. I just think we lack a bit of composure in that final third and that’s the reason I’ve brought in Fred Obasa, who is a proven winger at this level.
“He gets goals, he gets assists. He hasn’t done anything for two or three months, so that means he’s going to take five, six, seven, eight games maybe for his pre-season to really kick in and get done and be fully firing.”
A second phase of a free-kick from Hollands & Blair goalkeeper Daniel Ellis was recycled back into the box by left-back Joshua Brooker and centre-half Kristian Wigg steered his free near-post wide of the left-hand post in the 18th minute.
Hollands & Blair’s attacking midfielder Joe Thomas nicked the ball off Knaphill’s central midfielder Maximilian Lohmeier in the engine room before Obasa tried to score with a swept first-time shot from 18-yards which was comfortably caught by visiting goalkeeper Harvey Keogh, high to his right.
It was evident as early as the 25th minute that this poor quality replay would need to be settled after extra time.
Dominant Hollands & Blair kept knocking on the door and found visiting goalkeeper Keogh in fine form.
Obasa and Thomas linked up in the final third before Blair left-winger Harry Linch stroked a low right-footed drive towards the bottom left-hand corner, only for Keogh to dive to his right to hold beside his right-hand post in the 28th minute.
Blackburn demanded ‘quality in the box’ after Thomas flicked his shot over the crossbar from six-yards after Linch released Brooker on an over-lapping run down the left.
Kabamba then fizzed a low cross in from within the right channel and Thomas’ right-footed shot was held by Keogh as Hollands & Blair remained frustrated at the half-hour mark.
Hollands & Blair’s best chance of the first half arrived in the 38th minute when Obasa played the ball in from the right into the centre for Draycott, who slipped a fine 10-yard through ball into the feet of Kabamba, but Keogh rushed off his line and narrowed the angle and used his legs to make a match-winning block.
“Si just couldn’t get it out of his feet. It was another great little move,” said Blackburn.
“I don’t like to use the word dominance because I always think that sounds disrespectful to the other team but I don’t think they had one shot or anything first half and it was all us.
“I lost count of the amount of attempts, crosses, half-attempts we had and my biggest fear – I’ve been in the game long enough to know if you don’t take one of those it will come and bite you (on the backside) eventually and it did.”
An example of the poor quality on show at Darland Avenue was evident in the 40th minute when Knaphill should have smashed the deadlock on the counter-attack.
Holding midfielder Igor Souza was some 35-yards from his goal when he hit a long ball over the top of centre-halves Weston and Wigg to put four-goal striker Ross Murdoch through on goal but he lacked composure and his right-footed chip from 20-yards was lashed high over the crossbar and high over the wooden fence into the housing.
“He was never getting away from Charlie (Weston). Charlie was making a recovery run and he knew he wouldn’t get away from him, so he tried to take on an early lob or whatever he was trying to do but that didn’t bother me that,” admitted Blackburn.
Bailey Catherick put a free-kick into the Knaphill penalty area where Wigg’s downward header was blocked by Keogh’s knees, to prevent the ball nestling into the bottom left-hand corner (44:55).
When asked for his thoughts at the interval, Blackburn revealed: “We’ll beat ourselves! That’s exactly what I said. I said ‘we will beat ourselves’ if we’re not careful because I can see from the mentality of some of them that they were trying to do the wrong work in the wrong areas. They were trying to do other people’s jobs, when they didn’t need to do other people’s jobs. Players tonight just took it upon their own to do their own thing at times and it left us vulnerable in the transition, which I was worried about.
“They’ve got a little bit of pace on the break and I just said ‘if we keep on doing the right things, keep moving the ball, keep working the ball to wide areas to one-v-one situations, we’ll get opportunities’ but sometimes players listen, sometimes they don’t!”
The start of the second half started in an open manner but both sides lacked quality when it mattered, as Knaphill changed formation at the break.
Blackburn’s reply was surprising.
“Not a lot of quality. I think the problem is the quick turnaround or the quickish turnaround. It was our first midweek game. I think players looked leggy. It’s the early part of the season. They’re not up to full fitness yet. You give that another couple of months and a lot of those lads have to come off and you have to make subs. Both teams got injuries. Both teams got fatigue so you have to maybe react to that and I have to then make subs that at times I wouldn’t necessarily make but you have to and it was a bit of a disconnect for us. We struggled with that consistency.
“It was just too much for some of them. I think the occasion got on top of some of them.”
Substitute Sidney Cannon and winger Lynford Sackey linked up well down the left before Cannon cut in towards the edge of the Hollands & Blair penalty area but his right-footed drive sailed harmlessly over the Blair crossbar in the 19th minute.
Knaphill’s first of three corners shortly arrived (20:49) with Cannon swinging the ball in from the right, the ball was hooked on the volley by centre-half Aidan King from 18-yards, high over Ellis’ crossbar, with numerous bodies in the way.
But too many Hollands & Blair players put in lacklustre performances during the second half.
Obasa disappeared after the interval, Wigg was just punting hopeless long balls out of defence that failed to reach a team-mate and with Draycott dropping into his 10 role, lone substitute striker Kian Scott offered nothing in attack as Blackburn admitted scoring between none and one goal a game in their first five outings of the season is causing him concern.
Blackburn wants striker Kane Rowland to hit the ground running on Saturday, having signed him from Herne Bay, although he was unable to play tonight because he was cup-tied.
“We’ve got to start putting goals away. We’re going to solve that problem because I’m bringing in a striker for Saturday. I’ve already signed him so he will be available for Saturday and he’ll come straight into the squad,” said Blackburn, who demands Scott to up his game when he’s next given a shirt.
“Kian Scott’s a young lad, he gets frustrated easily. I think he probably got frustrated tonight being left out of the starting line-up.
“He’s done really well. He got man-of-the-match against Phoenix on the opening game of the season but the problem is all of these young lads and we’ve got a lot of them in the same sort of age group, age category.
“Just because you get into a team doesn’t mean you can stay in a team. You’ve got to be doing things. If you’re a striker, you’ve got to be getting assists or scoring and that’s not saying it’s his fault. It’s the same for the wingers, it’s the same for the 10s.
“If you’re not doing it and we’re drawing games 0-0, or winning 1-0 or losing 1-0 then as a manager I’ve got to look at that and make sure we’ve got the tools in the box to change that and I’ve done that. We’ve signed Kane Rowland from Herne Bay.”
Knaphill went route-one and they went close to grabbing the winner with 38:01 on the clock.
Keogh’s big kick went straight down the middle and was flicked on by substitute striker Rayjon Moore before Cannon laid the ball off to Sackey, but too many touches ensured he drilled his right-footed shot just past the foot of the near-post after cutting into the edge of the Hollands & Blair box down the left.
Hollands & Blair players lacked desire to burst into the Knaphill penalty area and an example of this came when Kabamba whipped in a cross from the right towards two of his team-mates inside the penalty area, one of them being Scott, whose free looping header was going wide before Keogh caught it above his head.
Hollands & Blair thought they had claimed the victory eight minutes and 11 seconds into stoppage time but Jamie Gray’s offside flag was raised.
Linch whipped in a free-kick from the right, the ball was cleared out to Brooker, who took a touch before cracking a right-footed drive towards goal from 35-yards.
The ball took a deflection and the outstanding Keogh clawed the ball out high to his right and got fingertips to the shot to palm it onto the left-hand post and Weston knocked the ball over the line with his head but from an offside position.
“I’d like to see the offside goal back again. It will be interesting to see from the veo who was offside and why they were offside etc,” added Blackburn.
Referee Jacob Miller blew for full-time with 54:24 on the clock to take the game to extra time.
Blackburn said: “It’s just fatigue really. It’s just players looked a bit tired. You want to freshen things up. You’re trying to win a football match at the end of the day. You’re trying to win it in 90, which we almost did.
“We should’ve won it in 45 to be honest with you but we couldn’t do that, so you then have got to win it in 90 and then when it goes to extra time it becomes a little bit of a lottery. I kept a couple of subs back, lads got tired though.
“One team will get a chance. We didn’t need to win the game 5-0 in extra-time. We probably only needed to win it 1-0, which was obviously proven by them.
“But it was a case of keep things tight, move the ball a bit quicker, move it from side-to-side, try to work them from side-to-side.
“Just thought at times our passing was too straight from back-to-front. We were trying to thread it from an eye of a needle or just dink/chip balls over. We were really reactive tonight in forward areas, I thought at times.
“We didn’t make runs off the back of what someone else is doing, whether that will be the pass they’re going to make, play or the run-off someone else. We were really reactive. We were on our heels all the time. It’s starting to wind me up to be honest with you!”
Linch whipped in a quality right-footed free-kick from the left corner of the box but Folarin Awoleke (another poor performer when he came off the bench in the middle of the park) lacked desire to ghost in and hook his shot into the net instead of past the near post from a tight angle.
Taylor’s sublime pass released fellow sub Moore but his shot deflected off Weston and flashed past the foot of the right-hand post in the 96th minute for Knaphill.
Brooker put another decent ball into the Knaphill penalty area towards the back post but Awoleke just couldn’t be bothered tonight, skimming an awful header past the near post from a tight angle.
Hollands & Blair squandered two glorious chances during the second period.
Brooker whipped in a quality delivery from a left-wing corner, Blair won the first contact inside the box and the ball dropped to substitute Vincent Bowman who lacked composure and smacked his half-volley against the crossbar from six-yards, which summed up the lack of quality from the home side tonight.
Blackburn said: “We had a couple of them. I think we got in those positions and when we did get there we just slashed at it a little bit rather than maybe just toe poke or what it needs.
“He’s a young lad, he’s been really good for us Vinnie. He’s learning his trade so no criticisms there, he’s just unlucky.”
Knaphill substitute right-back Joseph Apeni brought down quiet Blair substitute attacker Artem Kuchkov, who like many others in red failed to turn up. Surprising really, because he really hit it off when he first joined Herne Bay.
The outstanding Keogh flew to his left to push away Draycott’s right-footed 25-yard free-kick which was heading towards the top right-hand corner with just over five minutes remaining.
“Probably sums us up. I can’t actually remember, I’m just trying to remember whether Dan (Ellis) actually made a save tonight? I don’t think he’s made a single save in 120 minutes, not one save!”
Knaphill completed their smash-and-grab raid by inevitably grabbing the victory with 12 minutes and 41 seconds on the clock.
Sackey reached the left by-line before dinking a cross towards the far post, towards their smallest player and Taylor guided his downward header into the bottom right-hand corner from six-yards to spark wild celebrations from the away side wearing their highlighter pen yellow kit.
“That was disappointing because their seven (Sackey), he’s dangerous in one-v-one scenarios, so we tried to make sure he didn’t get that,” said Blackburn.
“I flet we reacted really slowly to that one-v-one scenario and we almost left Simon to it, which I felt he was hung out to dry a little bit.
“I don’t know whether Kristian (Wigg) could’ve done a bit more to get back in to help him out. Again, there was a lot of walking and ambling about in that second half and in that extra time from players that have come off the bench, which I can’t accept that.
“If you don’t start a game and you don’t have a shirt and you want a shirt, don’t sulk about it! Go and earn it when you go on and for me some of the players that got the starting shirt tonight weren’t good enough and some of the players who came on and then had the opportunity to earn a starting shirt weren’t good enough and I told them that!
“I’m alright, it’s frustrating! I don’t like losing games when we haven’t been played off the pitch and we’ve lost the game tonight. We’ve been in the game, dominated the first half. Don’t do any more but score. Our goalkeeper hasn’t had a shot to save and we’ve lost the game 1-0. “
Blackburn demands a reaction from his players for Saturday’s FA Vase First Qualifying Round tie here against Lordswood.
Scott Porter couldn’t avoid relegation from the Premier Division last season and they are in second-place in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table with seven points from their first three games.
Porter will get his troops fully charged up for the Medway derby – let’s hope Hollands & Blair’s players find their desire levels because they went missing tonight.
“It will be a really tough game. I don’t see them as a Step Six team. They’re not a Step Six club. They’re a Step Five club without a shadow of a doubt,” insisted Blackburn.
“Their structure, their backing, the manager, the mentality, for me, it will just be like any other League game. That’s how I’ll be approaching it.
“League status means nothing to me to be honest with you, especially when it’s a Blair-versus-Lordswood game, local derby, so it will be good, hopefully there will be a good crowd out here on Saturday and some of the boys will have to put right some of the wrongs from today.
“It feels like the end of the world because we’ve gone out of The FA Cup because we had a great chance (to reach the First Qualifying Round for the very first time).
“They’ve gone out there and sort of performed to a degree, huffed and puffed but not got the job done and if you don’t get the job done, you know you’re out of The FA Cup. Were we going to win it? Of course we weren’t but I want to go as far as I can in every competition.
“I’ve said to the boys after the game, I’ve not stuck around here this season to hope we can finish one place better than we did last season (bottom four). That’s now what I’ve stayed here for and that’s not me. That’s not my mentality and I know that’s not what the club want.
“We don’t have the mega riches of some clubs but if I get rid of two players and bring a better player in, there’s strategies I can do. We’ve got good under 23s, I’ve given lads an opportunity, I’ve given them starting shirts.
“We’ve got to stick together. We’ve got to keep working hard. I’ve got to get back to the drawing board now and look at what we need to do. When you’re emotional after a game it’s easy to start to point fingers or blame people but at the end of the day the buck stops with me, I’m the manager. I’ll take responsibility.
“My players have worked really hard for me since I’ve come in and since the summer since we’ve brought them in so no criticism of them whatsoever.
“Just critique their game and I want to develop their game. I want the younger players, the 18, 19,20, 21 year-olds, I want them to become better players and if they listen they will do. If they don’t, then they won’t.
“We can balance the books. We’re in a good position financially. I’ve made sure of that with the players that we’ve got and the offers that have been made. We are in a competitive position financially in terms of that. There will still be room for one or two more maybe to come in and if that means that players leave because of a lack of minutes then that’s their choice, that will be down to them.”
Hollands & Blair: Daniel Ellis, Simon Kabamba, Joshua Brooker, Reece Gillies (Folarin Awoleke 78), Charlie Weston, Kristian Wigg, Harry Linch (Artem Kuchkov 95), Bailey Catherick (Matthew Gething 102), Ian Draycott, Joe Thomas (Kian Scott 69), Fred Obasa (Vincent Bowman 78).
Subs: Tyresse Bundu-Kamara, Datiel Jackson
Booked: Ian Draycott 76
Knaphill: Harvey Keogh, Ben Mitchell (Joseph Apeni 90), Lynford Sackey, Dale Burnham (Jack Baisden 58), Michak Stanic-Stewart, Aidan King, Ross Cheek (Danny Taylor 90), Maximiliam Lohmeier, Ross Murdoch (Rayjon Moore 69), Jack Carrod, Igor Souza (Sidney Cannon 46).
Subs: Oliver Woolgar, Jack Phillips
Goal: Danny Taylor 117
Booked: Daryl Cooper-Smith 39 (assistant manager), Sidney Cannon 49, Joseph Apeni 110
Attendance: 197
Referee: Mr Jacob Miller
Assistants: Mr Daniel Roberts & Mr Jamie Gray
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