Rusthall 5-2 Chatham Town - We look forward to testing ourselves against a side like Dover Athletic, so it will be a great opportunity and you couldn't get a better test at this stage of The FA Youth Cup, says very proud Rusthall boss Jonny Elwood

Rusthall 5 – 2 Chatham Town
Location	Jockey Farm Stadium, Nellington Road, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8SH
Kickoff	04/09/2023 19:30

RUSTHALL  5-2  CHATHAM TOWN
The FA Youth Cup Preliminary Round
Monday 4 September 2023
Stephen McCartney reports from Jockey Farm Stadium

RUSTHALL Academy manager Jonny Elwood says he’s feeling very, very proud of his players after causing a FA Youth Cup shock by beating Chatham Town in a game that was marred by a confrontational pitch invasion by an abusive adult teenager at the final whistle.

There are 55 places separating these two clubs at first-team level, with big-spending Chatham Town sitting at the top of the Isthmian League Premier Division (seventh-tier), with five wins out of five, while Rusthall sit in fourteenth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division (ninth-tier) with five points from six games.

Chatham Town named Harvey Broad on the team-sheet, wearing the number three shirt, but they lost their captain in the warm-up with a sore back, while Rusthall were missing attacking midfielder Ben Williams (broken ankle).

Chatham Town coach Ronan O’Connor said: “Unfortunately, Harvey pulled up in the warm up.  He’s been nursing a sore back for a few days. He’s our skipper, he’s a big player for us and we were hoping that he would’ve been able to start but he broke down in the warm-up so unfortunately, we had to make some changes.”

Rusthall came out with all guns blazing in this Preliminary Round tie at Jockey Farm Stadium, with the outstanding Jack Lyons, 17, scoring with the first kick off the game after only FOUR SECONDS.

Dominant Rusthall then doubled their lead through fifteen-year-old Stan Sargent, who embarrassed visiting goalkeeper Rohan Jull for the second time by scoring from 40-yards, before impressive striker Zead Massood tapped in a three-man counter-attacking goal to put Rusthall in the driving seat inside 22 minutes.

Shell-shocked Chatham Town pulled a goal back through substitute striker Shay Kearns, 17, before left-wing-back Kelvin Boissiere, 15, came off the bench at the interval and volleyed in a sublime goal with his first touch just 50 seconds into the second half.

Lyons, who should be attracting higher league clubs for his signature, ran through the Chatham defence to add a fourth goal before completing his hat-trick at the end with a clinical angled drive.

Rusthall have been handed a home draw against National League South club Dover Athletic in the First Qualifying Round in a couple of weeks’ time.

Mike Sandmann’s side lost 2-1 away to Premier League outfit Brighton & Hove Albion in The FA Youth Cup Third Round last December.

“Very eventful,” said Elwood, who managed Southern Combination League Premier Division side AFC Uckfield last season.

“The game showed everything that we’re about as a side.  We were very expansive from the first minute.

“The way we like to play, at times we did leave ourselves open.  People got their money’s worth. I’m very, very proud of my lads.

“I think we showed the quality that we’ve got going forwards throughout the 90 minutes from the first minute, we scored from the first kick of the game.

“Take nothing away from us, taking nothing away from their lads, their second goal particularly that they scored was one of the best goals that I’ve seen down here, so you could see we were up against a very good side but we matched them and we deserved the win.”

Chatham Town coach O’Connor added: “Obviously disappointed. The goals we conceded tonight, three of them, were schoolboy and we’re not going to win games of football if we concede goals like that!

“We had some chances.  I don’t think we started really playing until the last 10 minutes of the first-half.  The boys looked shell-shocked for the first 35.  Rusthall caught us cold and it took us a while to recover from their quick start but I thought the last 10 minutes of the first half, especially when we scored, we didn’t really want the half-time whistle to happen.”

Rusthall lost 5-2 away to then National League South side Dulwich Hamlet in The FA Youth Cup Preliminary Round last season and both managers were asked about their players playing in such a prestigious competition at the start of their careers.

“We actually played in it last year as 16s.  We’re really blessed that the club are putting their faith in this group of players that we’ve got and give us the platform to go and play in it,” said Elwood, who runs the side alongside Henry Muggeridge, who plays in midfield for Rusthall’s league rivals Snodland Town.

“Last year we got a man sent-off after 30 minutes so it ended our journey a little bit earlier than we’d liked, but it’s exposure for them.”

O’Connor added: “It’s excellent for them.  We spoke about it before the game. It’s one of the biggest cup competitions in the world so to say you’ve played in it, is a massive achievement.

“But we have to be so much better than what we were today. We spoke about it at full-time.  We’ve been knocked out for the last three years in the second (qualifying) round and we’ve had some really good squads in this competition.

“But I don’t know if the boys got a bit nervous or tentative, I’m not sure, but we have to address it and we have to do better, Chatham Town, as a football club.”

Rusthall got off to a brilliant start, Lyons stroked a left-footed shot straight from kick-off, (the centre-spot) which sailed over the head of the hapless Jull and into the top left-hand corner, with only four seconds on the clock, which will go down as one of the quickest goals, if not THE quickest, in FA Youth Cup history.

“I’m claiming it because he wasn’t going to shoot but I egged him on,” said Elwood.

“The boy, I mean, he’s got so much quality. He’s been with our Academy since he was eight-years-old (EMC Academy and Rusthall).  He’s had the world and his dog try to take him to try to sign for somebody else, including pro clubs, but he enjoys it here. He likes playing with his mates. He likes playing in a good side. We’ll enjoy him all the time that we can.”

O’Connor added: “Rusthall caught us cold.  Rohan, the goalkeeper, got caught out. A great finish by the lad but like I say, you can’t start games of football like that and expect to get results.

“Yes, we were prepared for it before the match kicked off, be prepared and be switched on and Rohan held his hands up. He’s a very good goalkeeper. It’s one of them. It’s either a sublime finish or a mistake by Rohan.”

The goal proved not to be a fluke as Lyons was the best player on the pitch and the home side created further chances before doubling their lead.

Lyons tried to repeat the trick, hitting a left-footed drive from 45-yards, which only just cleared the crossbar, aiming for the top right-hand corner, just 99 seconds after scoring.

Massood was then released down the left – leaving Chatham Town’s right-back Toby Orpin for dead – before crossing low towards the near post for Hayden Marshall to poke his shot just past the foot of the near-post from inside the six-yard box.

Lyons then delivered a quality through ball with his left-foot to release Massood and his cross was met by Sargent at the back post but his glancing header went past the post from a couple of yards.

Dominant Rusthall kept knocking on the door and deservedly doubled their lead with seven minutes and 36 seconds on the clock.

Massood rolled a short pass inside from the left touchline to Sargent, who saw Jull off his line and hit a left-footed shot from 40-yards sailing over the keeper’s head into the top far corner.

“Stan’s a real talent. He’s playing against boys who are one and two years’ older than him,” said Elwood.

“He’s been at Chelsea, he’s been at Brighton and when he does things at pace no-one will live with him.

“The first-team manager (Jimmy Anderson) was here tonight and he’s already looking at him for his squad which tells you what a talent he is, but he’s actually not turned 16 yet, so he can’t even play for him. He’s a hell of a talent.”

Sargent was forced off with a rolled ankle just before the interval and his replacement on the left-wing Yukai Chang didn’t have the same dominant impact.

Reflecting on the goal, O’Connor replied: “Another mistake unfortunately.  Rohan got caught out of position.  I think it was a bit of a hit and hope ball. Don’t get me wrong, unfortunately we’ve just been caught out again, not switched on.”

Chatham Town created their first effort on goal in the 10^th minute when holding midfielder Lennie O’Connor launched a long throw into the box, which was cleared out to central midfielder Isaac Hadlow, who drilled a first time right-footed drive sailing over the crossbar from 25-yards.

Michael Paton – the central of three strikers – lost the ball to a hungry Sargent, before Marshall released Massood down the left and his cross from within the channel was met by Marshall’s flicked header, which flashed past the post from eight-yards.

Rusthall increased their lead further by scoring their third goal with a three-man counter-attack with 21 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock.

Central midfielder Yusuff Rabbaj hit a diagonal pass from the halfway line to release Sargent charging down the left and he put it on a plate for an unmarked Massood, who tapped a first-time shot into the bottom left-hand corner from inside the six-yard box.

Elwood said: “Stan’s fantastic, when he’s running at people at that pace. There isn’t many people at this age that can deal with him. I’m very surprised that he hasn’t been picked up by a pro club and the same for Zead, who’s playing his football with Henry (at Snodland Town).  We’ve been talking to Zaed about his final product and arriving late and tonight he did that and it was a great finish.”

O’Connor added; “To be honest, I think that was their best goal they’ve got tonight. They’ve worked it out to the left-hand side, a good cross. Our marking could’ve been better but that was a half-decent goal.  We could’ve defended it better but it wasn’t a bad goal.”

Orpin’s humiliation was complete in the 25^th minute as O’Connor hooked the struggling right-back and switched to a three-man defence with Kearns coming on as a striker and Logan Thompson coming on in the middle of the park, while their back three consisted off Sam Wooder (right), Jonny Harris (centre) and George Moore (left).

Chatham Town started to come back into the game after the half-hour mark and produced a sweeping move and called Rusthall goalkeeper Jack Glassborrow into making a fine save.

Connor Tilley played a 25-yard pass along the deck into Kearns in the centre, who laid the ball off for Hadlow to drill a first-time right-footed drive towards goal from 30-yards, which Glassborrow clawed high to his right before gathering at the second attempt, under no pressure from any Chatham players, who were all outside the Rustics’ box.

Three of Rusthall players, Glassborrow (AFC Uckfield and Lingfield), Massood (Snodland) and Lyons (Rusthall) have made first-team appearances in the ninth-tier of English football in 2023.

Elwood was full of praise for his 16-year-old goalkeeper.

“I can’t speak highly of Jack.  He played for me last season in Step Five for Uckfield and he was a big part of the reason why we were able to keep the club in the league and this season he’s playing at Lingfield at Step Five,” revealed Elwood.

“He’s not actually with us tomorrow because he’s off on another pro club trial at Cambridge United, so we keep our fingers crossed for him. He’s done us really, really proud tonight as he always does.”

Hadlow and Kearns then linked up inside the Rusthall half before Tilley hit a low first-time right-footed drive past the post from 30-yards.

Visiting goalkeeper Jull made a morale boosting save in the 40^th minute when the impressive Massood hooked a volley which split open Harris to put Sargent through on goal but the Chatham keeper made a save low to his right and showed desire to smother the ball at the feet of the 15-year-old attacking midfielder, now playing wide left.

Chatham Town pulled a goal back with 42 minutes and 44 seconds on the clock.

An unmarked Lennie O’Connor unleashed a right-footed 35-yard screamer from a central position, which beat Glassborrow, but the ball cannoned off the crossbar and the ball dropped for Kearns, who took a touch before slotting his shot into the bottom left-hand corner, despite having a couple of Rusthall defenders close by.

“A great strike from Lennie, he’s my son, he hit the crossbar and Shay followed up on the rebound, a good finish into the corner,” said O’Connor.

“As soon as we scored, we didn’t want half-time to come. We didn’t want half-time to happen but unfortunately it did. We came in and we tried to gee the boys up and we tweaked the formation a little bit to get on the second half and got the first goal of the second half.”

Elwood added: “We knew they were a good side. I’ve watched them a couple of times.  Kearns is a very, very good forward.  I’m not the Chatham manager, so I don’t know why he didn’t start.  When he came on I knew the game was going to turn.

“We had a little chat with our centre-halves (Joseph Brum and Toby Crumpton) about how they had to deal with his movement because it was very, very good.

“I felt, like in the main after that, they really nullified him. I wouldn’t say we did a job on him because he had some real, real nice touches but they locked us up a little bit and learnt from that moment.”

Rusthall created the final chance of the first half when Massood floated in a cross from within the left-channel, the ball was knocked down by Lyons and Rabbaj glanced his header past the right-hand post from six-yards.

Both manager’s were asked their thoughts at the interval.

Elwood said: “Henry (Muggeridge) manages the side with me. He said to the boys ‘the next goal is massive,’.  The kiss of death!

“The character the boys showed and the resilience after we conceded that second goal – it was a hell of a strike. It could’ve knocked the wind out of many sides but with the group of players that I’ve got here, the resilience and the togetherness is massive.  They’ve been together for a long time and they rolled their sleeves up and they mucked in.

“There was a lot of noise on the side, they didn’t really let it affect them.  I also said to the two centre-halves that they could win us the game.  Even though the plaudits might go to some of the forward players tonight, I thought Joseph and Toby were very solid in terms of putting their bodies on the line and are two lads who featured for me at Step Five last season. I think they will have very good futures in the game.”

O’Connor added: “We spoke briefly about the mistakes and we reset and we said there’s no reason why we can’t go out and win this game.

“We had every confidence in the boys to carry on from where they left off after half-time.”

The clock was showing 50 seconds at the time that Chatham Town scored their second goal of the game.

Lennie O’Connor rolled a free-kick short to Hadlow on the right and he whipped in a cross with his right-foot which was met on a right-footed volley by Boissiere, which screamed into the top left-hand corner from 25-yards.

O’Connor said: “It was great! It was a great finish. Kevin is left-footed. It was a great right-footed finish from him. Fair play to him. 

“We brought him on just to give us a bit of energy. He’s very technically gifted so we wanted somebody to get up and down and get some crosses in. He met Isaac’s cross with a great right-footed finish.”

Elwood added: “It was probably one of the best goals that I’ve seen down here. Maybe up there with Jack’s at the end. It was a hell off a strike, credit to the lad. If I’m being picky, maybe we were a little bit late out to it. 

“Jack’s a different class. It was going to take something special to beat him and it was to be fair, so sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say ‘fair play, great goal,’ and I think that showed that we were actually playing against a quality side tonight as well.”

However, Rusthall killed off any hope for Chatham Town, when Lyons showed the crowd of 83 that he has a bright future in the game, by scoring Rusthall’s fourth goal just five minutes and 24 seconds into the half.

Massood sent Lyons on his way from the half-way line before dribbling into the penalty area, beating four Chatham players, before holding his composure to find the bottom far corner with his lethal left-foot.

“I mean, his product is unbelievable.  We had him at Uckfield last year and I think that some of the opposition teams maybe looked at him and looked at the size of him because at the moment he’s still a boy but he’s quality.

“His ball striking particularly is the best that I’ve seen in the 16 years that I’ve been coaching. He hits the ball very, very well and little back lift and his product is just so, so good and that’s why even when they scored and pulled it back to 3-2, which I wasn’t too surprised about because I know they’re a good side, but I knew we had goals in the team and I fancied us to score again.

“When you’ve got him there, he does pop up with goals.  He was top goalscorer in the Kent Youth League in the last two seasons and he doesn’t play up top, so his product is fantastic.”

O’Connor admitted: “The most disappointing goal to be honest.  It’s in their half and he’s run through four of our players and slotted it past Rohan, our goalkeeper. It was way too easy, too many goals shipped tonight. That should’ve been loads better. We spoke about it again at full-time and they realised the mistakes they’ve made.”

To their credit, however, Chatham Town kept plugging away – Kevin Hake’s first -team squad were thrashed 5-1 at home to Ben Smith’s Isthmian League South East Division side Ramsgate in The FA Cup First Qualifying Round at the weekend.

They went close when left-wing-back Boissiere and Kearns linked up, before the impressive Kearns laid the ball off for Paton to drill a first-time shot past the left-hand post.

The towering Marshall, who was at this point playing as a lone-striker for Rusthall, suffered from cramp in his right-leg and was replaced in the 67^th minute and this gave Chatham Town a chance to dominate for the rest of the game.

The quiet Sam Sene-Richardson split open Rusthall’s right-back Austin Kent to put Kearns through on goal but Glassborrow made a save to his left.

Hadlow’s cross from the right was cleared out to Tilley, but the wideman’s right-footed 20-yard drive was comfortable held in Glassborrow’s midriff.

“We changed formation. We didn’t really get our football going at all really,” admitted O’Connor.

“It was hard for the boys to keep going. I think a few of them got their heads down.  Rusthall’s game management was very good. They held onto the ball, wasted time when they had to and ran the clock down and we just couldn’t get back into the game.”

Rusthall grabbed a fifth goal with 49:58 on the clock, as winger Lyons scored his first FA competition hat-trick of his career.

Rabbaj hooked a powerfully hit 60-yard diagonal from the halfway line from the left wing over to the right for Lyons, who easily cut inside Boissiere before clinically drilling a low left-footed angled drive across the keeper to find the bottom far corner.

“Yusuf’s a very special player.  He was with us when he was about 10 or 11 and he hasn’t played for the last three years and he got back in touch and said he was looking to push on,” revealed Elwood.

“His brother is at Chelsea, he’s brother is fantastic and I think that Yusuf will have a very, very good future in the game as well.

“It was a really, really hard game because it was like a basketball game. It was up and down but we coped with that really, really well.  There’s not many people (like Jack Lyons) who would’ve been able to keep that composure so late into the game.”

O’Connor added: “Jack’s had a good game tonight. Another goal we could’ve avoided.  He’s cut in, again on our left-hand side and we let him do that and fair play to him, he has finished it again past Rohan.  We were chasing for a goal. We got caught a little bit short at the back but fair play to Jack, he’s finished it really well.”

When asked if any of his players are knocking on Hake’s first team door, O’Connor replied: “There are a few boys. Harvey Broad, who got injured in the warm-up, he’s played a lot of pre-season games.  Connor Tilley, was on the bench.  Players’ like Connor, we look up to, to spark and ignite us and he’s a high energy player but it’s just not down to Connor – but we need a lot more from a lot of the boys tonight.

“There’s a few boys knocking on the door, definitely, but they need to perform better than what they did tonight.”

Chatham’s Lennie O’Connor (playing at right-back) was on the end of verbal abuse from a teenage spectator during the second half.

It was clear that something was going to kick-off after the final whistle, as threats were made towards the 17-year-old footballer, wearing the number 16 shirt.

Referee Dan Tornborn blew the final whistle (52:55 second half) and the teenager spectator scaled the fence and confronted Lennie O’Connor and his team-mates, which resulted in players from both sides surrounding culprit (who was wearing a white t-shirt), who bragged to his young mates earlier in the second half that he had been twice sent-off, so The Kent Football Association should serve him a long suspension from playing the game as a result of his criminal actions tonight and for bringing the game into disrepute.  Pitch invasions are a criminal offence, even in the ninth-tier.

With female voices in the terracing shouting “Alfie, Alfie, Alfie,” several times to tell him to get back over the fence, the referee walked over to the culprit (and from the edge of the pitch just inches from the perimeter fencing), warned him to “get off the pitch. We know your name.  It’s going in the report.” (the report that the referee sends to The Football Association).”

Both managers were asked about the incident.  Elwood was asked if the culprit was one of his squad players, in which he responded, “no.” 

O’Connor said: “It’s not on is it. It’s not on! You can’t have supporters climbing barriers and running onto the pitch and try to have a go at our players, so they (Rusthall FC) need to deal with that.

“It’s alright the referee having words with the culprit, Rusthall, as a club have surely have to look into that because you can’t have people jumping barriers and running onto a football pitch!”

Elwood added: “As you know I was 60 yards away literally. I couldn’t have been further away from the event. But I know this group of lads that we’ve got in there, they’re very together but at the same time they don’t get involved in anything like that.  I don’t let them get involved in anything like that, so I’m not too sure what happened.

“As quick as it escalated, it seemed to die down, so from what I could see it was very much handbags and although it’s not something that you want to see, at the same time, a lot more was made of it then necessarily needed to be, I think.

“Whether it was somebody coming in to protect someone but I haven’t heard anything or seen anything to say there was any punches thrown or anything like that. I think it was just a case of both sides trying to protect themselves and that was what happened.  Everyone walked off the pitch fine, no one was harmed, so yes, hopefully that’s the last that we hear about that.”

Elwood, meanwhile, is relishing the chance to lock horns against Dover Athletic in the next round – against Sandmann, who is renowned for producing young quality talent for the Kent coastal outfit at The Abbey School, Faversham.

“I was there for a short period and I really enjoyed my time there so I look forward to testing ourselves,” said Elwood.

“They are probably as tough of a draw that we can get and you’re right.  I know Mike Sandmann, we actually shared a tour with them in the summer.

“We look forward to testing ourselves against a side like that.  Some of these boys want to step up and play against some fantastic players, so it will be a great opportunity for them to see where they’re at and you couldn’t get a better test at this stage.”

Rusthall: Jack Glassborrow, Austin Kent, Harry Palmer, Callum Wright (Frank Little 89), Joseph Brum, Toby Crampton, Hayden Marshall (Anthony Mepham 67) Yusuf Rabbaj, Zead Massood, Stan Sargent, (Yukai Chang 45), Jack Lyons.
Subs: Nathan Burness, Femi Onasanya

Goals: Jack Lyons 1, 51, 90, Stan Sargent 8, Zead Massood 22

Booked: Zaed Massood 72, Harry Palmer 80, Frank Little 90

Chatham Town: Rohan Jull, Toby Orpin (Logan Thompson 25), George Moore (Kelvin Boissiere 46), Lennie O’Connor, Jonny Harris, Sam Wooder, Sam Sene-Richardson, Isaac Hadlow, Michael Paton, Oliver Dudman (Shay Kearns 25), Connor Tilley.
Subs: Harvey Broad, Josh Fill, Regan King

Goals: Shay Kearns 43, Kelvin Boissiere 46

Booked: Michael Paton 52, Lennie O’Connor 59, Connor Tilley 90

Attendance: 83
Referee: Mr Dan Tornborn
Assistants: Mr Samuel Girt & Mr Joshua Cloake