SE Dons 2-0 Croydon - This club deserves to be climbing the leagues and it will mean the world to me to go up on Saturday, says SE Dons manager Antonio Gonnella

SE Dons 2 – 0 Croydon
Location	Maidstone Road Sports Ground, Bournville Avenue, Chatham, Kent ME4 6LR
Kickoff	27/04/2026 19:45

SE DONS  2-0  CROYDON
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League First Division Play-Off Semi-Final
Monday 27 April 2026
Stephen McCartney reports from Maidstone Road

SE DONS manager Antonio Gonnella says it will mean the world to him to celebrate winning promotion via the Southern Counties East Football League First Division Play-Off Final on Saturday.

A crowd of 895 were in Chatham to see Gonnella’s big-hitters produce a professional performance to claim a 2-0 Play-Off Semi-Final win over Croydon, courtesy of two goals from left-winger Andre Coker, 28.

Croydon had substitute centre-half Samuel Smith sent off for a last-man foul, which led to Coker scoring his tenth-goal for the club with a composed penalty to seal the deal nine minutes into the second half.

SE Dons also finished the game with 10 men, as left-back Patrick McKay was sent-off with nine minutes remaining but he will be able to play in the home Play-Off Final against the winners of Tuesday night’s Medway derby between Rochester United and Lordswood.

“Yes, look, really pleased with the boys.  Their application tonight was unbelievable,” said Gonnella, who turns 37 on Wednesday.

“Credit to Croydon, they’re a good side. I think they’re one of the better sides we’ve played recently. Shout out to Whitey and Wattsy because they’ve made play-off's back-to-back with Croydon and Croydon have never made play-off's ever before since I’ve known them to be in this League, so I’d like to say well done to them and good luck for next season.

“The boys gave me everything. The boys we’ve got this year, their mindset is these games don’t faze them.  They’re excited for these games and it showed.  From G (Kamurasi) to everyone, they’ve done exactly what we wanted and more.”

Croydon joint-manager Alex White, 30 today, reflected on his side's final game of the season.

“First of all, congratulations to SE Dons.  They got through to the final after a good battle. It was an emotional game. I just felt a couple of errors first half really cost us to be honest with you.

“I felt we were in the game, probably edging the game but football’s fine margines, unfortunately.

“A lot of these boys have played 100 plus games for me now, so they know exactly what we demand and they’ve given everything.

“I think the reality is we’re in a League where you’ve got teams like we’re coming to today and they’ve got 10 times our budget.  For us to compete and take this team toe-to-toe, for us to lose one game in 2026 is an amazing achievement with the resources we’ve got compared to them and it does show you that heart and resilience can take you a very, very long way, so I’m super proud of every single one of them and it only makes us more motivated for next season.”

Reece Parara’s AFC Greenwich Borough claimed the title on the final day of the season with a 2-0 win at Staplehurst Monarchs, picking up 86 points (28 wins, two draws and four defeats).

Runners-up SE Dons claimed a 7-0 win at Sheppey Sports and finished on 84 points (26 wins, six draws and two defeats).

The big-spending pair were joined in the play-offs by Rochester United (66 points), Lordswood (64) and Croydon (61 points, 18 wins, seven draws and nine defeats), who finished nine points clear of Greenways, thanks to an impressive run of just one League defeat in their last 17 League outings.

Croydon, jointly-managed by White and Ryan Watts, lost to SE Dons by a single goal defeat on 27 December – at the start of their run of form - and went down to a 4-0 defeat at home to AFC Greenwich Borough on 4 April.

Croydon started well and created a decent opening with six minutes and 14 seconds on the clock.

Impressive attacking midfielder Alex Arif played the ball into 16-goal striker Kanan Fitton, whose right-footed shot on the turn from 15-yards forced 32-year-old former Croydon keeper George Kamurasi to dive to his right to make the save and gather at the second attempt.

“We worked on those combinations over the last five or six weeks and Alex has joined us and been brilliant,” said White.

“Just one of those days, maybe a couple of yards the other side and hits the back of the net but George gets down well and makes the save.”

Gonnella said: “One thing I say, what George done tonight was class in terms of coming out, his kicking, his distribution and all I keep thinking about is the Rochester game we lost. He was phenomenal tonight.

“I even said in the dug-out he might be my man-of-the-match – he was amazing tonight - and they all laughed at me and said ‘no AC’s just scored two and played well’.

Croydon were a well-organised outfit during the first half.  SE Dons played the ball around at the back and Croydon didn’t press them, instead they kept 11 men behind the ball and proved a hard nut to crack.

“We set traps tonight. We had a game plan and I thought it was working perfectly,” added White.

Gonnella said: “I need to watch it back. I always watch games back multiple times. The first part of that game was cagey. It was a typical play-off game. Everyone was cagey and once we got our foot on the ball and played, I think we controlled that first half comfortably.”

SE Dons often kept a high line at Croydon set-pieces from inside their own-half, usually taken by their goalkeeper Albert Penney, with former Dulwich Hamlet centre-half Michael Kamara, 36, using his experience to close the door firmly shut for the hosts.

Arif cut Croydon’s first of three corners back to central midfielder Charlie Dale, who took a touch before whipping a left-footed drive towards the roof of the net from 16-yards, which was palmed over the crossbar by Kamurasi’s outstretched right-hand, only for the referee Kennedy Kikulwe to bizarrely award a goal-kick.

“The little I say about the officials’ tonight to be honest with you. I think everyone in the stadium will feel we probably didn’t get the rub of the green,” claimed White.

“But look, you come to these places in the play-offs then you have to expect you’re not going to get this.”

SE Dons were taking too many touches inside the attacking third and McKay ventured into the channel to put in a cross, which was cleared out to Dominic Morgan-Griffiths and he cut onto his right-foot and his deflected curling drive from distance was comfortably gathered by an untroubled Penney.

Croydon should have scored with a well-worked move with 21:02 on the clock.

Right-back Tom Walters fed the ball along the deck into holding midfielder Jack White, who played a first time pass into the box for Fitton, who laid the ball off for Arif to have his big moment.

Arif drilled a low right-footed angled drive across the diving Kamurasi, who got a strong right-hand to the shot to prevent the ball nestling inside the bottom far corner.

“I thought we scored, to be honest with you. I thought we scored. It would’ve been a very typical goal for us in the way that we like to play but the keeper did enough and probably took it off Tom Barton running in at the back post,” said White.

Gonnella added: “Did they have that number of chances? Fair enough.  I don’t know what more I can say about G tonight. He’s done his job, he was brilliant.”

SE Dons called Penney into making a comfortable save (28:05) when right-back Ryan Palmer – who started as Billy Crook was withdrawn from the starting eleven after arriving late – played the ball into Eric De Melo Calheiros – before Palmer unleashed a low left-footed angled drive, which was comfortable saved by the 20-yard old, low to his right.

“We want the boys to play quite fluid in the final third and I know you’ll touch on it when we get to the goal but we do want forward play, movement of the ball,” explained Gonnella.

“The gods were watching Ryan Palmer because that was a last minute change and Palms started and delivered if I’m honest with you because he’s done his job, he done really well.”

White added: “I don’t think they hurt us. I don’t think they hurt us until they scored to be honest with you and the game plan was working perfectly, as a compliment to the boys for carrying that out.”

SE Dons grabbed the lead with 35 minutes and 54 seconds on the clock, with a clinical strike from Coker.

Coker easily cut in from the left wing and easily past Walters and winger Cameron Macmillan, played the ball into striker Femi Akinwande and the former Welling United man dinked the ball through for Coker to place his right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner while faced with a one-on-one with Penney.

“We’ve been speaking about that run of play for weeks and we spoke about it before the game where if they can find the front man’s feet and have that movement off it we will score and that’s why I’m so pleased that AC took that on board and delivered,” said Gonnella, who was asked how he has managed to bring Coker and Akinwande to a tenth-tier club.

“We’re different to any other club out there without being arrogant. Everyone wants to play for SE Dons, that’s the truth.

“People think we’ve got the biggest budget in the world, we don’t but what it is with our club, it’s a family club. There’s a lot of culture involved.

“A lot of these boys have got history with the club before (when it was a Sunday League team) even before I was here, so that’s why they’re with us.

“Who wouldn’t want to play for the Dons? You get to watch the games back, the supporters, we’ve probably got better supporters than what I’ve seen at teams at Step Three (Isthmian League Premier), so it’s a real package when you play for this club and I think people want to be on the journey with us as well.”

White added: “I think that’s the first time in that half that we’ve probably let a runner go and unfortunately, as I’ve said, you come here and you make a mistake you get punished and I think that was really the first time they got in behind.

“Yes, we got punished by big players, big moments, big budgets, that’s what happens, unfortunately.  That’s why they get paid the dollars, they get paid, unfortunately – monopoly money.”

The Croydon bench seemed to be moaning in the direction of the referee (Kennedy Kikulwe) and fourth official (Jack Motram) most of the game and it was no surprise when Watts was cautioned six minutes before the interval over a decision, that’s before McMillan had claims for a penalty ignored for a trip by McKay on the very edge of the corner of the SE Dons penalty area.

“It was a great half. I just said ‘look, good half.’  I said we’re 45 minutes away, typical cliché. Forty-five minutes away from getting through to the final. I wanted us to move their shape a little bit more, a little bit quicker and just get the next goal and that’s what we did,” said Gonnella.

“They were very good at the back and it took us a little while to get that goal and it was credit to them.”

White added: “We were really pleased with the first half. I just told them to be braver because I actually felt we were the better side.

“I felt we had to believe a little bit more and I think we saw that in the start of the second half but we just told them to believe, to carry on working with the ball, try to shorten it up a little bit.

“I felt they were a lot more direct than we were and I just said we can shorten it up. They went long, long, long into the two centre-halves and the keeper and I just asked them to come out and try to dominate on the ball a little bit more.”

SE Dons doubled their lead from the penalty spot with eight minutes and 58 seconds on the clock.

Centre-half Reece Barrett drilled a long ball out of defence and Smith (who had come on for Alfie Clark was suffered from a dead leg) in the 41^st minute – brought down SE Dons attacking midfielder Aaron Watson.

The referee hesitated before pointing to the spot and Smith was shown a straight red card and played no further part in the game (7:32).

Coker stepped up and rifled his composed right-footed penalty high into the roof of the net, with Penney diving low to his right.

“The one thing we did say at half-time, Aaron Watson was playing in the 10 today and he done a late run that led to the penalty, so I’m just proud of the boys that they listened,” said Gonnella.

“Like I said at half-time that’s what I wanted Aaron to do. He done that run probably three or four times in the first half and the pass didn’t come, so the fact that the boys took it on board what we said, it led to the penalty.

“It was a penalty if I’m honest. I don’t know what the rules (Laws) are with if it’s a penalty, is it a red? But we’ll take it won’t we, so, yes, pleased.

“I think he’s got six (goals) in the last four now. What I’m happy about Andre Coker tonight is his performance matched his goals as well. He really enjoyed himself and I thought he was a threat. He was really good tonight.”

When asked his take on the sending off, White replied: “I didn’t see it perfectly. From what I saw Smudger just slipped and the referee has said ‘he made no attempt to play the ball’, which I think is really harsh.

“I can’t see it so I’m not going to comment. I wasn’t behind the goal, maybe they had a better view than I did but to me it looks like he slips and when he slips he then takes a chunk of the player, which I think to say he had no intent to play the ball is hard but look I get it and I understand it.

“Eleven men here is tough. Ten men is even harder.  That will be probably the most difficult game they’ve had this season, I would’ve thought, so it was an uphill battle but we kept going. No one can say we didn’t keep going and keep working. I felt we had slightly more of the ball even with 10 men to be honest.”

Croydon’s holding midfielder Jack White slotted in defence alongside Kieran Rufus but they lacked quality with set-pieces at the other end.

Kamurasi teased Arif by leaving a gaping hole at the near-post but he decided to stroke his right-footed free-kick over the four-man wall and over the keeper’s head from 25-yards as the game passed the hour mark.

“I don’t think we attacked our set-pieces enough.  From the dead ball, I didn’t think we put the keeper under enough pressure really. He was staying on the back post and I think we could’ve put it into the front post and we didn’t,” added White.

SE Dons produced a decent move on the counter-attack (19:27) when Coker charged down the left played the ball into the middle for Akinwande, who reversed the ball into winger Joedon Gugas-Cowin who lacked composure inside the box and swept his left-footed shot straight at Penney to make a comfortable low save.

“That’s just how we play. We like to play very, very fast in the final third with movement, forward thinking play and it was a good save,” said Gonnella.

White added: “I know Joedon very well. He’s an amazing player. He played for us, for me for a long time, so he’s been at three clubs with me so I know him very, very well. Obviously the lure of the cash here was too much to turn down and unfortunately we had to defend against him, which is hard.”

Penney lined up a four-man wall for Barrett’s left-footed free-kick from 30-yards, which went around the wall and was comfortably saved by an untroubled Penney.

Croydon substitute midfielder Red Jenkins – the son of former Cray Wanderers manager Ian – delivered a quality delivery from the right into a crowd of players where substitute Edward Dwyer headed over the crossbar.

SE Dons were also reduced to 10 men (35:59) when Macmillan latched onto a drilled long ball – beating the offside flag – and was brought down by last man McKay and it was inevitable that referee Kikulwe would pull out his second red card – but McKay will be allowed to play in Saturday’s Final – and Morgan-Griffiths slotted in at left-back for the remainder of the game.

White said: “I felt the ref was probably trying to even it up slightly.  Cams’ touch meant that he had to go because he’s taken a heavy touch that put him through on goal.  It’s an amazing touch and put him in.

“I felt Cam should’ve had a penalty first half, clearly on the edge of the box and he’s been amazing for us this year.”

Gonnella admitted: “It was always going to be red because I feel the ref was going to level it up.

“Was the guy too far away from goal to give him a yellow? I don’t know. I mean it was a foul. I’m honest. It was a foul. The red card? it is what it is.”

Substitute Olusegun Akinwanmi was a threat for Croydon and he squandered a glorious chance inside stoppage time.

Olusegun threated the ball through to Macmillan, who brought the down on the edge of the box before putting it on a plate for Akinwanmi inside the D but his weak shot was comfortably gathered by the former Croydon keeper.

“He’s been really good for us. He joined us in February from Bridon and he’s 19 and it was nice to see him on the occasion today.  I thought when we controlled the ball like he did late on he was very effective, so he’s got a big future and hopefully that’s in a Croydon shirt next year.”

Croydon kept plugging away – they lost to Forest Hill Park 4-2 on penalties after a goal-less draw in last years’ Play-Off Semi-Final too – and 13-goal substitute striker Patrick Ward missed a big chance at the death.

Akinwanmi started the attack, Macmillan then cut in and crossed towards the back post but Ward missed the ball completely while being left unmarked at the back post and Kamurasi fell on Ward and roared his pleasure of maintaining SE Dons’ sixth clean sheet in their last 10 outings.

“That would’ve been signature Wardy, I think, at the back post. He’s a poacher at the best of times and I think had we scored that, it would’ve been a shaky couple of minutes, I think,” said White.

“But I think when that failed, it was tough to know there wasn’t going to be no coming back from that but yes, devastated for Pat and the boys.”

Gonnella added: “We’ve been wracking up quite a lot of clean sheets in the last 10 games, so pleased for George because I know how much it means to him, MK (Kamara) and Reece (Barrett).

“MK’s been a big signing for us. I know everyone mentions Femi, Coker and Aaron Watson but Michael Kamara needs his flowers because he’s been a massive signing for us and he’s not blessed with pace at his age but he gets through games and he’s a very, very good centre-back.”

SE Dons showed plenty of character to get over their disappointment of missing out on the title to AFC Greenwich Borough at the weekend and get through this test against Croydon.

“We’ve had a good campaign in terms of we’ve only lost two games all season and to not win the league was a bit of a hit but the boys know we’ve got one more job – if it’s Lordswood or Rochester – we’ve got to turn up and do our thing,” said Gonnella.

“It was a weird feeling going into (last) Saturday because we knew it was 90 per cent in Greenwich’s favour to win the League so what is great with the group I’ve got is they’re mature and understand that we do our job (at Sheppey on Saturday) and we’re going into tonight and that’s what we did and on Saturday we were 4-0 up at half-time and it gave us a chance to rest some players and that’s it but look, we’ve got one more to go.”

Rochester United hold the advantage of progressing in their home Semi-Final against their Medway rivals, especially as they are expected to hand Ashford United players Gary Lockyer, Matt Bodkin, Barry Fuller and Michael West their debuts.

AFC Whyteleafe manager Ennio Gonnella flies out to Jersey in the morning as his side play an Isthmian League South East Division Play-Off Semi-Final there on Tuesday night, with the winners playing AFC Croydon Athletic or Sittingbourne in Friday night’s Final.

The Leafe manager revealed  here tonight that three of his players cannot make the game as they can’t get time of work.

Antonio was asked whether he will spring any surprises and play any AFC Whyteleafe dual-registered players to get his club over the line.

“Not really. I think we’ve got one of the best squads around, so I’m confident in our team.  If we had injuries, then yes.

“The reason why we’ve done a dual-reg players with Whyteleafe is what I didn’t want to do is keep bringing in players when there were injuries because we’ve had a lot of injuries this year.

“What I didn’t want to do as a manager, I said to myself I didn’t want to bring players in, use them and when players are back and then get rid of them, where as a dual-reg, we know the situation, you’re coming in for one game and that’s it.

“So it’s great to have that partnership with my brother and I hope he gets through tomorrow and we’ll go and support him on Friday and he’ll be supporting me on Saturday.

“I won this League two seasons ago with Ennio (with AFC Whyteleafe) and I’d love to win (the Play-Off Final) this year with my other brother (Gerard) as well. I’ve learnt a lot from Ennio.”

When asked what it would mean to win promotion at the weekend, Gonnella replied: “It means everything to me, not just to me, to the club. It’s quite emotional, if I’m honest with you because this has been our aim and it was quite painful last year.

“Coming into the club and getting to where we got was a great achievement but we just didn’t do it so this club deserves to keep climbing the Leagues and it will mean the world to me to go up on Saturday.”

Reflecting on back-to-back Play-Off Semi-Final defeats, White is keen to get his club out of this tenth-tier division next season, having last played in the ninth-tier back in 2019.

Croydon are too big a club to be languishing in the Southern Counties East Football League First Division.

“Look, we were out of it at Christmas. We were 10 points off the play-offs at Christmas and now we’ve managed to stay up with a nine point gap (on Greenways) so the run that we’ve been on in 2026, we’ve lost one game and that was to Greenwich Borough," reflected White.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed tonight. Whether you like it or not, it’s a bit of a free hit.  We’ve got no right to come to these places and get results when they’ve got budgets 10 times ours but I’m so proud of the boys.

“I think if Greenwich Borough and Dons are out of it next year that just gives us more strength to go again. I’m hungry to go again. I love this club. You’ve seen the support down here today, there’s a good number of them.

“Look, it’s my first full season here, obviously, we made the play-offs last year and this year. I do feel with the group we’ve got, people forget how young our team is. That’s the one thing I will say to you, I’ve had these boys for such a long time, I look at them as they're 25. These boys are so young and to play at the level they do continuously every week and we’re playing against players that are 35 and played games in the Football League.

“We’ve got boys that we’ve taken off a park pitch and they just like to work hard with each other.”

White says he is looking forward to working under new chairmen Tony and Liam Blencowe and is keen to bring the good times back to Croydon Sports Arena.

“I’ve got a really close relationship with both of those guys and they’ve both got the club’s best interested at heart and I’m really looking forward to working with them going forward,” said White.

“The first thing I said to them, my first ever interview with Croydon, we won’t be afraid of ambition and we want to push on and we want to be able to push on the best we possibly can.

“We need to get promoted next year. It is a big club and it’s a big club for a young manager as well and I’m always appreciative of the support they’ve given myself and Ryan but I think we’ve given absolutely everything back.

“They’ve been through some really dark moments – they’ve been on the verge of going bust a couple of times (in the past). They were bigger than Bromley back in the day, as my dad tells me.  It’s a big club. It’s an amazing club and I’m really proud to be at the helm of it.

“Our supporters’ back us absolutely everywhere home and away. I’ve got a really good personal relationship with a lot of them. I’ve promised from day one that I’ll be the hardest working manager in the league and I hope they can see that and truly grateful for their support and none of this happens without them and fingers crossed we can give them what they deserve next year.”

SE Dons: George Kamurasi, Ryan Palmer, Patrick McKay, Eric De Melo Calheiros, Reece Barrett, Michael Kamara, Andre Coker (Walter Figueira 90), Dominic Morgan-Griffiths, Femi Akinwande (Billy Crook 68), Aaron Watson (Zak Ansah 77), Joedon Gugas-Cowin (Palace Francis 75).
Sub: Jake Rose

Goals: Andre Coker 36, 54 (penalty)

Sent Off: Patrick McKay 81

Croydon: Albert Penney, Tom Walters, Tommy Friend, Jack White, Kieran Rufus, Alfie Clark (Samuel Smith 41), Tom Barton (Edward Dwyer 55), Charlie Dale (Red Jenkins 75), Kanan Fitton (Patrick Ward 66), Alex Arif (Olusegun Akinwunmi 84), Cameron Macmillan.

Booked: Kieran Rufus 4, Ryan Watts 39 (joint-manager)

Sent Off: Samuel Smith 53

Attendance: 895
Referee: Mr Kennedy Kikulwe
Assistants: Mr James Folan-Young & Mr Harry Smedley
Fourth Official: Mr Jack Mottram