Sutton Athletic 2-0 Tunbridge Wells - If you're not going to take points from places like this, it's going to take some run to make the play-offs, admits Tunbridge Wells boss Steve Ives

Sutton Athletic 2 – 0 Tunbridge Wells
Location	Lower Road, Hextable, Kent BR8 7RZ
Kickoff	06/10/2024 14:30

SUTTON ATHLETIC  2-0 TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Presence & Co Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Sunday 6 October 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from Lower Road

TUNBRIDGE WELLS manager Steve Ives says if you let results slip through your fingers then it starts being a hard winter after failing to grab a place in the play-off zone after losing away to relegation-threatened side Sutton Athletic.

The Wells are in eleventh-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table with 15 points (four wins, three draws and six defeats).  They would have climbed up to fifth in the table had they won in Hextable today, but Ives admitted to feeling concerned that his side have last tasted a League victory on Tuesday 10 September when they came away from newly-promoted side Larkfield & New Hythe with a 1-0 win.

Sutton Athletic have risen to sixteenth-place with 11 points (two wins, five draws and four defeats) from their 11 games, moving three points clear of the ninth-tier relegation zone that now contains Rusthall and Kennington.

Sutton Athletic attracted 506 for their home First Division Play-Off Final 2-1 win over Larkfield & New Hythe on 30 April 2022 and today’s visit of Tunbridge Wells attracted the second largest to Lower Road with 328 watching a poor game of football.

Sutton Athletic grabbed the victory with two late goals, a header from substitute striker Elias Ahmed, who notched his seventh goal of the season, before wideman Taylor Fisher opened his goalscoring account with a 35-yard special strike.

Sutton Athletic manager Peter Nolan reflected on his 11^th game in charge (three wins, six draws and two defeats) since replacing Ryan Huckle at the helm.

“I wouldn’t say a game of football for the purist today. I think it was a very close encounter and scrappy at times but do you know what, I think we were worth the three points,” said Nolan.

“I thought we edged the first half over them.  I thought we were the better side. I think we were more dominant in the right areas in the second half and I thought our subs really made a difference.  I thought their changes probably didn’t have the same impact.

“I’m really, really happy. It’s the first clean-sheet I’ve had since I’ve come in.  I thought from 1-15, everyone was brilliant to a man.”

Ives added: “Very disappointing but fair play to Sutton.  It looked like half my team were pissed but I don’t think they were.

“We lacked cutting edge in front of goal in the first half. We were nowhere near competing enough on second ball. I thought that got better in the second half.

“We’ve had the ball in the net but it’s been ruled offside and we’ve missed, just not getting on the end of a really tempting cross along the six-yard line and then they’ve been clinical, probably scored from two of their only three shots on target.”

Both managers were asked about their game plans for today.

Nolan said: “The game plan was the same as it’s been kind of every day, be aggressive, go and press them nice and high and get on the ball.

“We’ve got some really technical football players at the club at the moment to try to spend a lot of time on the ball if we can, put balls into dangerous areas.

“I always like to say make teams defend. At this level defenders don’t like defending that much so if you make teams defend, mistakes will happen so that was the kind of the game plan.”

Ives added: “It’s going to sound pretty stupid after we lost. We felt we could press Sutton. We felt their back line was lacking a bit of pace.  They didn’t try and play out so we couldn’t do much of that.

“We wanted to get our wing-backs in the game as much as possible, which I felt we did in the second half more but game plans go out of the window when you’re not competitive and that’s probably the main thing.”

Tunbridge Wells created their first chance with 239 seconds on the clock when high right-wing-back Harry Hudson delivered a deep cross from inside the Sutton half into the box where striker Jacob Feasey’s free downward header from 12-yards bounced past the far post.

“I did say I wanted us to start fast, which I didn’t feel we did if I’m honest,” admitted Ives.

Sutton Athletic’s right-back George Palmer and Fisher often linked up well in the first half but both sides lacked quality to string a number of passes together and often lost possession.

“I thought that there was quality up until the box but I thought we got into some really good areas and some really good pockets,” said Nolan.

“But I thought we took an extra touch or we tried to do a turn that wasn’t needed to be done – or we tried to do a little flick that wasn’t needed but I thought up until that point I thought we did ok. I do agree, the game was fairly scrappy.”

Ives added: “Yes 100%, no quality and not really any intensity from us. I thought we were very, very lethargic and I’m not sure why, really not sure why.”

Sutton Athletic centre-half Ryan Mahal delivered a diagonal free-kick from just over the half-way line out to Fisher, who cut the ball back to Palmer, who whipped in a first time cross towards the far post but attacking midfielder England Kurti lacked composure outside the box and stabbed his left-footed shot rolling into the gloves for George Bentley for a comfortable pick-up in the 13^th minute.

Sutton Athletic should have done better with an opening in the 31^st minute.

Mahal launched a free-kick from inside the Sutton Athletic half and Tunbridge Wells’ centre-back James White smacked his volley out of his penalty area, which fell to Kurti, who stroked his left-footed drive bobbling past the foot of the right-hand upright from 30-yards.

“Landi’s been with us now for two or three weeks and he’s got three goals so far and he’s a real threat.  He always looks to do something positive with the football,” said Nolan.

“I don’t think it was his day today and I think he’ll admit that but he’s a real threat at this level and really, really happy with Landi over the last two or three weeks.

“We took him off on 62 minutes and Emmanuel Oduguwa came on and I thought he was absolutely brilliant when he came on the pitch. Football’s a squad game.”

Tunbridge Wells’ striker Feasey often dropped deep during the game and his reverse pass released high left-wing-back Joshua McArthur Nolan, who raced towards the by-line before Festos Kamara skipped past William Muckle before poking his shot past the foot of the near-post from five-yards.

Tunbridge Wells missed a glorious chance to smash the stalemate just 49 seconds later.

Lewis Unwin kept patient within the left-channel before floating over a great cross for Feasey to guide his free-header straight at Jack Glassborrow from eight-yards.

“So he’s had two headers in the first half but I guess it’s good that we’re making chances.  I’ll watch the video back and I guess I might take some encouragement from that but we’re not scoring enough goals quite clearly,” admitted Ives, who’s side have failed to score in their last two games.

Sutton Athletic produced a well-worked move (44:02) when Arun Suman – who plays on the left of a midfield diamond – released Fisher down the right and he released Palmer who put in a low 20-yard square pass for Evans to take a touch before placing his right-footed shot past the foot of the post from 18-yards.

“Chances were very few and far between in the first half so I have to say my memory of real golden opportunities isn’t fantastic in the first half,” admitted Nolan.

“Conor Evans has been out of football for 12-14 months and we’ve got Taylor Fisher in from Hollands & Blair, so these boys are just getting up to speed and this is the exciting thing at the club at the moment. I believe these boys are only going to get better.”

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the break – with the large crowd hoping for better quality in the second half.

Nolan said: “You sit in there at 0-0 and we felt we’ve been the better side in the first half. We didn’t feel like they didn’t created too much but I don’t think we created any clear-cut chances but we probably just edged it.

“It was a little bit like a little bit more of the same from the players, like we wanted a little bit more intensity. We wanted to always stay in the game and we just felt like if we kept a clean-sheet today, we felt we might be able to nick something with the quality we had coming off the bench and the quality we already had on the pitch.”

Ives added: “Basically just challenged them to up the intensity, to be more competitive, just to show a little bit of enthusiasm for being there, which I actually felt they did.

“There was one tactical problem that we talked about. We talked about their right-back overloading us and we gave them solutions to that problem.

“Our issues weren’t tactical, they were just effort was our biggest problem.”

Sutton Athletic came out of the traps and created their first opening after just 36 seconds following their only corner (Tunbridge Wells had five).

Evans floated the ball in from the left - goalkeeper George Bentley came and failed to collect – and Sutton centre-half Cameron Reardon steered his free-header harmlessly wide of the right-post from five-yards.

Nolan said: “I remember that one, I remember that one well. I don’t know what Cameron was doing there actually. I know what he’s doing there, his job is to get on the end of balls so I understand why he attacked it but he had more time than he realised.

“I thought he could’ve either headed it back across the box or maybe even gone for goal. It looked like he didn’t quite understand where he was on the pitch. It was a good opportunity.”

Tunbridge Wells created an even better chance (2:59) when high left-wing-back Nolan played Unwin into the channel and he cut the ball back to striker Regan Corke, whose right-footed drive from 20-yards forced Glassborrow to dive to his left and use both of his hands to push the ball towards safety.

“It was a good save. It was quite a good passage as play. We sowed a few good passes together. The only disappointing thing was I thought somebody should’ve been following it up and no one was,” said Ives, who was asked why Corke was operating more as a striker than his usual berth out on the wing.

“We gave him a bit of a free licence to float around when we play that way. Sometimes it works like a dream, sometimes it doesn’t really go for us and it wasn’t just about Regan. It’s about the whole side. It didn’t really click today, don’t think we strung four passes together in the first half.”

Nolan added: “Regan was a threat in the first half and I thought he was a threat in the second half as well.

“Their game plan today looked like to basically put Regan in a foot-race.  I thought our defence dealt with him and the big man (Feasey) quite well but Regan’s a threat and Jack’s pulled off a really good save.

“Jack has been a number two at multiple clubs at these levels and he’s come in and we’ve given him an opportunity and do you know what, he’s been brilliant so far, he really has.

“We’re really, really proud of him and we’re really impressed with what he’s doing so far.”

Mahal earnt praise from manager Noaln for his resilient performance – but he swung his right-leg at Suman’s free-kick and hooked his volley past the right-hand post from the edge of the Tunbridge Wells box as this poor game entered its last quarter.

“We gave Ryan man-of-the-match as a group, we thought he was the best player on the pitch today,” said Nolan.

“We thought he really dealt with their centre-forward today. We’ve brought Ryan in because he’s experienced at the higher levels of this division. He knows how to win stuff and he knows how to get promoted out of it (with Erith Town last season).

“I’m not saying we think we’re going to get promoted but that experience is going to be amazing for us.  He’s been brilliant since he’s come in. Ryan turns up to training, trains well, plays well, no moaning and he’s just a real professional at the level.”

The game started to open up during the final 20 minutes and Glassborrow pulled off another fine save.

Kamara fed Corke, who cut the ball onto his right-foot and whipped in a cross from within the left-channel for Kamara to flick his header towards goal, only for the Sutton Athletic keeper to dive to his left to claw the ball out.

“I actually felt that period of the game, we were heavily on top and if anything me making the subs didn’t really help our momentum, which is disappointing,” admitted the Tunbridge Wells manager.

“At 0-0 I felt I’ve got strikers and attackers sitting on the bench and they deserve a chance to try to get us over the line but didn’t really turn out to be case.”

Nolan admitted:  “He did make a very good save at 0-0, he kept us in the game a little bit actually.

“Credit to Tunbridge Wells, I thought they had a spell of 15-20 minutes where they were overloading their left-back into midfield and we couldn’t deal with it and they were on top of us and Jack kept us in it a couple of times and he’s a really good goalkeeper.

“We’re really lucky to have Jack. We got sent him by one of the Academy coaches at EMC and they had a keeper who’s been over at Cambridge United.

“Being a goalkeeper at this level is really difficult because a lot of keeper’s are 23-26 and are experienced keepers and if you’re a young boy sometimes you have to be patient and wait but we’ve given a young lad an opportunity and he’s really taken it and we’ve been really impressed with him.”

Ives made a triple substitution with seven minutes remaining and one of them, striker Rhys Bartlett, swept a left-footed volley in to the net but an offside flag was raised by assistant referee Ethan Cole.

“Was it offside? I was in a terrible position to say but Rhys has got in between the goalposts and put the ball in the net, so I guess that is what you’re asking your striker to do.  It could’ve been offside, I honestly can’t comment,” said Ives.

Sutton Athletic grabbed the lead with 43 minutes and 35 seconds on the clock.

Boulton played the ball on the deck to substitute Alfie Murphy, who released Fisher out on the right and he cut the ball onto his left-foot before whipping in a cross towards two team-mates inside the six-yard box and Ahmed jumped to steer his header across the diving goalkeeper into the left (far) corner.

“I can’t speak more highly of Elias.  When I came in there was a group of players and Elias was one of those group of players that I came into and we had one, maybe two, Elias and Emmanuel Oduguwa, who were there with the previous manager and they’re still here today.

“When I came in, I definitely say he’s probably the most dangerous player the group had that was here and we’ve brought in a lot of new players and he’s had to be a little bit patient.  He went away and he’s not quite got back in and he’s been in and around the squad but for him to come on and get that goal was so important for him.

“He’s shown such a great attitude, he’s never moaned, he’s never been disheartened or down. He’s been really patient and Elias is a really good player and he’s going to get loads of opportunities.”

Ives added: “I think we had enough bodies there. We obviously didn’t pick up the men. It feels like we’ve conceded a goal like that a couple of times recently, it's disappointing really.

“Both of their goals came from their right-hand side. If you’re saying Taylor put the cross in, I’ve got a feeling he scored the second one as well didn’t he, which was a very good finish, so I guess that was the difference. He stepped up where we haven’t had anyone whose been able to.”

Sutton Athletic missed a glorious chance to score a flattering second goal, 47 seconds into stoppage time, following a raid straight down the middle of the pitch.

Ahmed played in four-goal talisman Desanges through on goal but Bentley rushed off his line and smothered the ball low to his left and Fisher lacked composure by stroking a shot with the side of his left-foot against the top of the left-hand post.

“We were all looking at each other at that point, thinking ‘crickey it’s not going to be one of those days again,” added Nolan.

“That was a chance to go 2-0 up and at that point I think it was a close game anyway.  I think anyone that goes 2-0 up in a game like today, they probably win the game, whether it will be them, whether it will be us.”

Sutton Athletic did score a second goal with 47 minutes and 40 seconds on the clock.

Palmer threw the ball to Desanges, who laid the ball to Fisher, who cut inside and unleashed a sublime 35-yarder, which screamed over Bentley’s right shoulder into the top far corner of the goal.

“Taylor’s been brilliant since he’s come in as well, he’s a real pedigree at this level,” said Norlan.

“Taylor’s got that kind of quality, he’s got that in the locker so Taylor can produce those moments, magic moments in football. He’s a real classy player and we’re really lucky to have him at the club at the moment.

“Look, it’s a fantastic finish and it was worthy of winning a game of football, so we’re really happy for him and happy for the whole group.”

Ives added: “It’s a good finish. The damage has been done for us.  The second is just a kick in the nuts really, but yes it felt like it had 0-0 written all over it that game and then credit where credit’s due, they’ve stepped up and had a couple of moments of quality that we weren’t able to have.

“I probably made a mistake taking (left-wing-back) Joshua McArthur Nolan off to be completely honest because both of the goals had come the side where he was but at the time I thought we were going to roll the dice and try to win it.

“I put Regan Corke (at left-wing-back) so the game was to put him at wing-back to get another attacker on the pitch.  The only tactical change was withdrawing Joshua and putting Regan as the left-wing-back and I’ve told him to cheat a bit and that’s the side they’ve got in, so maybe I’ve got to take that one on the chin.”

Sutton Athletic have Hollands & Blair (10 points from 11 games) and Lydd Town (eight points from 10) beneath them in the table, with Rusthall (eight points from 11) and Kennington (eight points from 12) rooted in the relegation zone.

“I encourage everyone, our players, just everyone not to look at league tables at the moment – I know you do – but I encourage people not to look at league tables because I think it’s way too early,” said Nolan.

“We’ve just arrived, we’ve arrived in a difficult situation and that’s not discrediting the people who were here before and we haven’t done badly results wise since we’ve turned up.

“Results like today are going to happen. We’re going to win games of football. We believe in what we’re doing here and we believe in the group we’ve built.

“You look at the league table last night before you shut your eyes on your pillow and we were joint-bottom so really nice to get three points.”

Both sides are in the Kent Senior Trophy First Round next Saturday, with Nolan taking his side to First Division side Welling Town, while Tunbridge Wells welcome league rivals Erith & Belvedere to Culverden Stadium.

Nolan, who previously managed First Division side FC Elmstead, was asked about the difference between the ninth and tenth tiers.

“I think the difference is massive and I think the ego in me didn’t think it was.  I think when I was a First Division manager, I used to look at the Prem thinking we could probably come in and complete and we’ll do ok.

“But actually being here you realise how much faster the game is, how much more physical the game is. Mistakes do get punished more at this level, so I think the difference between the levels is big.

“We played Sheppey Sports in the round before and we really struggled down there. I think there’s that old age saying of playing a team in the league below can you get the players as up for it as they have been for a game like today.

“There’s probably going to be 20 people there (Erith Sports Stadium) on Saturday, there were 328 people here today, so I think our mentality is going to win you or lose you the game on Saturday.

“We’ll make some changes to the group. We will freshen it up a little bit. There’s boys that have been patient that will get minutes, so we’ll look to make some changes but we’ll go there really strong, looking to win the game.

“I think success for Sutton Athletic this season is just winning as many games as we can and see where we end up.  I couldn’t put a number on it. I couldn’t put a league position on it.  I think for us it’s keeping the loss column down, which is a big thing with my management, so I see draws as a positive thing.”

For Tunbridge Wells, they are two points adrift of the play-off zone going into early October.

“It’s very disappointing, it’s midtable mediocrity isn’t it?  It’s now for us to stop this worrying mini-spell of not getting a win in the league.  We haven’t won since the Larkfield game in the league.  Granted, we haven’t lost them all but those three points make such a difference. If you let them slip through your fingers like that, yes, it starts being a hard winter.

“It’s our only game of the week so we’ve got two training sessions to try and regroup and try to get a little bit of positivity into the boys and we’ll give it everything we’ve got. Like any game I want to win it. To be honest with you, I’d rather take three points today over anything in the Kent Senior Trophy but it’s gone now, so we’ll just prepare to try to win the next game.

“We always talk about making the play-offs and that still remains the target but we’ve got to be realistic. If you’re going to come away from places like this and fair play to them by the way because I’m not saying we were robbed, not by any stretch, we’re probably the architects of our own downfall but if you’re not going to take points from places like this, it’s going to take some run to make the play-offs.”

When asked whether he can bring in fresh blood, Ives replied: “We always keep our ears and our eyes open but it’s hard, it’s hard. 

“I do believe in the boys here, they are good enough. We’ve had some results beating Larkfield and Snodland.  There’s enough quality in the group but what we haven’t got is consistency and I suppose that’s what you get when you have these big players.  Last season we had a few boys who you knew would turn up week-in-week-out where as it’s a little bit more inconsistent this year.

“I suppose you have to accept the journey is going to be a bit bumpy.”

Sutton Athletic: Jack Glassborrow, George Palmer, Jayden Boulton, William Muckle (Oliver Farmer 59), Ryan Mahal, Cameron Reardon, Arun Suman (Elias Ahmed 76), Conor Evans (Alfie Murphy 85), Arlie Desanges, England Kurti (Emmanuel Oduguwa 62), Taylor Fisher.
Sub: Amadeus Addotey

Goals: Elias Ahmed 89, Taylor Fisher 90

Booked: England Kurti 58, Taylor Fisher 72, Arlie Desanges 89

Tunbridge Wells: George Bentley, Harry Hudson, Joshya McArthur Nolan (Jack Gallagher 83), James White, Joshua Woodliffe, Ryan Hine, Lewis Unwin, James Shield (Jack Walder 83), Regan Corke, Jacob Feasey (Rhys Bartlett 83), Festos Kamara (Rory Ward 73).
Sub: Muiz Alaka

Booked: James Shield 31

Attendance: 328
Referee: Mr Matthew Charles
Assistants: Mr Ethan Cole & Mr Ryan Cole