Two goals, one late in each half, were enough to take Tonbridge Angels past VCD Athletic in the FA Trophy, but neither camp was satisfied with their team’s performance.

Tonbridge’s leading scorer, Billy Medlock, broke the deadlock a minute before half time; stabbing home from inside the six-yard box after Laurence Ball had directed a shot on target.  Flavio Tavares made the game safe with the last kick of the match for his first senior goal for the club, but only after VCD had missed a virtual open goal and struck the woodwork.

Angels’ assistant manager, Barry Moore, said “I thought we deserved to go in more than one up in terms of possession and chances, but we didn’t really test their keeper.  We got into some good positions in the final third, and with a bit more care, we could have hit them more on the break.”

“VCD are a good passing side, but they went a bit more direct in the end, and with (Michael) Power and (Karl) Dent linking up, we got a bit lucky.  When they put balls back across the box, it didn’t fall for them, but with Billy (Medlock), that’s his game.  He’s scored a lot of goals for us being in the right place at the right time.”

“Recently we’ve had a couple of 2-1 defeats, and the nil-nil at Bognor where we could have had more, but we’ve not been thumped.  If the shot off the post goes the other way we’re looking at a replay.  We got the bit of luck today that I think we’ve deserved.”

“Both Steve (McKimm) and I have got to the quarter finals of the Trophy before and we both feel we owe a bit to our fans after what happened at Redhill (in the FA Cup).  We feel we let them down, the players let them down, but this is a great competition to be in.  Get it right and you’re 7 games from Wembley, and teams from this level have come close.”

Tonbridge dominated the opening hour of the game, which could be attributed to VCD being disrupted by the loss of Orlando Smith in the warm-up and Ellis Green midway through the first half.  Within the first ten minutes Tom Parkinson fired past the post, and leading scorer Billy Medlock tested Nick Blue with a shot that bounced horribly just in front of the VCD keeper; although Blue did well to divert the rebound away from Tommy Whitnell.

Although the visitors controlled most of the possession in the VCD half, with Dee Okojie’s direct running causing most of the problems, the home side still demonstrated a threat when they did advance.  Michael Power came close to adding to his 4 goals in his last 3 matches; holding off Laurence Ball to stab Lewis Perkins’ freekick at Thomas Hadler.

Whitnell and Medlock both had chances to open the scoring; Medlock firing a shot on the turn from over 30 yards out that Blue did well to catch as it arrowed towards the top corner.  Chris Piper also saw a shot fly over before Power fired wide during a rare VCD attack.

The deadlock was broken in the 44th minute, as Parkinson headed Lewis Carey’s deep corner back to the middle of the area.  Ball diverted the header towards the net, which Blue may have had covered, but Medlock was granted too much space in the 6-yard box to direct the ball into the bottom corner.

Having been almost non-existent as an attacking force in the first half, VCD came within inches of equalising before the interval as Power diverted a long throw to Lewis Tozer, whose header skimmed the top of the bar.

VCD were sent out for the second period early and, after Parkinson was carried off with an ankle injury 8 minutes in forcing Tonbridge to shuffle their players, began to claw their way back into the game.  Karl Dent fired a wild shot towards the car park, and Perkins made Hadler make a save.

Sean Roberts replaced Perkins to make his VCD debut, and on 68, could have equalised.  Leigh Bremner’s direct run down the left wing took him into the area, where his shot was deflected up into the air.  With players converging on the dropping ball, Roberts poked it past the advancing Hadler, but also wide of the post.

With 10 minutes left, Dent’s corner was flicked on by Power to Bremner at the back post, but as Bremner tried to swivel to get a shot on target, he could only direct the ball into the side netting.  Then in stoppage time, Lea Dawson came even closer, hitting a volley against the outside of the left upright with Hadler well beaten.

As time ticked down with VCD players encamped around the visitor’s area, Tonbridge broke quickly to Flavio Tavares, who drove into the area, shifted past the covering Elliott Cox and curled a shot delightfully round Blue’s dive to seal the game.

VCD boss, Tony Russell, struggled to explain his team’s performance at the end, admitting “that first half was as poor as I’ve ever seen a VCD side.  We’ve been hamstrung a bit by injuries with Orlando and Ellis, so we were restricted going forward, and it showed; I thought we were a bit lacklustre.  But, I’ve never known a year like it for injuries.”

“I don’t think Tonbridge really opened us up, as bad as we were.  I didn’t mention the goal at the interval, as I focused more on the performance, which I won’t tolerate at this club.  I’ve no idea where it came from.  We’ve been going well recently; beating Kingstonian on Monday was really good.”

“We played better in the second half, and started to carve them up at times.  Every time we put a cross in we looked as though we could score, but Leigh’s missed an open goal, we’ve hit the post and Sean has skimmed the post.  We need to show people the sort of side we are, and that wasn’t it today.  For the first time, I didn’t recognise the side that I put out there.  I’m an angry man tonight.”

VCD ATHLETIC: Nick Blue, Taylor McDonagh (Elliott Cox 52), Grant Basey, Nick Reeves, Lewis Tozer, Lea Dawson ©, Dean Carpenter, Karl Dent, Michael Power, Lewis Perkins (Leigh Bremner 66), Ellis Green (Sean Roberts 22).

Subs not used: Charlie Penfold, Ahmed Deen.

Booking: Lewis Tozer 27.

TONBRIDGE ANGELS: Thomas Hadler, James Folkes, Jack Parter, Lee Carey ©, Laurence Ball, Nathan Campbell, Chris Piper (Flavio Tavares 81), Tom Parkinson (Ben King 53), Billy Medlock (Alex Teniola 76), Tommy Whitnell, Dee Okojie.

Subs not used: Jack Brivio, James Steel.

Goals: Billy Medlock 44, Flavio Tavares 90+4.

Referee: Mr Neil West
Assistants: Mr Damien Buhagiar and Mr Jonathan Pickford