Canterbury City, now in their second year in the Kent League, slipped to a 3-1 defeat against FA Vase finalists Tunbridge Wells, but player-manager Simon Austin is still satisfied with his side’s progress.

Having struggled last season, and Austin appointed manager before the start of this, he was quick to acknowledge that “My remit was not to get relegated, so I’ve done that. We’re on for a mid-table finish, but we’re going to try to push on beyond that in the last two games, aim for the six points.”

“I’ve found my feet over this year, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it..  I know what it is going to take now, and I’m keen to move on and progress.  You look at the starting XI over the last couple of games; the number of players who’ve come through from the youth team and the reserves.  The keeper today was man-of-the-match and he’s only 16 years old, so it is positive from that point of view, but I’ve got to keep those young players, keep those I want from the team, and then I think next year will be really positive.”

All the goals in this game came in the second half, as Wells capitalised on a slow restart from the hosts, with strikes from Jack Harris and Carl Cornell within 10 minutes of the restart.  Canterbury pulled one back through substitute Steven Baines, that could have set up a grandstand finish, but Jon Pilbeam sealed the three points in stoppage time.  But, the scoreline doesn’t detract from a man-of-the-match performance from Canterbury’s 16-year old goalkeeper Tom Hadler.

Tunbridge Wells seemed to be more tactically aware as they created the better, clearer chances, whereas Canterbury looked good up to the edge of the Tunbridge Wells area, but too often there was no end product.

Austin admitted “It was quite hard to take.  We started the first half really well, but I always stress to the boys we have to start both halves really well.  I think we let ourselves down with the first 15-20 minutes of the second half, and after that it was always an uphill struggle.”

“We gave them 2 goals in my opinion.  We got back into the game and had a good spell, but they’ve got the third when we were chasing the game, so I’ve no complaints really about that one.  We lost the game in that first 15-20 minutes of the second half.”

With two of the visitor’s goals coming from balls played in behind his defence, breaking the offside trap, Austin was one of the players most vocal about the decisions to let the game progress.  But he readily explained “I’m always one to complain to the ref, but I thought the officials were good.  They talk to you, which I think is key and doesn’t always happen.  They’ve scored from a tight decision, so I’m going to have a moan, but I couldn’t really see it.”