On Wednesday evening, Erith and Belvedere and Tunbridge Wells put their Southern Counties East Football League campaigns to one side when they meet in the Kent Senior Trophy.

Tony Beckingham’s Deres have been on fire, winning fifteen and drawing one of their seventeen league games. They have won their last four league games on the spin, their last two being an impressive two-nil victory at third placed Erith Town, followed by a two-one win at Deal Town.

In the game on the coast, in front of a crowd of 412, they went behind to an early goal by Tom Chapman before Tunde Aderonmu levelled on the hour mark. Twelve minutes remained when Tyrell Richardson-Brown claimed the winner.

Mid-table Tunbridge Wells haven’t played since 19 th November when they lost a thriller four-three at Punjab United. Connor Pring put the visitors ahead in the tenth minute, but Punjab levelled through Arun Suman six minutes later. Trevor McCreadie and Pring put Wells three-one to the good by half time.

Theo McKenzie pulled one back on the hour mark and William Johnson-Cole restored parity soon after. The game looked set to finish all square until veteran striker Paul Vines scored the winner in the third minute of stoppage time.

As daunting as the task may sound for Luke Carpenter’s team, they will be heartened by the fact that they are the one team to have inflicted a league defeat on the Deres, and they did so in style with a five-one success at Park View Road.

Danny Lear gave the Deres the lead, but McCreadie had completed a hat-trick by half time. He added another in the second half before Danny Walder completed the scoring.

The Deres had to get through the preliminary round, in which they beat Welling Town two-one, and the first round winning three-nil at Lordswood to get this far. Tunbridge Wells started with a bye before winning two-one at Canterbury City. A quarter-final spot awaits the victors.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.