Despite a bitterly cold Longmead both sides with in reality little to play for served up an entertaining contest that enthralled the modest crowd of 308 right up to the final whistle.

The visitors opened the scoring after just 4 minutes when Connor Hunte cleverly made space for himself on the edge of the area with his low shot beating an unsighted Jonny Henly in the Angels goals.

Parity was quickly restored in the 10th minute when Alex Akrofi for Tonbridge made good progress down the inside right channel and produced a volley into the left hand corner of the net.

The rest of the half was a pretty even affair with chances falling to Akrofi for the home side and two for Greg Cundle for the visitors. On 35 minutes George Beavan forced a decent save from K’s keeper Rob Tolfrey but it was the visitors who finished slightly the stronger with Cundle twice denied by Henly.

The home side were to stamp more of their authority on the game in the second period with George Beavan giving notice in the 51st minute of that with a volley that Tolfrey was relieved to see clear his crossbar.

Just a minute later however the Angels took the lead for the first time in the game when the unfortunate Sean Francis put through his own goal from close in following heavy pressure on the visitors goal.

A glorious chance was missed by the Angels in the 69th minute when it appeared that Akrofi and substitute Andrew Sesay seemed to get in each other’s way when it had seemed easier to score.

It didn’t however matter too much for the home side when three minutes later they increased their lead with a glorious goal. Akrofi found Joe Turner with a glorious pass and the wide midfielder found himself clear with just Tolfrey to beat and he made no mistake with a terrific shot into the right hand corner.

It could have got even better for the home side with chances for Turner and Seesay and as the game entered into its final stages Liam Smith forced a good save out of Tolfrey.

Kingstonian never gave up however and had a glimmer of hope when Angels defender George Beavan was sent off two minutes from time for a second bookable offence. The home defence however stood firm and there was to be no late consolation for the visitors.

Angels manager Steve McKimm was naturally delighted with the result. “We had players out there just come back from long layoffs because of injury together with others from the reserves who have little 1st team experience, but everything came together and the more experienced players helped the younger ones through. It was a genuine team performance”.

Images courtesy of Wez Filtness