For this weeks match we welcomed Maidstone league side Aylesford to Swanmead in the quarter final of the Tunbridge Wells cup. After last weeks impressive display we went into this fixture with confidence of making the next round.
 
On a wet and windy day we welcomed Ben Tadmor into the squad after missing last weeks trip to Blackham, however unfortunately we lost the services of Paul Herbert who had been called up into the first team. We lined up today with J Faulkner in goal, a back four of Thompson, Bridges, Chambers and Hunt. In midfield were M Faulkner, Bowen, Poore and Teuma, with Warner and Thomas in attack. On the bench this week were Piscina, Rosier and Tadmor.
 
We started the game quite brightly and took the game to our opponents. Some of the football that we played in the opening exchanges was good to watch, but sadly we lacked a cutting edge and failed to force the keeper to make a save. Thankfully we continued to plug away and midway through the half, following a goal mouth scramble, we took the lead as Glen was on hand to stab the ball home from 6 yards.
 
Unfortunately this didn't really settle us down as it should of and the rest of the half was played out with us having the lions share of the possession but without looking like increasing our lead.
 
The talk at the interval was to try to get the ball down and look after it like we know we can and try to play with a bit more confidence, however although some of our attacking play was good in the second period we never really performed as well as we know we can.
 
Thankfully, other hitting a post and having a number of corners in the second half, Aylesford never really caused us too many problems at the back so it was then just a question of whether we would add to our lead.
 
Midway through the half both of the strikers were replaced and Rosier and Piscina entered the game. This turned out to be an inspired substitution as after good work by Leon the ball was played to Rosie who's well struck shot found the back of the net and put the seal on a 2-0 victory.
 
We all know that we can play much better than today's performance showed but we never gave up and dug in to get the result that we deserved.
 
Again we must continue to work on keeping the ball but also we need to cut out the dissent and talking back to referees which has started to creep in to our games in the last few weeks.
 
With no game next week, we return to league action in a fortnight and a home fixture against Hadlow Harrow.