Sevenoaks Town 0-0 Whitehawk - The pressure is on Whitehawk, it's not on us, so if anything from today we'll take even more belief going down there, says Sevenoaks Town boss Harry Hudson

Sevenoaks Town 0 – 0 Whitehawk
Location	Greatness Park, Mill Lane, Seal Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5BX
Kickoff	02/09/2023 15:00

SEVENOAKS TOWN  0-0  WHITEHAWK
The Emirates FA Cup First Qualifying Round
Saturday 2 September 2023
Stephen McCartney reports from Greatness Park

SEVENOAKS TOWN manager Harry Hudson says he is feeling proud of his players for what they showed during this FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie against Whitehawk at Greatness Park.

Shaun Saunders’ side went into this game sitting in tenth-place in the Isthmian League Premier Division table with eight points from their five games, playing in the seventh-tier of English football after beating Beckenham Town and Hythe Town in last season’s play-offs to seal promotion with champions Chatham Town.

Sevenoaks Town, meanwhile, are in fifth-place in the Isthmian League South East Division table with six points from three games and have beaten Lingfield (3-1) and Colliers Wood (3-0) to reach this stage of The FA Cup.

Hudson guided the club to the Fourth Qualifying Round last season, while Whitehawk suffered an Extra Preliminary Round Replay exit at the hands of K Sports, who went on to finish at the foot of the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table.

Sevenoaks Town attracted their largest crowd of the season with 304 people flocking through the turnstiles to watch this goal-less stalemate.

Daniel Brazenell, 45, visited his home-town football club as he raises money for charity, cycling 2,500 miles in 23 days, visiting all 92 EFL clubs, with Crawley Town his next stop, having just left Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium.

Both sides spent the vast majority of the game playing backwards and sideways passes, which didn’t bring too many goalscoring chances in scorching temperatures of 22 degrees - but Sevenoaks Town were the better side and hit the post on two occasions.

“I feel like after about minute 15 is when we settled, I thought we were the better side for the rest of the game,” said Hudson.

“I think we minimalised them to very little and I think we were really disappointed that we didn’t win the game, which is testament to the boys, playing a team in the league above, who are doing well and really well resourced.

“I thought we were, in my opinion, today, if a neutral had watched the game, if anyone were the league above, they would’ve thought it was Sevenoaks.

“Disappointed not to win the game but listen, we go again Tuesday.”

The home side created a half chance inside the opening eight minutes when left-winger Kyle De Silva played the ball out to Emmanuel Mensah on the left and he cut inside Whitehawk’s centre-half Joe Tennent to float a cross towards the far post but striker Palace Francis steered his deflected header past the post.

Tennent, left-back Stefan Wright and winger Louis Collins were all playing against their old club.

Whitehawk created an opening in the 17^th minute when holding midfielder Joel Daly released right-back Hamish Morrison in behind Kieron Cadogan but his right-footed shot from a tight angle was comfortably gathered by goalkeeper Amadou Tangara at his near post.

The Hawks hit Sevenoaks on the counter-attack when Daly fed winger Dominic Johnson-Fisher in space before the ball was worked out to Charlie Walker in space down the right channel.  He played in a low cross into the box for striker Ben Pope, but a woeful first touch saw him have a second bite of the cherry, which was comfortably saved by the Sevenoaks keeper.

“I remember in the first half there were a couple of moments where they maybe got down the side of us and as the game wore on they became fewer and fewer to remember.  I didn’t feel today that we had too many moments to worry at the back,” said Hudson.

“I thought they would’ve caused us more problems today, if I’m honest.  They’ve got good players, like, really good players.  I felt like after the first 15 minutes, when we were a little bit too deep, once we engaged higher and got better pressure on the ball, we snuffed them out really.

“They’ve got some terrific players and some fantastic footballers in that team and to limit them to very little is a all collective team effort today.”

Sevenoaks Town went close to smashing the deadlock in the 29^th minute when former Walton & Hersham striker Palace Francis went close to scoring.

He collected the ball on the halfway line and strode straight through the heart of the pitch before drilling his right-footed shot across the keeper and flashing just past the foot of the left-hand post from 20-yards, with Whitehawk not attempting to close him down.

“I thought Palace was a constant threat today,” said Hudson.

“We’ve been working on him quite hard as a nine and he’s starting to look quite complete, coming off centre-halves and he’s a real problem.  He’s got pace and power and if we can get him into the back space, he’s a problem.

“We just need to work on his instincts in and around the box. It was a great turn, he made the opportunity out of nothing and that may have been deflected and on another day you don’t know where it goes.”

Sevenoaks Town hit the post for the first time in the 34^th minute, however.

Right-back Jerald Aboagye fed right-winger Fumnaya Shomotun, who drove down the right before cutting into the box and lacked composure as he drilled his left-footed drive against the base of the near post from 15-yards on the angle.

When asked what was missing from his players’ today, Hudson replied: “The final decision or the final bit of quality in the box and a bit of luck.  Those little moments where you kind of think that little decision and quality in the final bit.”

The warm temperatures and a sticky artificial pitch made it a low-tempo first half but Sevenoaks Town put in a more dominant performance after the break.

“Similar to Colliers Wood and similar to East Grinstead (4-1 win) on Monday, I told them to just keep going and take it up a level,” said Hudson.

“We said it was really hot today, it felt like a pre-season game and we knew in the first half it would’ve taken a lot more out of them as it did us because we had a lot more of the ball and more of the possession in really good areas, so we thought they would tire.

“We said in previous weeks we’ve become very, very dominant in the second half.  Once we score one, we tend to go on and do two, three or four, so we just wanted to keep the guys going and keep them believing.

“I actually thought we got better in the second half, coincided with Whitehawk dropping off and I think probably the message for them was to kind of keep the draw and take us to their place on Tuesday, which is testament to the boys that they’ve made a team from the league above have that mindset.”

The Oaks produced a well-worked move inside the opening eight minutes with Ricardo Thompson feeding Shomotun, who easily skipped past Wright’s challenge outside the box before cutting inside and drilling a left-footed shot against the right-hand post from 25-yards.

Emmanuel Mensah reacted inside the box but visiting goalkeeper Mitchell Walker pounced on the ball at the attacking midfielder’s feet.

Lower league teams can’t afford to be profligate as missed opportunities tend to come back and bite them as the higher league sides tend to finish teams off at the second attempt in The FA Cup.

Hudson said: “That probably sums up our day.  Fumnaya has done brilliantly, he’s beaten the goalie all ends up and on another day that bounces off the post. He’s hit it with such venom and it hits the goalie and goes in or falls nice to Manny and Manny followed up really well but couldn’t get it under control because the ball bobbled and bounced back up to him so it probably sums up our afternoon. It was very unfortunate.”

Whitehawk offered very little in attack but they did come close to grabbing the lead when Daly released Collins down the left and he cut inside before playing the ball along the 18-yard line to Charlie Walker, who curled his shot around the keeper and just past the far post.

“We know they like to shoot from range and we know Charlie Walker is a fantastic player, some of his touches today were a joy to watch,” added Hudson.

Whitehawk boss Saunders made a double substitution in the 63^rd minute, taking off striker Ben Pope and putting his replacement Finlay Chadwick in the middle of the park, pushing Charlie Walker up front in the middle and Charlie Lambert coming off the bench wide right, with Collins wide on the left.

“I don’t think Louis' (Collins) best wide.  Louis probably didn’t get the service, maybe that he would’ve wanted,” admitted the manager who released the 22-year-old, shortly after his dad Micky parted company with the Greatness Park outfit.

“I don’t think their offensive players could get into the game today because of our shape, our structure and our intensity.”

The earlier introduction of left-winger Solomon Baugh, meanwhile, was a threat for Sevenoaks Town, while Hudson heaped plenty of praise on his two centre-halves Rian Bray and Jahmal Howlett-Mundle for making Whitehawk look ordinary in attack.

Hudson said: “I thought they’re a really solid foundation where I think last year, maybe at times we were a little bit, like a team who were direct against us, would get success.  It doesn’t happen this year, they’re both really good competitors, really good natural defenders.

“We’re working really hard with them and I thought that showed today. I thought they were both exceptional on the ball and are both good in tight areas and we’re getting better and better at it, so they’ve given us a real foundation to build on and I thought today both of them were very good.”

Bray almost sealed the deal in the 70^th minute, following Sevenoaks’ fourth of nine corners.

Substitute central midfielder Jaiden Drake-Thomas floated a deep corner in from the right and Bray was left in oceans of space at the far post and his header was tipped over the bar by the former Dover Athletic and Aldershot Town keeper Walker, 31.

“I thought the keeper done well.  Rian got good contact on it.  We work quite a lot on set-plays this year.  I thought we created two or three really good opportunities from set-places and that’s credit to the coaching staff for setting the boys up like that and mainly Mark Dacey, who focuses on the set-plays and we looked a threat today and it was a good save from the keeper.”

Sevenoaks Town’s players sensed that Whitehawk were there for the taking and Whitehawk were hanging on the longer the game went on.

Drake-Thomas played his next corner short to Baugh, who clipped a deep cross towards substitute Daniel Carr, who stroked a right-footed drive straight at Mitchell Walker from 20-yards, the keeper making a comfortable save.

The excellent resilient pairing of Howlett-Mundle and Bray linked up and the visiting goalkeeper made another comfortable save in the final 15 minutes.

Mundle was inside the Sevenoaks half and played the ball over the halfway line to Bray, who wasn’t pressed by an opponent and he drilled a low right-footed drive through plenty of legs towards the bottom far corner, but keeper Walker kept his eyes on the ball and easily gathered low down.

“The ball kept dropping to Rian today in the box unfortunately and then he had one from way, way out, which is the best he struck it. He’s a very, very good ball striker and again I thought the keeper handled it very well. It probably could’ve caught him out, somebody shooting from that far out,” added Hudson.

Drake-Thomas floated in the home side’s seventh corner towards the back post and Bray held his head in his hands in despair after sending his header over the top of the near post as the home side pressed for the decisive winning goal.

You sensed that Whitehawk would create one chance to complete a smash-and-grab raid and they created a couple of late openings.

Worrall floated a cross towards the edge of the Sevenoaks box for Charlie Walker to send his free-header towards the roof of the net, which was comfortably caught by a back-peddling Tangara.

Whitehawk struggled to get past the dominant Howlett-Mundle and Bray, so Chadwick decided to try to score from the centre-spot (48:31) with Tangara off his line but his speculative shot sailed past the left upright.

“I think the header was from quite deep towards the edge of the 18-yard box but he’s kind of helped it on and I think it was pretty comfortable for Amadou,” said Hudson.

“To be fair to the 16 (Chadwick), he saw Amadou off his line and if something like that had gone in today, it would’ve been a bit of a sucker-punch because their chances were pretty few and far between, I think.”

Despite their lacklustre performance today, Whitehawk will be favourites going into Tuesday night’s replay in Brighton.

“We have absolutely no fear and no concern going there.  I think we were the better side,” said Hudson.

“It’s a different surface, a different pitch but we shouldn’t be worried.  If we replicate what we did today, then we should win because we should’ve won the game today.

“I’m just so proud of the boys today, proud of their level and what they showed and proud that we’ve made a very, very good side with excellent footballers at the level above want to stick in the game and try to play for the draw and I think that’s fantastic for us.

“Today was a free hit and Tuesday will be a free hit as well because the pressure is on Whitehawk, it’s not on us, so if anything from today we’ll take even more belief going down there.

“It will be a different type of game but nothing showed me today that we shouldn’t be confident going into the game.”

Hudson then takes his side to Slough on Friday 8 September (20:00) to tackle Isthmian League South Central Division side Uxbridge in The FA Trophy First Qualifying Round.

“It’s a bit unfortunate but it is what it is. We train Monday-Wednesday, so even though we’re playing Tuesday, we’ll still have a chance to train before Uxbridge, so that won’t be a problem,” added Hudson, when quizzed about playing two games in the space of four days.

“At the moment we just want to keep playing because the boys are doing the football club proud and that’s my remit as a manager and the staff is to put a football team out that represents the club in the right way and I think today was another example of that.

“We want to keep playing football because we’re playing well. We shouldn’t be shying away from football matches because we’re looking good and we’re looking confident.”

Hudson revealed he was without Daniel Bennett (away), Matthew Attenborough-Warren (sore ankle), Rowan Liburd and midfielder Jack Sammoutis is back in training after suffering a twisted knee.

Hudson said: “It’s probably the worst thing in football to be injured.  Jack went through all pre-season without a scrape and then he’s had a clash of knees that resulted in a little twist.

“Jack has suffered with his injuries in the past but we’re trying to support him the best we can and there’s light at the end of the tunnel now. It’s not like he’s months away at all. He’s hopefully come through the worst of it. 

"The worst thing as a player if it is a long-term one and you can’t really see that hope at the end of the tunnel and you’re going to be months and months away.”

Sevenoaks Town: Amadou Tangara, Jerald Aboagye, Karn Miller-Neave, Ricardo Thompson, Rian Bray, Jahmal Howlett-Mundle, Kyle De Silva (Solomon Baugh 51), Kieron Cadogan (Jaiden Drake-Thomas 62), Palace Francis, Emmanuel Mensah, Fumnaya Shomotun (Daniel Carr 72).
Subs: Andrew Norburn, Matthew Attenborough-Warren

Booked: Kyle De Silva 39, Jahmal Howlett-Mundle 50

Whitehawk: Mitchell Walker, Hamish Morrison, Stefan Wright, Ryan Worrall, Joe Tennent, Luca Cocoracchio (Connor Cody 32), Dominic Johnson-Fisher (Charlie Lambert 63), Joel Daly, Ben Pope (Finlay Chadwick 63), Charlie Walker, Louis Collins.
Subs: Dion Miftari, Reece Price-Placid

Booked: Joe Tennant 88

Attendance: 304
Referee: Mr Neil Morrison
Assistants: Mr Daniel Trout & Mr Patrick Jolliffe