We gave them too much respect, admits Harris - EXCLUSIVE

AS FANS' come to terms with Tonbridge Angels’ disappointing FA Trophy exit at the hands of their Ryman Premier League rivals AFC Wimbledon yesterday, Richard Harris, who partnered Ray Powell up front, admitted the Angels gave their opponents “too much respect,” writes Stephen McCartney.

Having knocked out former Football League outfit and Blue Square Premier giants Oxford United last month, the Angels were dumped out, losing this second round tie by four goals to nil.

A crowd of 2,281 was the largest ever crowd to watch Tonbridge Angels at the Betterview Longmead Stadium - but the Angels contingent went home disappointed.

A thirteenth minute left-footed strike from Daniel Webb set the tone for a disappointing afternoon, but when goalkeeper Matt Reed saved Mark De Bolla’s 37^th minute penalty, the gloom briefly lifted.

But TWO blunders by debutant defender John Wilfort, whose more suited to playing for County League sides Redhill or Erith Town, gifted De Bolla a brace at crucial times during the game.

The 29-year-old who signed for the club from Welling United two days before the game miss-kicked the ball some 30-yards from goal, and De Bolla, who we all know what he is capable off following his time at Gravesend & Northfleet last season, slotted home - just 48 seconds before the half-time whistle blew.

Had the score remained at 1-0 at the break, then Tonbridge Angels might have clawed themselves back into the game.

But when De Bolla scored again, nine minutes into the second half, drilling home another Wilfort gift, the game was over.

Wilfort’s header back towards Reed failed miserably to find his team-mate and De Bolla did the rest.

Tommy Tyne was sent off for a straight red card after 64 minutes and Wimbledon substitute Richard Jolly made an instant impact on the game by adding a fourth inside stoppage time.

“The boys are a bit down, it’s not nice to be beat four-nil by anybody,” Harris said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“Three goals are mistakes and one of the finishes was good and I that was about it.

“They worked a little bit harder, they ran around a little bit harder and that’s something we’ve got to get right and put right.

“It has been a problem for us in some of our games that we’re not working as hard as I think we should be, and that’s all round, myself included.

“Only we can put it right. I think we will. We’ve got good character, a good team spirit.”

AFC Wimbledon wingers Tony Finn and Steve Ferguson impressed throughout, causing the Kent side all sorts of problems.

And Harris, 27, said: “I’ve heard about Finn but I’ve never seen him and I’ve known Ferguson for years so we’re old friends so I know what he’s like but I think if you give them time and let them play then they’re pace all round, they’ve got Mark De Bolla, four or five players and they all attack.

“What you’ve got to do against AFC, you’ve got to get up against them and I think the crowd for them is like a 12^th man as well.

“A lot of people do get overawed by their fans and overawed by the whole AFC themselves and really you’ve just got to ignore that and get up against them.”

Harris recalled the last meeting between the two sides when the Angels clawed themselves back from
2-0 down to clinch a point in Jon Main’s last game for the club before his big-money switch to the Dons. Luckily, Main was cup-tied for yesterday’s encounter.

“In the first game 2-0 down, second half we came out and absolutely battered them in the league and we came out with a draw.

“We should have won that game and I think that was what we wanted to do today but for some reason we went back to giving them respect, giving them the time and the space and you’re always going to get punished by a team with that much quality on the left-wing, the right-wing, centre forwards.

“If you give them time and that’s what we done today, (we) gave them too much respect and too much time.”

So how can the Angels clinch a brave goal-less draw up at Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium, win the replay but fail miserably against one of their league rivals that they’ve performed well against in the past two seasons?

“I think that’s just the FA Cup, FA Trophy, that’s just the madness in football,” replied Harris.

“You can go out and on the day if everything goes your way and everything goes right you can put it together.

“Reedy saved the penalty, you thought that would be a little wake-up but it wasn’t.

“We let in a goal dead on half-time, let in a goal at the end of the game, at the beginning of the game, beginning of the second half and it just wasn’t out day today.

“I think (against) Oxford everyone dug in, everyone worked hard and everything we set out to do worked and I think today a couple of things we set out to do just didn’t work today.”

Hamid Barr, 30, meanwhile, had to wait until the 62^nd minute to enter the field, coming on for Harris to partner Tommy Tyne up front.

But within a minute Tyne was red-carded for an elbow on Jason Goodliffe and all plans went out of the window.

Barr struck the foot of the left-post during the brave goal-less draw at the Kassam Stadium and scored THAT goal that knocked out the Blue Square giants in the replay three days later.

When asked how Tonbridge can knock out Oxford and then lose to AFC Wimbledon, Barr, speaking EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk replied: “I don’t know, it’s the luck of the Trophy I suppose, I don’t know mate!

“I just think today the pitch weren’t the best. It didn’t help us a lot and they’re a bit more organised than us and they put their chances away.”

Barr, too, pointed the finger of blame to Wilfort for the Angels FA Trophy exit for his costly two blunders.

He said: “There was a couple of errors, the new fella’s come in, a big game as well. It’s a bit unfortunate for the fella really but all in all we didn’t do enough to win today.”

AFC Wimbledon are now the lowest ranked team left in the competition and go into Monday morning’s third round draw and the national press have already jumped on the AFC Wimbledon supporting bandwagon.

Regrets? “Well, as a team I suppose yes, because it’s a shame, we would have been in the last sixteen if we had won today and that’s something good for the club,” replied Barr.

“The club deserves to do well, it’s got good supporters here and they’ve got good backing here and I would have liked to seen us to go further in it.”

Despite playing through the pain barrier for several weeks now, skipper Ray Powell goes into hospital for a hernia operation on Tuesday and is expected to be out for four to six weeks.