Dover Athletic 2 Tonbridge Angels 0
Two moments of quality saw Angels leave Dover empty-handed in this hard-fought Kent derby.
A George Wilkinson brace – one in either half – meant Dover gained revenge for the victory Angels inflicted on them back in October in what was Alan Dunne’s first league game in charge.
Many Angels fans were still on cloud nine after the dramatic late win against Worthing on Saturday but were brought back to earth with a bump after Dover took the points.
Dunne made four changes from the side which beat Worthing including the injured Kyle Smith while Scott Wagstaff, Marcus Sablier and Sean Shields all dropped to the bench with Bradley Williams, Matty Warren, Naz Bakrin and Alfie Pavey coming in.
A great move on seven minutes involving Ricky Korboa, Frankie Baker, Bunmi Babajide and a driving run of Williams ended with Pavey firing over Mitch Walker’s crossbar but in truth the opening exchanges lacked any real quality.
That changed on 21 after an excellent spell of possession by Dover and a fine move which began on the left with Harrison Sodje. A sequence of slick passing saw the ball reach ex Angel Ryan Hanson who played in George Wilkinson who just did enough to slip the ball past the advancing Matt Rowley.
Tonbridge enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but time and again, crosses into the box were won by the Dover rearguard of Jalen Jones, Harry Beadle and Sodje.
On 35 Babajide had a sighter on goal but his shot flew just over and despite their territorial advantage, Angels had nothing to show for their efforts at the break.
At half time, Dunne replaced Noah McCann with Bailey Akehurst in a like-for-like swap and Akehurst immediately found Pavey at the back post but his attempt was thwarted by the redoubtable Dover defence.
With Angels starting to find their groove they were stunned on 53 minutes by a quite superlative strike from Wilkinson which whistled past Rowley into the top corner to enrapture the Dover faithful and deflate their Angels counterparts at the other end.
Dunne replaced Korboa, Bakrin and Warren with Sablier, Tobi Omole and Shields in an attempt to get a foothold back in the game but the Dover defence continued to offer little change, heading clear everything that was thrown at them.
When Babajide did get behind the defence, he was hauled down by Beadle who was shown an instant yellow by referee Matthew Norton.
Shortly after, Akehurst struck a crisp shot from a tight angle which Walker pushed away.
In the closing stages, Angels enjoyed a lot of possession and showed some decent approach play but in the end lacked the guile to unlock an efficient and combative defensive unit.
After the game Alan Dunne felt Angels had dominated the match and was pleased with his charges: “Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say it wasn’t your night but I thought we were totally dominant. Credit to Dover because they defended their box really well and we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. But I’m really pleased with the boys as I thought they gave me everything and on another day we come away from that with something.”
Tonbridge Angels: Rowley; Bakrin (Omole), Sutcliffe, Thompson (cap), McCann (Akehurst); Williams, Warren (Shields), Korboa (Sablier), Babajide, Baker, Pavey
Subs not used: West-Astuti, Wagstaff, Richardson
