East Grinstead Town 0 v 3 Sevenoaks Town

Boxing Day Tuesday 26th December 2023, Kick-off 15.00
Isthmian League South East Division
East Court, East Grinstead
Admission: £10.00
Programme: Online Only
Attendance: 161

Following my morning game at Crowborough, I then made my way across the Ashdown Forest for my first visit to East Court in exactly ten years, during East Grinstead Town's promotion season before their first taste of Isthmian League football, where they have stayed ever since, despite many close shaves.

East Grinstead have had a reasonable start to their season, coming into this game in 13th place in the 20 club division, following five wins and a draw from their opening 18 league games, but they had lost their last two league games. Sevenoaks have had a very decent start to their season, up in sixth place in the table, following seven wins and four draws from their 16 league games, although they had only picked up one point from three games played in December.

On a mostly cloudy, slightly chilly afternoon, but with the pitch in excellent condition, this game had an explosive start to it, with the visitors opening the scoring inside the first 20 seconds when the ball was played forward towards the edge of the area, and Daniel Bennett had all the time in the world to drill in a low shot into the bottom left corner from the edge of the area. The game soon settled down though, into a pattern which saw Sevenoaks always looking to take their time to think and play good quick passing football, always looking too good for the hosts, who actually were not playing too badly themselves. The visitors doubled their lead on 31 minutes, when Daniel Carr fired home from the edge of the area, and although East Grinstead occasionally threatened to get back into the game, the three points were all but secured for the visitors on 64 minutes, when Emmanuel Mensah sprinted down the right, the keeper came out to the wing to close him down, only for Mensah to take the ball around him, before judging his shot from a tight angle close to the wing to perfection, steering the ball into the empty net. 

The win kept Sevenoaks in sixth place in the table, although now just a point adrift of fifth place and with it the final play-off berth, while East Grinstead remain in 13th place, although now are just five points clear of the bottom two.