Sittingbourne Pretty as the Crows Plummet Out of the Trophy

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 20 September 2025 at the Charles Century Community Stadium, Fermor Road
Result	Crowborough Athletic 1 Sittingbourne 6
Competition	FA Trophy 2nd Round Qualifying
Hopstats	Ground #808 on the lifetime list. One of my thirty-odd Step 4 target grounds for this season. Headed south today because of the Met Office yellow warning for the north-west.
Context
Mixed season so far for the hosts, newly promoted from Step 5. Mid-table (Isthmian Division One South-East) and out of the FA Cup, but they set this tie up with an away win at Hassocks in the previous round. Sittingbourne are in the same division and reached last season’s playoff final. They have had a decent start in the league but are also out of the FA Cup. They beat Faversham Town 2-1 in the previous round of the Trophy and will probably start the day as favourites here.
Match Report
Sittingbourne could have been four or five up in the first half-hour. As it was their wastefulness meant that they had just the two. A neat finish into the bottom left corner by Jack Steventon to round off the first attack of the game, and a slightly bizarre stooped headed goal for experienced debutant Derek Asamoah after the ball had ricocheted around the six-yard box. The movement of the Sittingbourne strike force caused issues for the home defence, especially that of Asamoah. The visiting fans were in good voice and absolutely loved the determination of their new signing in winning the ball back in midfield. Sittingbourne were soon to go three up as Jean-Baptiste Fischer glanced in a header from a freekick. Crowborough finally caused a bit of action in the Sittingbourne box just before half-time, but nothing came of it. It would be important for Crowborough to get the next goal, and they did. The second half started as a mirror image of the first with a good low shot into the same corner of the same goal. Rushaar Samuel-Smikle the scorer. So, some hope of a challenge. That hope was snuffed out on 70 minutes with Sittingbourne’s fourth, Richard Hamill’s curling shot just evading the keeper’s outstretched hand. The fifth was an 80th minute screamer from Eman Robe, and the sixth from Ellis Brown in stoppage time wasn’t too shabby either. And so, back to the M25 and the Dartford Crossing (yes, the A282 before some pedant points it out). Nice ground, nice people, shame about the game – as a passing neutral I enjoy it more when the result is in doubt for longer. All credit to Sittingbourne, though – that was clinical. Someone press CTRL-ALT-DEL for Crowborough. They will have better days than this.
So What?
Usual cliché here about Crows concentrating on the league and Sittingbourne in the hat for the next round etc etc.
Pix
Crowborough in blue-and-black.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today a catastrophic defeat for Purple, a win for Orange. Enough to make Purple drop two places. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 48% (98 from 195)
What Next?
Simple answer - no idea. Last-minute decisions based on the weather and work commitments will be the usual method this season. I have Everton and Worcester City to visit to restore "everywhere down to Step 3 in England" and just over 30 Step 4 grounds to go.