VICTORY in the last game of the Ryman Premier season did little to lessen the pain of Angels’ narrow failure to reach the play-offs.
The final league table showed that Tonbridge had missed out by just one point on joining the four-way knockout to claim the second promotion place for National South.
The damage had been done at Folkestone Invicta on Bank Holiday Monday where a 1-0 defeat left them out of contention.
Manager Steve McKimm was still reflecting on that defeat, saying: “We had with respect to those teams involved, three final winnable matches, we’ve won two of them but failed at Folkestone simply because we didn’t put in anything like enough effort. I learnt a lot from that match, but I’m still frustrated.”
Tonbridge opened their account in the 13th minute when the away defence failed to properly clear a Liam Smith cross and Nicky Wheeler was on hand to rifle the ball past Kieron Thorp.
The Angels were further ahead in the 23rd minute after Dan Thompson’s clever flick put Luke Blewden clear to round Thorp and score.
Worthing were handed a way back into the game by a mix-up between Sonny Miles and keeper Jonny Henly, allowing Worthing’s Ben Pope to stroke the ball into an empty net in the 28th minute.
Angels substitute Luke Allen should have made the game safe in the 65th minute after he was well set up by Akrofi, but he somehow blazed over from around five yards out.
Worthing had one big chance to equalise in the 76th minute when Lloyd Dawes was through on goal but Henly blocked the shot.
Jack Parter was named Supporters’ Player of the Year after the match, with captain Tom Parkinson as runner-up for the third season running.
