SEVENOAKS Town A won the Smiths League Senior Cup at Greatness Park on Tuesday evening last week, by defeating Hildenborough Athletic 5-2 before a sizeable and vocal crowd, writes Derek Hodge.

On a bright sunny evening and with the Greatness Park pitch in excellent condition, Borough put up a disappointing display and never got into their full stride.

The evening was a personal triumph for Guy Smith, who scored a well-taken hat-trick, while central defender Stuart Clarke had flown in from New York hours earlier to take part in the tie, and he played a major role in defence for Sevenoaks.

Sevenoaks Town A took the tie at a canter, always playing with more purpose than their opponents and displaying far better skills. They had a greater work rate and closed down Borough quickly.

Borough never settled into their normal game and lacked ideas, while displaying little shape. For them, it was a helter-skelter match and they appeared unable to adapt to the wide open spaces at Greatness Park. Both teams are contenders for the Premier Division championship and on this form, Sevenoaks must be favourites for the title.

For Sevenoaks, Brad Draper was always a handful up front and acted as a perfect foil for ace striker Joe Creasey, whose fierce shooting always spelt danger for Borough.

At the back, Scott McGuire kept a watchful eye on the dangerous Adam Davies, but Karl Smith had few openings to display his attacking prowess.

A frantic opening spell saw Creasey take a couple of snap shots, one of which went into the midriff of goalkeeper Mark Stratton. As Borough attacked, Karl Smith pushed the ball out wide to the fleet-footed Ant Goodwin, who then cut the ball back to Smith, but he was unable to control the ball and lost possession.

Goodwin then showed his pace down the left flank, but was unceremoniously brought down by McGuire.

Sevenoaks took the lead on 17 minutes, when Smith collected the ball on the edge of the area and struck a shot from the right into the far corner of the net.

Sevenoaks were making it difficult for their opponents to get any pattern into their play and were restricting them to long balls, which were often intercepted. Draper brought down Smith and was promptly shown the yellow card by referee Ray Perry.

Stratton did well to save a snap shot, diving to his left and pushing the ball away for a corner. Shaun Blyth sustained an injury, but recovered after treatment and continued on the half-hour.

The lively Creasey thumped the ball beyond Stratton for the second goal as the Borough defence was at sixes and sevens. Minutes later, Sevenoaks got their first flag-kick, but the ball was cleared by the Borough defence.

Receiving the ball from Davies, Goodwin twisted and turned but his shot from 25 yards went wide of the target. A long clearance by Stratton found Smith, but Clarke got the better of the striker to clear the ball to safety.

Just before the halfway mark, Scott Mitchell brought down Creasey inside the area and Smith sent Stratton the wrong way with the resultant spot-kick. Up to this point the Sevenoaks keeper Alex Morris had been virtually a spectator.

Immediately after the start of the second half, Sevenoaks Town A were on the attack as the energetic Draper set up Creasey on the left side, but the striker hesitated and Steve Ashmore took possession of the ball.

Goodwin was shown the yellow card as frustration began to creep into Borough's play. Sevenoaks then built an excellent move involving Creasey, Draper and Smith, but the attack broke down. Then Borough were awarded a free-kick and Smith thumped his shot straight low down at Morris.

Luke Stradford was replaced by Andy Cattenach, but Sevenoaks continued to drive forward quicker to the ball and were stronger all round. Draper held up the ball near the left corner-flag before releasing John Phillips, whose cross was met by Smith, but he blasted his shot over the crossbar.

In a rare Borough attack, centre-back Scott Mitchell came forward, but his shot also went over the crossbar. Creasey put the ball into the net, but was ruled offside while at the other end, Borough got some consolation when Smith juggled with the ball, twisted and turned before striking the ball into the net.

Mark Stratton brought off a brilliant save to deny Draper and as the ball rolled towards the goal-line Ashmore was on hand to assist his keeper. Stratton was again in the thick of the action, but in smothering the ball, it fell to Smith who slotted it into the net.

Draper received his last warning from the referee amid cheers from the Hildenborough crowd, who had been in good voice all evening. Phillips wrapped up Sevenoaks' scoring, following a corner, but Smith had the final say for Borough, striking an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area beyond the despairing keeper, Morris.

Squads: Sevenoaks Town A: Alex Morris, Scott McGuire, Stuart Clarke, John Eastwood, Matt O'Reilley, Guy Smith, Brad Draper, John Phillips, Shaun Blyth, Joe Creasey, Steve Cosby, Jamie Brown, Gary Barnes, Colin Sutton. Matt Dalton; Hildenborough Athletic Reserves: Mark Stratton, Matt Loveday, Scott Mitchell, Luke Stradford, Steve Ashmore, Ant Goodwin, Mike Newall, James Ashenden, Matt Kent, Karl Smith, Adam Davies. Subs: Darren Yeung, Andy Cattenach, Paul Dennington, John Loveday, Charlie Ottway. Officials: referee, Ray Perry, assistant referees, Alistair Strange, Andy Clegg, fourth official, Warren Boswell.