Town on the end of a raw Deal in trophy

Deal Town: 1

Sevenoaks Town: 0

TROPHY EXIT: Sevenoaks Town lost 1-0 to Deal Town in the quarter-final of the Umbro Kent Senior Trophy on Saturday. Here they are in action against Beckenham Town, earlier in the month

SEVENOAKS Town finally got to play their Umbro Kent Senior Trophy quarter-final against Deal on Saturday, at the third time of asking, and manager Simon Jones left the Kent coast scratching his head as to how his side lost 1-0, writes Jon Harvey.

Town carved open the Deal defence time after time, but just couldn't breach their goal and a solitary strike from Mo Takaloo sent Town crashing out of the competition.

"The performance was probably one of the best of our season, but that is football – it's all about putting that little white ball over the goal-line," Jones said. "Credit to Deal, they had two chances throughout the 90 minutes and took one of them. They did what we could not on the day and we just missed that killer touch.

"I couldn't have asked for more from my team and from the first whistle to the final whistle, only one team looked likely to win it. However, we didn't take our chances.

"The game is now out of the way, and while I don't like to lose any match, I hope Deal go on and win the competition. Considering what happened in the game that was abandoned (Josh Davidson suffered a broken leg), I feel it would be morally correct if they did go on and win it."

Sevenoaks could have been two up within the first five minutes, but Tony Atkins and Daniel Akpoveta failed to hit the target on both occasions.

Brad Ashmore then produced what Jones called "world-class saves" to deny Chris Walker, and then smother Danny Ward's follow-up.

Takaloo struck 10 minutes into the second half, getting between two Sevenoaks defenders to guide Jamie Marriott's cross past goalkeeper Sean Funnell for what proved to be the winning goal.

Sevenoaks continued to attack Deal and Atkins went close on two occasions, but it just wasn't going to be their day.

Town picked up a point in their away trip to Erith and Belvedere on Tuesday evening. The home side took the lead in the 30th minute through Aiden Pursglove, but Chris Walker's seventh of the season, seven minutes into the second half, gave Town a share of the spoils.

Norton Sports are the visitors to Greatness Park on Saturday.