Casuals Cut Down by Oaks

Corinthian-Casuals 3-5 Sevenoaks Town
Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round
Saturday 16th August 2025
Report: Josh Lamey
Images: Stuart Tree and Andy Nunn
 
Corinthian-Casuals bowed out of the Emirates FA Cup in style, in an eight-goal thriller in front of an animated Armada Group Stadium.
 
Against step four opposition, in Sevenoaks Town, Casuals put in a performance to be proud of, recovering a three-goal deficit before falling victim to two late goals.
 
The FA Cup fever was setting in around the ground prior to kick off, but unfortunately for Casuals, the bubble of excitement burst just five minutes into the tie. Sevenoaks wrote their name onto the scoresheet first, courtesy of a well-engineered inswinging corner that was headed home by Charlie Dickens.
 
Casuals threatened to amend a slow start in the subsequent minutes. A fluid counter-attack gave them the licence to pounce on a shortage of Sevenoaks centre-halves, and just as Raf Barbosa’s finish trickled into the corner, roars of jubilation shifted to cries of frustration at the sight of the linesman’s raised flag. Then, Andre Coker must’ve thought he had fashioned the equaliser, but following a tantalising ball across the face of goal, the marksman could only strike the foot of the post.
 
The Oaks’ seasoned striker Warren Mfula – formerly a popular figure at Casuals – led a late Sevenoaks charge as half-time approached, rolling it square to James Jeffrey, who forced a crucial save from Sanghyun Baek at his near post.
 
Town began the second half how they started the first, by denting the hosts’ spirits. Dickens continued to alarm the Casuals defence from left-back, and his sweet half volley ricocheted into the path of Tolu Jonah who couldn’t miss. After a reshuffle of the Corinthian pack, the Oaks pulled even further ahead. Mason Doughty sprinted through the final third before opening up his body and curling in a calculated third.
 
However, the noise never faded from the 302-strong Corinthian contingent despite the scoreline. The unwavering support was repaid when substitute Patrick Maia floated in an inviting cross from the right flank which kissed the boot of Raf Barbosa, whose pure first-time volley reignited the cup spirit around the ground.

Left-back George Bond commenced his Casuals career with a formidable performance away at Cobham last week and he continued his promising start yesterday. After collecting the ball 30 yards out, he wouldn’t have expected to score a goal-of-the-season contender quite so soon, unleashing an arrow into the top-right corner. A belter for some, a pearler for others, but Corinth were well and truly back in it with half an hour to play.
 
It was another new signing who then had the fans truly believing in the ‘Magic of the Cup’. Andre Coker, making his home debut, endeared himself to the Corinth faithful in style by picking the ball up on the byline, cutting in, and firing home the equaliser to the sound of Casuals hysteria. It was a mountain, but Maan’s men had climbed it.
 
Yet Town managed to forge ahead once more, against the run of play. Kevin Diomande’s tenacity saw him intercept Bond’s mishit clearance, before driving home his side’s fourth of the afternoon inside the near post. Despite a last-minute onslaught from the hosts, Sevenoaks wrapped up a spot in the first qualifying round when Dan Duncanson swept in the insurance goal. Casuals unravelled but not disheartened.
 
It was a result which, on another day, could’ve landed in Corinthian-Casuals’ favour. As Maan suggested after the last round’s victory at Abbey Rangers: “We can go toe-to-toe with whoever we get.”
 
A Bank Holiday derby now awaits the side, as we play host to Epsom & Ewell in the league next Monday.
 

I’m gutted for the boys and for the fans,” said Maan after the match. “With all due respect, I don’t think Sevenoaks deserved that.
 
“Having said that, we’ve conceded five goals, which were all avoidable. That makes it even harder to take the defeat.
 
“First half, I thought we were the better side. Second half, even after going three down, I thought that was harsh on us. Once Raf scored our first goal, I always believed that we could at least grab a draw. And when we drew level, I thought we’d push on and get the win. The officials haven’t helped us today. Andre’s disallowed goal – I don’t think that should’ve been disallowed. That was a definite penalty in the first half too.
 
“Football’s about fine margins and with Will hitting the crossbar in the final minutes at 4-3, that proves it.
“If you concede five goals, it’s going to be tough to win games.
 
“Having said that, it was a very good performance from us, despite conceding five goals. We were never really under the cosh. We know Warren Mfula of course, and we kept him quiet today.
 
“Despite the loss, the boys should be very proud of themselves. We’ve got the whole week now to prepare for the Bank Holiday game against Epsom.”
 
“I also just wanted to say thank you to the fans for the support so far. I’m sure they can see a massive improvement from us. We’ve got a very good squad, and we’ll dust ourselves down and go again on Monday.”

Adding to Mu’s comments after the match, First Team Coach Richard Blackwell said, “I felt we deserved more. We identified that they were a big, physical team, and we conceded a number of  corners, relatively early of which they scored from one. But after that, they didn't really pose a threat to us. I felt going into the break at one nil, we had an opportunity to take the game to them… and then we find ourselves three down.

“But the spirit and desire and fight in the team to come back from that, I honestly feel we should have come away today as winners.

“We just knew our luck wasn't in today, when Will hits the bar like that right near the end.

“Of course, we’ve conceded five in the end, but games like this, you can see we were pushing. At the point that it was three-all, I thought the only team that  was going to go and nick the winner was us.

“Sevenoaks were probably not expecting an easy game. But they would’ve expected to come away as winners and I think we give a good account of ourselves. We’ve pushed on a lot from last season. If you're going to take anything from a loss, it’ll be from this. We'll push on from this 100%.”
 
Corinthian-Casuals: Baek, Smith, Rowe (Maia 58), Afonso, Ejeta, Vitinho (Dos Santos 85), Adelakun (Bailey-Allen 46), Bond, Da Silva (Ewerthon 76), Coker, Barbosa