Goalkeeper Toby McKimm misses out on Tonbridge Angels league debut due to school commitments

Toby McKimm misses out on a league debut for Tonbridge this weekend as he’s playing for his school.

Angels are without first-choice goalkeeper Jonny Henly, who serves a one-match ban following his red card at Oxford City.

That would have been opened the door for manager’s son McKimm to line up against Braintree at Longmead tomorrow but the 17-year-old, named man-of-the-match in Angels’ Kent Senior Cup win over Maidstone last month, has a school game.

“Toby’s unavailable, otherwise he would have played,” said Tonbridge boss Steve McKimm, who has a stand-in for Henly lined up.

“I wouldn’t have had a problem playing him. Forget the inexperience, he would have played but he has another commitment with his school team.

“It’s a winner-takes-all game for the independent schools, he’s played all season and school is his priority at the moment.

“It’s fallen on the wrong day for him because he’d have loved to have played but I’ve got to be fair to what his commitments were before he signed for us.

“He’s been committed to his school for the last five years, I don’t expect him to drop it just because I want him to play in goal for me.”

Outfield player Jamie Fielding took the gloves at Oxford after Henly was sent off for handling outside his area after 10 only minutes.

The visitors did their best to protect Fielding, who made a couple of fine saves, but City won 5-0.

Angels were without a substitute keeper as McKimm was with Merstham as part of a dual-registration agreement.

“It’s hard for a manager to say to someone ‘you’ve got to go in goal’ because they might not feel comfortable but Jamie volunteered and all credit to him," said McKimm.

“It was unfortunate he let five in but there’s no blame on him for any of the goals.

“He went