Long-serving Bearsted manager Kevin Stevens reflects on 1-0 Southern Counties East Premier Division success against Corinthian

There was a first for Bearsted in their narrow home win over Corinthian on Saturday.

Long-serving manager Kevin Stevens revealed the club had never previously earned a Southern Counties East Premier Division success against the Gay Dawn Farm outfit.

But they did so as defender Daniel Melvin headed home a first-half goal in their 1-0 win before the visitors ended with nine men at Honey Lane after Connor Driscoll was sent off in more than 12 minutes of second-half stoppage time and a team-mate was also sin-binned.

“That’s the first time in seven seasons in the Premier Division that we have beaten Corinthian,” said Stevens, the subject of a post-match presentation to honour the boss recently moving beyond 400 matches in charge of the Bears. “It was nice.

“I thought we played well in the first half and, not that we would stroll to the win, but we were definitely looking to get the second and that would help settle us down.

“But we made hard work of it - as usual - and the boys dug in and defended well.

“We’re really happy.”

Bearsted are 10th and have accumulated 18 points from 11 league fixtures this term.

Stevens said: “We’ve established ourselves as a regular now, which is nice. We’ve done that without a budget for years.

“We have got one now. It’s not a big budget like a lot of teams, but it’s made life a lot easier.

“It’s nice to sort of be established in the Premier Division.”

Victory against Corinthian saw Bearsted bounce back from their First-Round 4-1 defeat at Eastbourne United in the FA Vase on Tuesday, despite Oliver Freeman’s late consolation. The Bears made the last 32 of the competition in the 2018/19 campaign.

Stevens, whose wife, Lesley, is club secretary, said: “We just lost on Tuesday night in the Vase.

“I