Reaction from Tonbridge Angels manager Jay Saunders after 3-1 home defeat by local rivals Maidstone United

Jay Saunders said Tonbridge were hurting after their Boxing Day defeat by Maidstone.

The match was finely poised at 1-1 after Angels wing-back Liam Vincent cancelled out George Fowler’s second-minute opener for the visitors.

But a mistake in midfield by Jeremy Santos was ruthlessly punished as an Aaron Blair wonder strike restored Maidstone’s lead with 12 minutes left.

Matt Bentley completed a 3-1 win in added time but it was that second goal that made the difference.

“It’ll hurt the players and it hurts us as a management group that we’ve just switched off,” said boss Saunders.

“If they make 10 passes and put it in the top corner, fine, but we’ve given the ball away in a stupid area.

“Santos knows that, and that’s probably why he doesn’t start every week, because I need reliability and I haven’t got that today. He gives the ball away and they go and score. That’s the fine margins in the game.”

Saunders was equally frustrated with Maidstone’s opener, which came after just 68 seconds.

But Tonbridge cleared their heads and levelled before half-time thanks to Vincent, although he suffered a dead leg in the process and had to go off after the break.

“It’s so unlike us,” said Saunders.

“Defensively we’ve been really good this year.

“It comes from the kick-off, Ronny Nelson’s too deep, they flick it, they get the throw-in, it’s just a quick throw and we switch off.

“It’s so poor from us. I thought for the next 10 minutes we struggled - you could see it affected us - and then I thought we grew into it and deservedly got our equaliser.

“We played some decent stuff and were starting to ask questions and we go in at half-time deservedly level because I thought that was a well-worked goal.”

A draw was looking likely before Stones