Manager’s son Toby McKimm was named man-of-the-match on his debut as Tonbridge beat Maidstone in the Kent Senior Cup.

Goalkeeper McKimm, 17, marked his first appearance with a clean sheet in a 1-0 victory that sent Angels through to round three on Tuesday night.

He made a couple of fine saves in an assured performance, having got the nod to play from dad Steve on the morning of the game.

“He’d just gone to work and he called me and said, ‘Toby, you’re starting tonight,’” said the teenager, who was on Fulham’s books as a kid. “I was preparing for it all day.

“It was different, very different, playing for my dad.

“I’ve gone from playing in front of him, just as a normal dad on a Sunday, to him being my manager.

“As soon as we walk through that gate he goes from dad to gaffer, but it’s enjoyable.

“We talk about football a lot. On the way here, on the way home, everything’s football. It’s good.

“I get a bit of stick, ‘Aww, Daddy the manager’, but at the same time the players are good.

"They’re like, ‘You’re one of us now, we don’t care if he’s your dad, do what he says but do what we say as well.’”

There was no special treatment when the Angels boss wanted to make a point to his goalkeeper at half-time.

For McKimm junior, it was a case of taking his dad’s comments on the chin.

He said: “It was weird because he was talking to everyone else and then he came to me and said, ‘Your first two kicks were good and then you tried that fancy one and it didn’t come off.’

“At first it feels a bit personal but then you realise that here he is just your manager, you’ve got to take constructive criticism and get on with it.”

It remains to be seen how long McKimm, who became a goalkeeper because “I liked diving around on mud”, will be at Tonbridge, with the sixth-former looking to go to university in America.

“If that doesn’t happen, I’ll get a job and play non-league,” he said.

McKimm was handed his chance with first-choice keeper Jonny Henly given the night off.

Dad Steve was proud of his performance.

“He’s earned his game on merit,” said McKimm. “He’s been on the bench and he took his chance and I thought he did very well.

“He has to stand up and be counted because he’s a player for Tonbridge Angels, forget the father and son thing.

“He handled the situation and I’m proud of him as a father but also a manager, as I am of all the young players who played.

“That was his choice to be a goalie - I never got involved in where he decided to play. He’s had a good time of it so far and long may it continue.

“If tonight’s anything to go by, you don’t have to be 6ft 5in.

"It helps but you don’t have to be 6ft 5in because what he had to do, he did very well and that goes for all the other boys.

“When you talk about a goalkeeper it’s a difficult position.

“Jonny’s made a couple of errors this season, where he’s slipped, that are unlike him, but he’s also saved us on plenty of occasions.

“You can never win as a goalkeeper because you can make a great save and you’re expected to make it, and you can let a silly one in and it’s there goes the keeper again.

“You’re the last line of defence and you’ve got to have thick skin because people come for you a lot of the time.

“That’s Toby’s choice to play in goal and it has been since he was a baby. He’s got his first senior game and he’s got a clean sheet from it.”