Nine Man Tooting Upset The Odds Against Greenwich
- Official TMUFC
- Jan 30, 2017
- 2 min read
Nine man Tooting defied the odds on Saturday, not only holding off Greenwich Borough but taking the game to them despite being outnumbered and were duly rewarded when Mike Dixon seized on an opportunity to snatch all three points for the Terrors.
Greenwich started the stronger of the two sides and had the first opportunity of the game which forced Kyle Merson into pulling of a great save following a corner on 8 minutes. A minute later he was called into action again, this time saving comfortably from a low hit shot. After 14 minutes Tooting came close to scoring when a mishit Danny Bassett cross caught the ‘keeper out and just clipped the top of the crossbar. A minute later the game took a dramatic turn when Tooting were reduced to 10 men after Quincy Rowe received a straight red card after he lunged in from behind on Charlie MacDonald, bringing him down just outside the penalty area. The “obvious” tactical change at this point would have been to bring off a striker in order to restore the defensive numbers but Messrs Wilson and Dale were having none of that. Clearly confident that they could still win the game, they took off left wing back Tenny Adebowale, and replaced him with Bash Alimi, playing three across the back.
As the half progressed, Tooting grew in confidence and matched their opponents despite their numeric disadvantage. Keeper Kyle Merson was called into action again on 37 minutes when he saved well from a Daniel Young header. There was then another opportunity for the visitors just three minutes later when Mo Eisa fired over. The final chance of the half went to Tooting though, but like Eisa at the other end, Jack Mazzone fired his effort over.
The first real opportunity of the second period fell the way of Greenwich after 63 minutes when Charlie MacDonald sent a glancing header just wide from a corner kick. As the half progressed, the visitors started to get up a head of steam and had two good chances in the 70th minute when firstly a Charlie MacDonald shot was blocked on the line by skipper Sol Patterson-Bohner and then Kyle Merson made a good save from Borough substitute Jake Britnell.
75 minutes into the game there was another turning point when Danny Bassett was felled by a nasty looking challenge from Jake Britnell as he tried to bring the ball out of defence. After being treated on the pitch for approximately 5 minutes we then had the sad sight of him being carried from the field on a stretcher. This was a double blow for Tooting as having already used all three substitutes they now found themselves reduced to 9 men. However despite the two man disadvantage Tooting continued to press when they could and just 4 minutes after Bassett’s unfortunate departure, they capitalised on an over hit back pass from Liam Hickey as ‘keeper Craig Holloway failed to control the ball as Mike Dixon closed down on him. The ball bounced off the ‘keeper, straight to the feet of Dixon who quickly flicked the ball past the stopper and stroked the ball into the empty net to send 95 percent of those present into raptures of delight.
Photo credit: Sam Conquest