Tooting Champions!

Tooting secured the Ryman League South title at Westhumble on Saturday despite suffering a one goal defeat to second placed Dorking Wanderers.

However the Terrors went into the game, safe in the knowledge that they only had to avoid a five goal reversal to become champions and confirm their return to Ryman Premier League football after an absence of 5 seasons.

Not surprisingly, it was the home side that took the attacking initiative in the early stages of this game, knowing that they had to win it by a comfortable margin. However Tooting held firm, defending from the front and despite Kyle Merson being called into action on a couple of occasions to pull off good saves, the Dorking Wanderers side found the Terrors’ defence too tough a nut to crack.

Wanderers scored the only goal of the game on 71 minutes when ex Woking marksman Gez Sole struck home after being set up by Sam Beard, son of former Terrors’ boss Mark Beard who was amongst the spectators at Westhumble yesterday. Shortly after, the home side were reduced to ten men after Sole received a red card from referee Leigh Crowhurst. Under normal circumstances you might have expected a change in shape or tactics from the Terrors in order to bring themselves back into the game however the circumstances that prevailed in this game meant that that was not required and the status quo was maintained as Tooting comfortably saw out the final 20 minutes and possibly even had the chances to snatch a couple of goals themselves, including one effort from Mike Dixon that struck the Dorking crossbar.

Photo credit: Sam Conquest

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