Terrors Crash Out Of FA Cup

Tooting and Mitcham crashed out of the Emirates FA Cup at Folkestone yesterday afternoon in another game where defensive frailties in their own penalty area undermined the large amounts of possession and attacking passing play they enjoyed in other parts of the field.

The Terrors started solidly enough despite the home side having most of the possession in the opening five minutes of the game. However in the 6th minute, Folkestone were awarded a corner out on their right. As the ball was swung into the Tooting 6 yard area, following a quick scramble, it was inadvertently turned into his own net by the unfortunate Eddie Dines.

Despite being in charge for the remainder of the first half (leading the corner count 5 to 3), the closest the Terrors came to drawing level was on 39 minutes when Danny Bassett barely made contact with a side footed effort from 4 yards out which 9 times out of 10 he would’ve buried; but instead, on this occasion, the ball was stroked tamely into the arms of the grateful ‘keeper.

Notwithstanding the scoreline, the overall performance in the first 45 minutes left the travelling Tooting support optimistic as to what they might see in the second half. However that optimism quickly evaporated just 2 minutes after the re-start; another corner and another goal conceded. This time, the ball was swung into the 6 yard box from the Terrors’ right hand side. Under aerial pressure from the Folkestone strike force, ‘keeper Joe Tupper elected to punch the ball clear. Although he got reasonable distance on his punch, from just outside the Tooting penalty area the ball was headed straight back into the danger area where it was headed in from the edge of the 6 yard box by the unmarked Finn O’Mara.

With Folkestone’s tails now up they continued to press forward putting the Tooting back line under pressure. The closest Tooting came to getting themselves back into the game at this point was a Billy Dunn effort that struck the post in the 56th minute. Four minutes later, though the hosts looked to have put the game beyond Tooting’s reach when they scored a third, this time a low long range effort across the angle of the penalty area from substitute, Adam Yusuff. Despite the scoreline though, Tooting never gave up and continued to go forward when they could. A long range strike from just inside the penalty area from Omar Folkes got them on the scoresheet however it was all too little too late.

Photo credit: Sam Conquest

#TootingAndMitcham #Tooting #Folkestone