Hendon Hammering For Tooting

Despite a resilient first half display, even more so after being reduced to ten men after half an hour, Tooting slipped to their sixth league defeat in nine games following a 20 minute spell at the start of second half in which they failed to perform and allowed their high flying hosts to build a quick four goal advantage.

Whilst Matte Pierson in the Tooting goal was the busier of the two ‘keepers during the opening half hour, Tooting played with confidence despite having a lot of defending to do. However it was by no means one way traffic and the Terrors looked dangerous whenever they broke forward, particularly through Danny Bassett down the right flank and Billy Dunn working hard to create things in and around the edge of the box, whilst Omar Folkes was often the target when Tooting chose to play the longer ball, holding the ball up well. Tooting’s best opportunity of the half though came after about 25 minutes when Danny Bassett found the ball at his feet in a wide right position just inside the penalty area. From a standing start, he took on and beat his man, before whipping in a low cross across the edge of the 6 yard box from where Sandy Cunningham just failed to make contact. Shortly after this Bassett was the centre of attention again, but this time for the wrong reason as he was shown a straight red card by the referee who had adjudged him to have had his foot too high, catching an opponent in the chest. Despite this setback, Tooting rallied, as they have done in the past when going down to ten men and probably finished the half the stronger of the two sides.

Having gone in at the break, deservedly on level terms, the travelling support were optimistic for another strong showing. Those hopes soon began to evaporate though as just two minutes into the second half, Arthur Lee put Hendon in front after Tooting failed to clear a corner from their right. Tooting looked to hit back straight away and on 51 minutes, won themselves a free kick through Chace O’Neill on the edge of the box. Peter Wedgeworth took the kick but sadly for the Terrors, Tom Lovelock, Hendon ‘keeper, pulled off a magnificent one handed save at his near post to prevent the ball from nestling in the top corner of the net. Within two minutes, the ball was down the other end, this time Matt Ball slotting the ball home to put the home side 2-0 up. Further goals on 62 minutes and 67 minutes from Zak Joseph and Josh Walker then put paid to any remaining hopes the Terrors may have had of getting anything out of the game. Despite rallying again in the final 20 minutes, it was all too little too late as Hendon consolidated 2nd place in the table whilst Tooting remain 23rd.

Photo credit: Sam Conquest

#TootingAndMitcham #Tooting #Hendon