Bromley 1 Tonbridge 1

Match 14/12/967 - Monday, 27 August 2012 - Conference South

Bromley (0) 1 Araba 86
Tonbridge (1) 1 Suarez 9
Att. 805

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 68/596

Match Report

Tonbridge survived football’s equivalent of the Alamo to record a hard-earned draw at Bromley’s Hayes Lane from this Bank Holiday Monday encounter. They can be thankful to a magnificent performance from goalkeeper Lee Worgan whilst their 19-year-old full back Henry Muggeridge can also take a huge credit from the game.

On a warm, blustery day that produced the odd shower, it was referee Ian Cooper that took centre stage with a series of decisions that infuriated both sets of supporters and Tonbridge manager, Tommy Warrilow in particular. Tonbridge were reduced to ten men, for a second successive game, when Chris Piper was shown a second yellow for a tackle with 20 minutes remaining. Neither booking looked worthy, but between the offences, the competitive Piper trod a fine line and with an ultra-fussy referee his departure had an air of inevitability about it.

Tonbridge started the game with a three-pronged attack of Mikel Suarez, George Purcell and Frannie Collin and with only four minutes on the clock, Purcell drove a shot across the face of Joe Welch only to see it rebound off a post. Bromley’s reprieve was not to last long when, five minutes later, Muggeridge played in Purcell whose shot at goal was only parried by Welch into the path of Suarez who had a tap in to give the Angels the lead.

Plying his trade down Bromley’s left wing was ex-Gillingham winger Albert Jarrett, who had produced from Worgan his first fine save of the match. With the impressive Ali Fuseini starting to pull the strings in the middle of the park, Bromley recovered from their shaky start and went on to dominate the first half. Piper picked up his first caution on 18 minutes, a soft looking booking for a barely mistimed tackle, whilst Worgan was called into action producing fine saves to deny Danny Waldren and Tony Finn. Bromley only had themselves to blame as they went in at half-time still in arrears as some poor finishing had been coupled with Worgan’s brilliance to keep the scoreline as it was.

Warrilow reshuffled at half time, the three-pronged attack was dispensed with and he introduced wingers Rory Hill and Nathan Koranteng to add some much needed width to their play whilst Olly Schulz, who had picked up a booking just prior to half-time for a poor challenge, was withdrawn with an ankle injury.

Sadly the second half started with Jarrett being stretchered from the field, but Tonbridge’s new set-up had the desired effect of nullifying Bromley’s midfield dominance. But, Piper’s second booking on 69 minutes changed all that and his dismissal led to an all-out assault on the visitor’s goal.

Worgan denied their efforts until he was beaten by Moses Swaibu’s header from a corner, but young Muggeridge made a fine saving header on the line.

Bromley finally got their deserved equaliser with four minutes remaining, substitute Ali Chaaban crossed into the path of Hakeem Araba who swept the ball home from close range.

As the home side used the time added-on to search for a winner, Worgan produced a save of stunning quality when he blocked Swaibu’s shot from point blank range. At any level of the game, it was a sensational effort; if it had been recorded by Sky they would have replayed the action all week.

How Tonbridge survived the last ten minutes was a matter of Worgan, stout defending and wasteful finishing, but the last chance fell to Koranteng who, with the chance of make himself an unlikely hero, blasted over after good work from the hard-working Purcell to preserve the status quo. Bromley would have been disappointed that their dominance failed to secure the three points, whilst Tonbridge will refer to refereeing decisions that had a huge effect on the game. The point lifts the Angels out of the bottom three with their hosts a place behind and both sides needing a win to get their season up-and-running.