Hayes and Yeading 0 Tonbridge 0

Match 27/13/1054 - Sunday, 29th September 2013 - FA Cup 3Q Round

Hayes and Yeading (0) 0
Tonbridge (0) 0
Att. 197

Entrance: £8.00 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 124/2,144
Played at Kingfield, Woking

Match Report

The stadium announcer at Kingfield brought some amusement to the Tonbridge contingent that had probably made up 50% of a pathetically poor attendance when he announced the Hayes and Yeading man of the match as their goalkeeper, Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz. The custodian had made one save of note and another couple of comfortable saves during the 90 minutes, but such was woeful nature of the home side's performance this was enough to justify the award.

Tonbridge are not blessed with any luck when it comes to FA Cup draws and this Second Qualifying Round fixture at H&Y's groundshare of Woking looked another difficult one against a fellow Conference South team that had enjoyed a decent early season. However, most of the Tonbridge supporters present would have walked away from the stadium disappointed not to be in the Third Qualifying Round draw without the accompaniment of their opponents.

Tonbridge, with Phillip Appiah back in the side and pulling the strings in midfield, dominated the first half but without the cutting edge to unduly threaten Ruiz. Lovell had the ball in the net after 17 minutes but the goal was ruled out, without complaint, for offside. Henry Muggeridge was continuously an outlet down the right hand side and one of his speculative shots that cleared the bar was the closest the Angels got to opening the scoring.

For all Tonbridge’s possession it has the hosts that should have taken the lead just prior to the break. Louis Soares broke away to set up a shooting opportunity for Jamie Reid after an initial shot was blocked, but Reid struck a post when it seemed a whole lot easier to score.

The second half was a scrappy, dour affair with neither attack able to create clear opportunities. Hayes and Yeading showed a little more purpose than their dire first half display, manager Phil Babb obviously having had a word or two during the break. But what shooting opportunities the hosts created were from distance and woefully inaccurate. On the hour, Tonbridge keeper, Clark Masters, was called into action for his one and only time, diving low to his right to turn away a drive from Kevin Bossman.

The best chance of the game fell to Tonbridge’s central defender, Sonny Miles who put unchallenged header narrowly wide from a Nathan Green corner.

This was, frankly, a pretty awful game that deserved no more than the paltry 197 who bothered to turn up on a Sunday afternoon when they would have been better dozing off a lunch time pint and roast dinner. But, such has been Tonbridge’s luck in this competition that any small success is taken with some delight. Hayes and Yeading cannot be as bad again in Tuesday’s replay, so a place in the next round is no given, but on the evidence of this game, it is Tonbridge’s to lose.