Metropolian Police (0) 1 Smart 90+5
Tonbridge (1) 1 Elder 2
Attendance: 144
Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 84/2,231
For the second time, and the only goals conceded, this season Tonbridge lost a goal with virtually the last kick of the match and with the stopwatches showing well past the announced time-added.
Whereas at Burgess Hill the goal was nothing more than a consolation and a minor irritation, this one at Metropolitan Police cost a couple of points.
At the end of the day, whatever figure is shown on the board at the end of the ninety, the game isn't over until the referee whistles to say it is and we can argue the semantics of "minimum of" and "time-added to time-added" but that whistle is the only one that counts.
This was my first visit to Imber Court for many a year and, in truth, I remembered nothing except for the beautifully kept pitch. So it was something of a surprise when the game was brought to halt after ten minutes to allow the groundsman to fill in a hole that had appeared.
I often wondered who might support the MetPlod and if you did, would you admit it! It did feel that there were nobody other than Tonbridge supporters in the ground, but with their equaliser, there were more than a few cheering. I nice little article about this very subject can be found on this link.
The visitors could not have got off to a better start. Goalkeeper Anthony Di Bernardo made a smart clearance to the feet of Luke Blewden who in turn sent Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson away down the right. The winger's pinpoint cross found the head of Nathan Elder at the far post who buried his header to give Tonbridge the lead after just 86 seconds.
I've long laboured the point that four games into a season there are no bottom of the table teams just those that haven't made a good start as the rest, but for 20 minutes the Met looked every inch a team rightly at the foot of the table. In that period they were virtually overrun. The Met's full back, Will Salmon, picked up a booking after just three minutes and a minute later the ball was in the home net again only for it to be disallowed and pulled back for free kick awarded to the Angels. From the free kick, the Met's goalkeeper, Luke Edgecombe, clawed away Nick Wheeler's effort from the top corner.
It took 22 minutes for the Police to launch a meaningful attack with Ryan Gondho shooting straight at Di Bernardo. But that little foray gave the home side a bit of confidence to mount a period of pressure.
In the closing minutes of the half, central defender Ollie Robinson headed over from a corner and Charlie Collins directed a shot at Di Bernardo after a good move had put the striker in the clear.
Elder was substituted by Damian Scannell early in the second half feeling unwell.
Whilst the game in the second half was relatively even, it was the visitors that carved out the scoring opportunities. A Wheeler corner offered Sonny Miles a free header that was steered wide and a surging run from Jack Parter ended when he ran out of space on the bye-line.
A significant moment in the return to fitness of Tom Phipp arrived with 15 minutes remaining when he was the substitute for Fortnam-Tomlinson. I half-joked with a friend that we now held our breath for the next quarter-hour. Within 20 seconds of coming on and with virtually his first touch of the ball, Robinson clattered into Phipp and sent him crashing to ground. The centre-half took the booking, Phipp the attention of the physio. Two minutes later and another defender was whacking in a desperate challenge, just below the knee but this one went unpunished.
The clocked had ticked into time-added and, seemingly, well past when a cross from the left was met with a powerful header from the right back Nathan Smart as the Police had piled everybody forward including the goalkeeper for a corner in search of the equaliser.
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