Tonbridge 2 Romford 2

Match 62/16/1369 - Tuesday, 6th December 2016 - Ryman League Cup 3R

Tonbridge (2) 2 Fortnam-Tomlinson 44, Nelson 76
Romford (2) 2 Reynolds 10, Akpele 27
Tonbridge won 4-2 on penalties
Attendance: 133

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £0.50
Mileage: 38/4,704

Nobody in the meagre crowd could have foreseen that after a woefully poor first half they would later be witness to a little bit of history, Tonbridge have at last won a penalty shoot-out. The attendance of just 133, the lowest since 2010 when Ramsgate were the visitors in the same competition won the satisfaction of being able to say “I was there …”

Steve McKimm shuffled is pack giving Nathan Elder the night off; resting Nick Wheeler, Tom Phipp and Jack Parter to the bench. Into the side came two Under-18s, Callum Adonis-Taylor and Liam Smith, both of whom performed admirably; Tommy Whitnall and Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson were given value game time following injury alongside Ugo Udoji and Luke Allen who have recently spent time on the bench. Despite it being a much changed line-up there should have been enough quality to beat a Romford side that were languishing in the lower reaches of Ryman North.

The small crowd were unable to raise much of an atmosphere and the Tonbridge players appeared to respond accordingly in a lacklustre performance that reeked of a side that didn’t really want to be out there in a minor competition.

Mitchell Nelson stretched the Romford goalkeeper, Callum Chafer, to turn over a header following a long throw from Udogi. But it was the visitors who opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Allen was robbed in a dangerous area, 30 yards from goal, by Chinedu McKenzie who slipped a pass inside to Nick Reynolds to side foot home from close range.

Even the setback failed to ignite the Angels, Alex Akrofi was brought down in the box but strong claims for a penalty were turned away after 23 minutes.

Romford could hardly believe the ease in which they doubled their advantage after 27 minutes when Will Green laid the ball off for Greg Akpele to cleanly strike from the right hand side of the box.

Liam Smith showed what a fine prospect he is with a surging run to the edge of the box only to be brought down and the free kick was wasted.

One minute remained in the half when Fortnam-Tomlinson fired in a shot from the right of the box that travelled through a ruck of players before nestling in the far corner to give the home side a lifeline.

Tonbridge improved greatly in the second period, frankly there was no way they were going to be any worse, and the overriding impression was that a goal would come sooner rather than later and then the tie would be put to bed. But this perception did Romford poor service as they defended well and Chafer did well on several occasions saving from Akrofi, Nelson and Fortnam-Tomlinson. They might well have wrapped the game up in the 71st minute when they hit a post.

Wheeler was brought on with 15 minutes remaining to try and salvage the game and within a minute he had done just that. His cross from the right was met with a towering header from Nelson; two in two games for the Welling loanee.

Romford refused to give up the cause and Di Bernardo was forced to make a save at his near post before, with three minutes remaining, there was possibly the most unbelievable sequence of near misses I have ever seen. In the space of no more than 20 seconds following a cross into the box that Di Bernardo came but got nowhere near, Romford managed to hit the bar twice and have two more attempts cleared from the line. At that point, you felt that not only was our name on this game, it might also be on the cup.

Thankfully, after extra-time last night, the game when straight to penalties and we all know what happens when Tonbridge are involved. Except, this time was different.

After Parkinson and Akrofi had put their penalties away, Romford’s Chris Taylor had his effort saved low left by Di Bernardo. Luke Allen, a regular penalty taker for the Angels missed the third and James Ishmail levelled things up at 2-2. Nelson sent the goalkeeper the wrong way and Di Bernardo once again plunged to his left to deny Kwarsi Marfo leaving Udoji to calmly slot home his spot kick and become the unlikely hero.

It was a strange evening, when the final penalty was taken and the game won, the usual scenario is that the scorer is engulfed by his team mates. There was none of this, it was almost as if they didn’t realise that they had won the game. 133 people did though, they had witnessed history in the making.

Pictures courtesy of Wesley Flitness