Tonbridge Angels 2 Merstham 1

Match 24/24/2263 - Saturday, 14th September 2024 - FA Cup Second Qualifying Round

Tonbridge Angels (1) 2 Robinson 9 Fielding 49
Merstham (0) 1 Pointing 76
Attendance: 866
Admission: £14
Mileage: 38/1,049

Tonbridge Angels supporters left the Halcyon Wealth Longmead Stadium with the warm glow of an FA Cup win in their hearts, something they have not enjoyed since 2016 when Hereford came to town, but it was not without a tense finish as Isthmian South East side Merstham sought an equaliser having given themselves a lifeline with a 76th minute goal to halve the deficit.

Warm autumn sunshine saw a healthy, boisterous contingent from the Surrey town among an attendance of 866. Jay Saunders made just the one enforced change to the starting XI from last Saturday at Chippenham Town, with Ryan Hanson absent following his injury in the opening minutes. Jeremy Santos who replaced him retained his place. On the bench there was the welcome name of Noel Leighton, who has yet to feature following injury.

For 75 minutes, Tonbridge put on a thoroughly professional performance keeping a hard-working Merstham side at arms length whilst creating numerous chances that could, perhaps should, have put the tie to bed long before the visitors late rally.

Saunders said following the match: “We’re through. We are in the hat for the next round and the early rounds are about that. Large parts of the game we were quite comfortable, obviously give Merstham credit, the last 10 minutes they made it difficult for us which is fair play to them. Merstham were a good side, they made is really hard for us, we had a lot of the ball but could not break them down.”

The Angels had an early chance with Sean Shields seeing his effort cleared from the line before they took a ninth minute lead when a Shields corner from the left was only scrambled back into the path of Trevan Robinson who turned on the edge of the six yard box to score into the bottom corner.

Two minutes later a far post header from Robinson struck the bar and Rob Tolfrey saved well from Liam Vincent as the Angels threatened to take the game away from their visitors.

Merstham barely threatened, just past the half-hour Sam King struck wastefully wide when in a decent position whilst Taylor Maloney’s shot from distance brought another good save from the veteran Tolfrey.

Tonbridge doubled their advantage four minutes into the second half when a Shields corner was met with a towering header from Jamie Fielding. The chances continued to be made by the Angels, a Robinson overhead kick was just over and then stretching to reach a Liam Vincent cross, lifting the ball over again.

But Merstham, stayed resilient and when the Angels goalkeeper, Toby Steward, misjudged a cross, Pointing headed home and Merstham had an unexpected lifeline.

Player of the Match Vincent put in a 83rd minute cross that was deflected over his own crossbar by Pointing when it could easily have found its way into the net.

Merstham forced several corners and when a cross-cum-shot from Abel Vendrells looped onto the roof of the net there were a few hearts in mouths among the home support.

Saunders summed up: “I’ve been there both as a player and a manager when you go to teams from higher leagues you want to make it hard and stay in the game and Merstham did that to be fair to them and it’s taken two set pieces, we’ve hit the bar a couple of times but we weren’t clinical enough.”