Guildford City 2-1 Tooting 

 

The Terrors fell to a second defeat at the Spectrum Arena within the space of a fortnight, but it was difficult to see how we came out on the losing side of this one. First things first; the pitch was terrible. We have to endure a variety of surfaces at the level we’re currently playing at, but this was quite the worst I’ve seen Tooting ever have to play on, and I’ve been watching - on and off - for thirty-six years. It was markedly worse than when we won there back in March and even Manchester City would struggle to get any sort of passing game going on the undulating, hard-to-read surface. It goes some way to explaining why Guildford have won four of their six matches played here this season, yet only have two victories in eleven away fixtures. Anyway, rant over - and so to the game. Tooting should at least have known what to expect after losing in the FA Vase here two weeks prior, yet fell behind just over a minute in. Some hesitant defending left Darnell Jon-Peter (the scorer of the only goal in the previous fixture) unmarked in front of goal, and Toby McKimm had little chance of repelling his strike. But the visitors gradually gained a foothold in the game, dominating much of the rest of the half possession-wise, and going in at the break on terms thanks to Max Oldham - who once plied his trade in this arena. Max displayed clever feet on the bobbly surface to control a Shawn Lyle knock-down, and kept a cool head to calmly shoot under the body of the advancing City keeper, Jacob Terry. The Terrors really should have been ahead by the time the whistle went, creating numerous chances. Hussein Siklawi twice shot over when in decent positions, and Darrall Wopara controlled a long-pass from Gideon Acheampong well, before Terry came out to block with his body. The rebound fell to Darral again, but Terry had got up quickly and diverted the second shot with his legs. Hussein had another chance, after Shawn had held the ball up well, and then released his strike-partner. Hoss cut inside his marker, got good power on his shot, but Terry was equal to it again, and saved well down low.

 

The second-half commenced in much the same way the first had finished; the Terrors enjoying the bulk of the possession, and Guildford content to almost play like an away side - sitting back, and looking to hit on the break. Despite the pattern of play, Tooting were finding it difficult to create anything tangible against such a deep-lying defence. Some neat passing did create a half-chance for Darral, but his strike from the edge of the box cleared the bar without troubling Terry too much. With just over twenty minutes left, Guildford did begin to come out of their shell a little, but they were still looking pretty toothless in attack. That all changed when the referee pointed to the spot following an innocuous-looking coming together in the area - there were few or no appeals for a spot-kick from the home crowd or their players. Nevertheless, with Toby gazing into the sun - and doing his best to shield his eyes while Reece Robins prepared for his run-up - it always looked likely he’d have little chance if the shot was on target, and that proved the case as Robins calmly stroked the ball home. Despite some late pressure, Shawn Lyle’s header which went wide was as close as we came to salvaging a point in the time that remained, as Guildford leapfrogged us in the table. Thankfully, we’ll not have to return there this season.