Corinthian Casuals 0 Tooting and Mitcham United 2
Combined Counties - 02/09/2025
Report by: Ed Parlett
Match Report
Tooting’s first away win of the new campaign could hardly have been a more satisfying one. It came against our south
London rivals, with both teams boasting a few players who had plied their trade with the opposition, and – of course – manager Jamie Byatt’s connections in these parts have been well-documented. So, all in all, it was hard to think of a better night’s work than that which was put in in Tolworth.
The two sides had begun the campaign by playing out a goalless encounter at Imperial Fields, so this represented significant improvement within the space of the five intervening weeks. Both teams set a high tempo early on, and Alex Cruickshank thought he’d opened the scoring for us – only to see his fierce long-range effort rebound from the crossbar. Play quickly swung to the other end, where Toby McKimm was on hand to deny Andre Coker, the Casuals striker hitting a solid shot from a tight angle.
Casuals went close again when Diogo da Silva flashed a drive across the face of goal – any sort of touch from friend or foe could well have seen the deadlock broken there – and then the woodwork came to the hosts’ rescue again as Shay Brennan’s curling effort lacked sufficient dip to drop beneath it.
An intriguing half thus ended with nothing tangible entered on the scoresheet.
After the break, the same crossbar came into play once more – only this time it was Casuals who felt hard done by, when Coker’s effort from distance once again crashed against it.
The hosts were enjoying their best spell, with the Terrors forced to dig deep in defence at this stage, and Tommy Smith combined well with Rafael Barbosa resulting in the latter once again stinging Toby’s fingers as the Tooting keeper gratefully grasped the ball under pressure from home attackers. It looked at this stage as if Tooting might be hard-pressed to hold on to parity.
Instead, when the breakthrough came shortly after, it did so at the opposite end of the field, and it was former Casuals favourite Max Oldham who broke the deadlock for the Terrors; he seized on to da Silva’s loose pass just outside the box, and drove into the penalty area unleashing a powerful shot which hit wood again, but the bar at this end was the kindlier of the two, and Max’s shot deservedly rippled the net off the underside.
Shortly after, Max put clear daylight between the teams when a low ball across the corridor of uncertainty fell nicley for the Terrors’ winger, and he calmly slotted it past home keeper Sanghyun Baek.
Comfortably in command now, the Terrors were content to sit back and invite their hosts forward – confident that any gaps left at the back could be exploited. There was much huffing and puffing from those in the distinctive chocolate and pink, but little of note for the visiting defence to deal with; Casuals night ended in more frustration as sub Wilginner Ewerthon received his marching orders late on for a nasty challenge, but nothing could dampen Tooting’s spirits on this latesummer evening, and the points travelled back Wandle-way when the whistle was blown shortly after.