Tooting and Mitcham United 2 Chipstead 2 – 31 January 2026 Report

Match Report

It was Tooting &  Mitcham’s first ever Non-League Dogs Day off the pitch, and a bit of a dogfight on it as the Terrors and Chipstead scrapped their way to a 2-2 draw.

The football itself was entertaining for the bumper crowd in attendance; the spirit the game was played in was anything but. Had the referee clamped down on some of the blatant foul play early on, we might have been spared the unseemliness that followed, and which resulted in almost fifteen minutes of injury-time at the end of each half, and young Terrors wing-back Freddie Jones being stretchered off, and ending his evening in hospital.

The goals were decent, particularly the first half strikes which made it one apiece at the break; Max Oldham, who had crossed a ball minutes before that just evaded Alex Cruickshank and Darral Wopara, beat the offside trap and raced clear. Visiting keeper Jacob Bennett advanced to meet him, but Max showed a cool head to fire it past him for his first goal since early December.

A host of chances were spurned, which allowed Chips to go in level at the break thanks to a sublime Carl Oblitey chip from distance which caught Toby McKimm off his line, allowing the ball to nestle in the net. One has to ask, though – where were the defence whilst the move was unfolding?

In between the goals came the first hints of unpleasantness; firstly, a long ball out of defence was going nowehere but out for a throw-in as Toby McKimm raced to the corner flag to retrieve it. He was unceremoniously hacked down by Ethan Ford, and received the first of a few lengthy injury treatments. Ford should have gone for that – no question – even if the ‘tackle’ was technically only a yellow card offence, the intent and fact that the ball was going nowhere should have resulted in more decisive action by the referee. His failure to do so meant that when a routine challenge went in just outside the home penalty area, Theo Crawford went down as if he’d been put on the turf by a baseball bat. The exaggerated rollovers he indulged in are often evidence of shameful ham-acting. At least his performance was rightly ‘rewarded’ by a yellow card, and a free-kick against.

The second period unfolded in much the same manner; Tooting created chance after chance (the best two falling to Conor Melody, who chipped a delightful lob onto the roof of the net, then shot just wide with a well-executed half-volley as he was slipping over) but couldn’t take any. Failure to do so left us looking increasingly vulnerable to Chipstead’s counter attacks when they came (Toby making two very eye-catching saves; one down low to his left, the other when a point-blank header looked certain to register), and they finally made one count in the final minute of the ninety, a low cross from the left being comfortably turned in by Oblitey for his second.

There was always going to be a good deal of injury-time, due to the many stoppages along the way; Freddie Jones seemed as determined to make the most of it as any player on the park, as his determination and willingness to run at the Chips defence caused them multiple problems. Having shot into the side netting from a difficult angle, Freddie’s next play saw him surge past a defender and to the byline where he cut the ball back, but was flattened in the process of doing so, and worrying scenes ensued while he seemed to be having convulsions as the physios and stretcher-bearers raced on, to the backdrop of more unpleasantness. When the dust had settled, a penalty was the outcome, and Alex Cruickshank held his nerve, irrespective of the lengthy wait, to plant his kick past Bennett and salvage a well-deserved point.

Team Lineup