Balham 1 Tooting and Mitcham United 1 – 25 August 2025 Report

Match Report

The first tenant / landlord derby of the season was a forgettable affair, as the Terrors and Balham got bogged down in midfield, and a scrappy battle ensued – enlightened only by a superb goal from young Alex Cruickshank, and a dramatic late equaliser bagged by the nominal hosts.

Strange, because the weather was befitting of the late August Bank Holiday, and the kind of dour stalemate played out on the pitch was more reminiscent of a late-season battle, when the pitches are heavy with moisture and the players are beginning to feel their legs after a demanding campaign.

Balham are now a grittier outfit than our two meetings last season (when we did a league double) suggested. An influx of players toward the end of that campaign saw a side who had previously only won twice in the league all season record seven victories in their last ten outings to ensure survival by the skin of their teeth. That good form has continued into this campaign, with the team currently riding high in the table after only one defeat in their opening six matches, a similar record to our own. Perhaps a draw was a fair result, then – though the manner of its composition will rankle for some time yet.

Tooting went into the game with manager Jamie Byatt making two changes from the side who had won at Ringmer AFC just 48 hours earlier (Balham had had a free weekend) with Freddie Jones back in the side in place of Tyrese Ayeni and Jordy Ndozid coming back in for Declan Smith. In addition, it was a first league start for Michael Onovwigun and also a first of the season for Alex Cruickshank, now back to full fitness following injury worries that had dogged him since the pre-season matches.

There was little to enthuse about in the first 45 minutes, Toby McKimm in the Terrors goal had little to do other than field the occasional cross or pass-back from his own defenders; I was going to say it was probably a long time since he was so little troubled – but then remembered he really hadn’t had to do much at Ringmer a couple of days earlier – maybe he should think about stashing a deck-chair in the back of the goal along with his water bottles and keeper’s bag!

The second period was little better, but at least there were a couple of goals to enliven things (although the majority of the fans inside the ground would have almost certainly settled for just the one!).

The deadlock was finally broken just after the hour with just about the first piece of skilful play seen on the afternoon – Alex Cruickshank picked up a loose ball on the right-hand side of the penalty area, ignored the attentions of his marker who was breathing down his neck, and fired a low shot across ‘home’ keeper James Smith’s bows. The ball whistled into the side-netting (the correct side of the side-netting!) and Tooting had the lead at last.

That might have been the signal for the Terrors to relax a little, and look to put the game to bed; instead it soon sank back into the kind of stalemate seen before. Second-half substitutes Darral Wopara, Tyrese Ayeni and Nathan Mampono could do little to change things, and the game looked to be petering out to a narrow ‘away’ win. Yet, with two minutes of stoppage time played, Balham grabbed an equaliser they scarcely deserved when James Anderson’s speculative shot deflected off a defender and crept past a wrong-footed Toby McKimm to leave honours even.

Team Lineup