Epsom and Ewell 0 Tooting and Mitcham United 1 – 14 October 2025 Report

Match Report

There are encouraging signs that Tooting & Mitcham manager Jamie Byatt may just be building a promotion winning squad at Imperial Fields, as the Terrors ground out a resilient three points at Chalky Lane. Chatting to some of the players after the home draw against Redhill three days earlier had felt like talking to a team who had just been heavily beaten, given the sense of gloom around the home dugout. But that despondency was harnessed to good effect here, and a marked definition of this latest Tooting outfit is the ability to put setbacks behind them, and respond accordingly. Erstwhile Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie once mangled the English language to come up with the memorable word ‘bouncebackability’, and Tooting showed that in spades here to bring a valuable three points back up the A3.

It wasn’t, it has to be admitted, a great game. Epsom have started better than in their previous two campaigns, and were unbeaten at ‘home’ (a definition that includes two grounds, given they started the season at their former temporary home of Cobham FC, before recently taking up a tenancy at Chessington & Hook), but were still nearer the bottom of the table than the top going into this one. They may have felt they had the better of the first half, in terms of possession at least, but neither side created anything particularly noteworthy and Toby McKimm – playing against his former club – wasn’t really troubled by either of the routine saves he made towards the end of the period. Tooting largely controlled the second forty-five, with the hosts now restricted to long-range efforts and set-pieces as their best hopes of breaking the deadlock. However, it looked to be heading to a goalless draw as the game entered the final ten minutes, when Taz Mahmoud capped another impressive game at wing-back with a winning goal; he drove into the Epsom danger-zone with one of his now trademark surges down the right flank, looked as if he might lose control but somehow managed to keep his feet as his first effort deflected off a Salts defender and fell nicely for our number 2 to hit a rasping drive beyond home keeper Faebian Witter and in. Epsom finished the game by mounting a modicum of token pressure, but the Terrors defence never looked troubled and saw out the remainder of the game comfortably enough to record a very valuable three points.

Team Lineup