Fleet Town 2 Tooting and Mitcham United 3
Combined Counties - 01/11/2025
Report by: Ed Parlett
Match Report
The rain pelted down, and strong winds made for some tricky conditions, but the Tooting & Mitcham roadshow rolls on unabated. It pulled into Fleet on this wild Saturday, took a few knocks along the way, but returned to south London triumphant as another off our fellow play-off challengers were put firmly in their place.
It was mainly due to a first-half blitz that caught the home side unawares – the black & white stripes made such easy work of their high-flying hosts in the first forty-five minutes, one could be forgiven for thinking we were wataching Juventus. The mighty Terrors sprang out of the traps like a team possessed and took the game by the scruff of the neck early on. After fifteen dominant minutes, a pacy run down the left from Conor Melody left defenders trailing in his wake; a whipped ball into the danger zone found Fleet defending like headless chickens, and Shay Brennan in space at the far post where he placed his shot through the legs of exposed home keeper Sean Gray to give the game the goal it deserved.
There was no let-up from the boys in stripes, and just past the half-hour we got the benefit of a slightly dodgy doubt when a home defender was harshly punished for a ‘handball’ (ball to hand if ever there was one, but who’s complaining?) and a penalty was the outcome. For whatever reason, Shay declined his chance of goal number two on the day, but Alex Cruickshank didn’t need to be asked twice; he placed the ball nonchalently to Gray’s left, and in, to send the travelling hordes into a frenzy behind the goal.
It was all Tooting as the half wore down; Taz Mahmoud hit a speculative shot on the turn that looked dangerous, but cleared the bar comfortably. Then Darral Wopara burst through the middle and fired in a powerful effort that flew wide. As half-time approached, I was hoping we wouldn’t regret that profligacy – then Darral found his range from a difficult angle in first-half stoppage time, and the result looked in the bag with a three goal advantage. At that stage, it looked merely a matter of how many Tooting would win by.
The Fleet manager must have given them a roasting during the interval, as they came back out looking like a completely different side. Just ten minutes had gone in the second period, when they reduced the arrears to two, Joe Dyett firing home a left-foot volley from just inside the penalty area to finally wake the home fans up.
Tooting were still dangerous, though, and just three minutes later might have had a second spot-kick when a powerful run from Shay was halted unceremoniously by two defenders inside the box; perhaps mindful of the dubious penalty he’d awarded already, the referee waved this one away.
Behind the trees on the far side, a disco seemed to have got underway – rather bizarrely – ensuring the rest of the game played out to musical accompaniment. A sort of Teddy-boys picnic, if you will. Terrors fans were definitely dancing a jig or two as Fleet piled on the pressure, but the Tooting defence was coping with everything being thrown at them. Then, inside the last ten minutes, the referee looked to even things up with the award of another contentious pen. – to the hosts this time. Callum McAllister fired it home to set up a rousing finale, but despite piling on the pressure – and doing so against ten men after skipper Anonio Simeone was dismissed for dissent – sub George Sellick’s low ball that flashed across the face of goal – and could have been converted by friend or foe alike – was the closest they came to a point.