Tooting and Mitcham United 3 Tadley Calleva 1 – 27 September 2025 Report

Match Report

The Terrors moved back into a top five berth thanks to a fairly convincing victory over a decent Tadley-Calleva outfit, who may yet prove to be contenders for a play-off place as the season progresses. The Romans arrived at Imperial Fields standing just above the relegation zone, but that was as much to do with the small number of league fixtures they’ve completed at this stage of the season as to their footballing ability – a strong run in the early stages of the FA Cup left them with as many as four games in hand on some of the teams above them, and they looked confident early on with some crisp passing and good movement off the ball. Not to be outdone, Tooting gradually wrested control of the midfield away from their visitors, and took the lead just past the quarter hour when Max Oldham seized on a loose ball just inside the Tadley penalty area, and struck a fine half-volley into the net past the flailing visiting  ‘keeper Tonnacha Burke.

But Tadley continued to look dangerous, and got their reward on the half-hour when Alex Miller sent a well-taken looping header over Toby McKimm to put the cap on another cohesive passing move, and the visitors looked as if they were more than capable of turning things around before half-time.

That optimism lasted little more than three minutes, though, as sharp-shooter Shay Brennan fired a quickfire brace to give the Terrors a comfortable two goal cushion at the break; first he showed good pace and footwork to bulldoze his way into the penalty area, holding off a defender to crash the ball home from a difficult angle when he had little margin for error. If that superb finish wasn’t enough, he showed the cheeky side of his game ten minutes later when Max Oldham’s shot was parried by Burke, but fell kindly for Shay to backheel a third Tooting goal on the day with some quick-thinking and pleasing artistry for this level. It was 3-1 at the break, and Tadley had it all to do in the second period if the game was not about to get away from them.

They did tighten up defensively after the break, restricting the hosts to long-range efforts in the early part of the second forty-five. Mind you, with a comfortable two-goal cushion, there was no need for the Terrors to play to the crowd and get sloppy by attempting anything too outrageous. Tadley plugged away, but struggled to create anything really meaningful themselves, with the home centre-halves winning most of the loose balls in the air, and the full-backs snuffing out any danger from the flanks. Tadley were convinced they should have had a spot-kick when Aime Kamdem went down rather theatrically, but the referee was having none of it, and the only thing he was in the mood to award in the number ten’s favour was a yellow card for simulation – rightly so, too. Kamdem was so incensed by it, he looked as if he might lose his head and get another card for his collection, resulting in his being replaced shortly afterwards; the Tadley management team deciding it was a tough enough battle with a full complement of players, with one fewer it would be nigh-on impossible to retrieve anything from the game.

But their race was pretty much run as the minutes ticked down, and Tooting re-took a control they were never going to relinquish. The only question was whether we could add some icing to the cake by means of a fourth goal. It wasn’t to be, though Max Oldham could have matched Shay Brennan’s tally for the afternoon when his well struck shot from the edge of the box was neatly turned around the post by Burke, but the points were well and truly in the bag by then.

Team Lineup