Victory at Erith Town on Wednesday propelled Erith and Belvedere back to the peak of the Southern Counties East Football League as they maintained their 100% start to the season. 

However, the league takes a back seat this weekend as the Deres return to F.A. Cup action with an F.A. Cup preliminary round tie at home to AFC Croydon Athletic.

Coming in off the back of their 2-0 victory at Erith Town, the Deres will be confident but also wary of the Rams who moved leagues in the summer’s restructure which saw them switched to the Combined Counties League Premier Division.

They started their league campaign with a draw with Cobham before their impressive 3-1 F.A. Cup Extra Preliminary victory at Crowborough Athletic. However, since then they have lost away to Horley, at home to Guildford City, and then on Tuesday they lost 5-0 at home to Redhill.

Benga Ogunseye put the Deres ahead against the Dockers from the spot on Wednesday night to follow up his hat-trick last Saturday. Ollie Bate scored the all important second goal with twenty minutes remaining.

To get to this stage, Danny Murphy and Marlon Patterson’s team claimed a step five scalp in Tooting and Mitcham. They drew 1-1 in Tooting and then returned to Park View Road to finish the job. Tyler Anderson-Parr put them ahead five minutes into the second half but Daniel Williams levelled. Tooting’s Jack Rose then fired over from the penalty spot. After ninety minutes it was again level pegging and extra time was necessary.

Anderson-Parr restored the Deres’ lead just before extra time half time and substitute Nassim Dukali finished it off with a composed finish with three minutes remaining.

Image courtesy of Dave Budden