A frenetic 90 minutes was eventually settled by a substitute, as VCD Athletic earned the right to host Ware in the FA Trophy First Round Proper.

Jack Stevenson, whose goal had forced this replay on Saturday, was the impact player; first crossing for Kris Newby to cancel out Rob Denness’ opening goal.  Then Stevenson showed his maturity to beat Craig Holloway and sent his side through.

Greenwich Borough’s player-manager, Gary Alexander, set the tone for a frantic opening with a crunching tackle from behind on Kris Newby that earned a strong word and yellow card from Mr Scott after just 55 seconds.

The pace of the game wasn’t permitting any player to find time to control the game, and even though VCD seemed to have adopted a shoot-on-sight policy, it was the home side who hit the front in the 13th minute.  A raking cross-field ball by Lewwis Spence ended up at the feet of Mo Eisa on the left wing.  Eisa shifted inside, across the defence and hit a dipping shot that Niklas Freund could only parry out in front of him.  Rob Denness was unmarked to take a touch and slam home extravagantly from 5 yards.

VCD’s shots from distance, a couple from Mitch Hahn, others from Nicky Symons and Connor Hogan, were failing to trouble Craig Holloway as the visitors seemed to lack a degree of composure.  But their best chance came on 29, as a mistake from Bradley Pritchard allowed Hagan in one-on-one with Craig Holloway.  The experienced keeper stood up tall until diving low to his right at the last moment to turn Hagan’s shot away, with Pritchard recovering to deny Hahn a chance on the follow-up.

Apart from a Luke Miller shot that was tipped over by Freund, and Holloway punching clear any balls into the Greenwich area, the helter-skelter pace didn’t drop for the remainder of the half.

Playing down the substantial slope, Greenwich started the second period on the front foot, with Denness’ header and a shot from Amadu Waritay shaving a different post.  A long Luis Morrison clearance caught out the VCD defence, and with Freund leaving his box, Eisa nipped in to take the ball off the keeper’s toes.  But once again, a lack of composure saw the winger curl his shot wide, when he had team-mates in the middle waiting for a cross.

Greenwich had a golden chance on the hour after Spence had broken up a promising VCD attack.  His raking pass out to the right wing allowed Eisa to break the offside trap.  This time the winger measured a cross into the 6-yard box, where Denness, at full stretch, could only divert the ball into the hands of Freund.

A substitution for each side just after the midway point of the half paid immediate dividends for VCD, as within 2 minutes, Kris Newby had headed them level.  A lung-bursting run down the left by Ricardo Joseph led to a cross from substitute Jack Stevenson, with Newby ghosting in from the right to plant his header past Holloway.

Spence had a low skidding shot pushed round by Freund, before Stevenson continued his impact on the game.  Alexander’s pass through the middle was intercepted, with the ball being fed quickly out to Hahn on the right. The forward waiting for Stevenson’s run before playing his pass in behind the Greenwich defence, and Stevenson gave Holloway the eyes before calmly slotting home at the near post.

There was nearly a sting in the tail in stoppage time as Spence unleashed a wickedly curling left foot effort that saw Freund scrambling across his goal, but the shot slid past the left hand post, much to the disbelief of the Borough faithful in the main stand.

GREENWICH BOROUGH: Craig Holloway, Glenn Wilson, Luis Morrison, Gary Alexander, Lewis Clark, Amadu Waritay, Lewwis Spence, Bradley Pritchard, Luke Miller (Charlie MacDonald 68), Mohamed Eisa, Rob Denness.

Subs not used: Leonard Goring, Jerome Wade, Theodore Osinfolarin, Jack Rogers.

Goal: Rob Denness 13

Caution: Gary Alexander 1

VCD ATHLETIC: Niklas Freund, Jeffrey Imudia (Frantz Tchonang 74), Ricardo Joseph, Nicky Symons, Joe Bruce, Marc Gorbell, Kris Newby, Ed O’Neill (Jack Stevenson 68), Mitch Hahn (Harry Brickwood 87), Connor Hogan, Robbie Rees.

Subs not used: Derek Duncan, Connor Pearce.

Goals: Kris Newby 70, Jack Stevenson 79

Cautions: Jeffrey Imudia 45+2, Marc Gobell 62

Attendance: 115
Referee: Mr Steven Scott
Assistants: Mr Simon Cutler and Mr Jack Owen