Opponents Merstham are comfortably placed in a division higher than Sittingbourne, and have very gifted, technical players, all good on the ball, and playing to a well-structured pattern.
But once they got ahead, even their accomplished skills couldn’t stem the tide of Sittingbourne’s constant attacking, which was eventually rewarded with a lovely goal – another lovely goal – by super-substitute David Smith.
When he rattled the crossbar in injury time, teenager Smith could even have won it – but a draw, and another crack at each other in Tuesday night’s replay, was probably the fairest result.
It was a third home draw in a week for Sittingbourne. And what a week with the dramatic late equaliser against Chipstead, the no-holds-barred goalless draw with fellow promotion candidates Cray Wanderers, and now this, a very different sort of game to Tuesday night.
Sittingbourne made two changes from the team that played Cray, Ollie Brown replacing Tyrone Guthrie in midfield and Lawrence Ball returning in central defence for the suspended Ben Gorham. The captain’s armband passed to Miles Cornwell.
Sittingbourne began as if they wouldn’t be intimidated by Merstham’s obvious skill in possession, and Bola Dawodu had an early chance from Chris Elliott’s long throw but headed too close to the keeper.
Harry Brooks, retaining the No 1 jersey in place of Daren Hawkes, made a smart save to keep out Ryan Hall’s shot in reply, but was left helpless when Pingling found plenty of space to shoot the visitors ahead on 15 minutes. Merstham had raced from defending a free-kick at one end to slicing open a wide-open Sittingbourne defence at the other with three simple passes.
It was impressive the way Sittingbourne tried to force their way back into the game and when Tom Loynes won the ball with a determined interception he hit a great low pass only for Cornwell and Kane Rowland to go for it together in front of goal and put each other off.
Sittingbourne are an excellent second half team and they again took the game by the scruff of the neck, Brown, Rowland and Gil Carvalho all shooting wide and Merstham defenders blocking three close range shots in a row after an Elliott free-kick into the six-yard box.
Merstham tried to slow everything down and take the heat out of Sittingbourne’s game, but the home side kept up the pressure with Elliott close with a great shot from 30 yards and Dawodu’s effort saved by the keeper’s knee.
Sittingbourne went for broke on 78 minutes when manager Nick Davis brought on Smith and switched to a three-man defence.
His substitutions have changed many a game this season and he had to wait just five minutes for a result this time. Sittingbourne whisked the ball through midfield, Carvalho made progress on the right and found Smith on the edge of the area. He shimmied to give himself half a yard of space and curled a beautiful shot beyond the keeper which tantalisingly rolled in after hitting the post.
Smith almost won it, too, in added time, thundering a terrific shot from distance against the bar with the Merstham keeper groping thin air.
Even then Merstham launched a rare attack and Brooks made a fine diving save to his left to keep out a fierce shot from the edge of the area.
So it’s back to Surrey for the replay on Tuesday night, the third game between these well-matched sides in three weeks – and someone will have to win it then.
Sittingbourne (0) 1 (Smith 83) Merstham (1) 1 (Pingling 15)
Attendance 165
Buildbase FA Trophy, 1st Qualifying Round
Referee: Mr Scott Williams; Assistants: Mr Farai Hallam, Mr Charlie Acton.
Sittingbourne: Harry Brooks, Salvyn Kisitu (Chris Webber, 22 min, Yellow card) (David Smith, 78 min), Chris Elliott (Yellow card), Ollie Brown, Laurence Ball, John Coker, Tom Loynes, Bola Dawodu, Kane Rowland, Miles Cornwell (Tyrone Guthrie, 56 min), Gil Carvalho.
Subs not used: Lex Allan, Kane Phillip.
Merstham: Chris Haigh, Michael Abnett, Ben Harrison (Yellow card), Simon Cooper, Jelan Jones (Yellow card), Stephen Hamilton-Forbes (Sean Bonnett-Johnson, 70 min), Dan Bennett (Alex Addai, 70 min, Yellow card), Kershaney Samuels, Richard Pingling, Ryan Hall, Reece Hall.
Subs not used: Sahr Kabba, Sonny Black, Tom Nyama.