Lydd Town lost the lottery of penalties after a pulsating FA Vase tie against Combined Counties side Tooting Bec.

The Lydders had earlier started the tie well and Olinto Santo had an effort turned off the line in the opening minutes after rounding the keeper. Santo then turned provider after a quick break with just under quarter of an hour gone. He teed up Dale Horton at the far post to open the scoring, despite the attentions of Bec’s Matthew Stone.

The SCEFL side should have been two to the good soon after with Santo again getting away down the right hand side & playing in Horton, he found Klaidi Krasniqi who lost his footing at the vital moment & scuffed his effort harmlessly wide.

This was to be a big let off for the home side as they then found an equaliser in stoppage time at the end of the 1st half. An excellent corner from the left hand side was met strongly in the air by Samuel Johnson whose header found the top corner for 1-1.

HT 1-1

The second half began slowly with both sides exchanging shots from distance of no real consequence.

The first real chance of the half put Tooting into the lead in with sixty three minutes played. Zakayria Muhammed bursting through the middle of the park & laying the ball into the path of Alistair Wiltshire who took a couple of touches & nonchalantly dinked Tom Barnes in the Lydd goal.

This provoked a reaction from the visitors who found another gear. They were level with a quarter of an hour to play. George Grosvenor crashing the ball home at the back post from a free kick despite Myles Blenkinsop’s attentions – he could only send the ball into the roof of the net.

The game really opened up at this point and both teams looked slightly leggy. Tooting Bec had a golden opportunity when Luke Fenlon found himself unmarked and 12 yards from goal, but his shot landed somewhere behind the terrace at that end of the ground.

The home side pressed the issue looming for a winner. In the last minute of normal time they won a corner, the ball in caused chaos & fell to Matthew Stone who smashed the ball off the inside of the right hand upright.

Lydd eventually scrambled the ball clear and Dale Horton thought he’d beaten the offside trap only for the assistants flag to deny him. A close decision which the away bench strongly disagreed with.

The game finished 2-2 after 90 minutes, it was on to the lottery of penalties.

The hero of the shootout was home goalkeeper Zdenek Machacek. He made 2 good stops to deny Lydd. While the home side took 4 excellent spot kicks to progress through.

Lydd find themselves back in action next Saturday when they host Forest Hill Park in SCEFL Division 1. Tooting Bec travel to Eversley & California in Combined Counties Division 1.

Tooting Bec: Machacek, Morally (Sarmiento 88), Fernando, Blenkinsop (Moore 84), Stone, Thurbon, Johnson, Smith (Fenlon 61), Wiltshire, Oritis, Muhammed.
Not used: Farquharson

Scorers: Johnson (45+2) Wiltshire (61)

Bookings: Smith (39)

Lydd Town: Barnes, Tomsett (Hastings 64), Kessack (C), Grosvenor, Coyne (Benstead 37), Weatherall, Santo (Wirt 61), Wale, Horton, Oladipupo, Krasniqi
Not Used: Byrne, Blyth, Prior

Scorers: Horton (14) Grosvenor (75)

Bookings: None

Referee: Neil Keirs