Thamesmead Town bowed out of the Emirates FA Cup as the clubs appalling Cup record struck again on Worthing’s new 3G pitch.
Never beyond the Second Qualifying Round in the clubs history, sadly it’ll be at least another year until the Mead can reach the “promised land” of the Third Qualifying Round after yet another disappointing FA Cup performance and result!
Deprived of the services of injured skipper Derek Duncan, you feared it was going to be one of “those days” and sadly it proved to be the case.
The home side exploded out of the blocks as Pope gave them a third minute lead, and try as they might, the Mead struggled to adapt to the pitch.
The task was made even more difficult midway through the half as Pope doubled the home side’s lead. It came following the award of a dubious free kick – given initially as the Worthing striker fell over a tackle made by Marc Gorbell on Bugiel – which Pope drove the free kick into the net leaving Andy Walker thumping the bright green pitch in frustration after getting his full hand to the ball but unable to keep the ball out!
The Mead improved gradually as the half wore on with the closest they came to “troubling the scorers” being a free kick from Ibrahim Kargbo that home keeper Banks beat out to safety. That said it was still one of the most disappointing 45 minutes of the season! The second half at least saw some improvement by the visitors as an attacking entity.
Banks did well to block efforts from Kargbo and Michael Spencer in one melee before Spencer shot over from Michael Uwezu’s knock down of Jay Porter’s cross, before Kargbo’s teasing cross proved too much for the late arriving Theo Fairweather Johnson, who sadly misjudged the cross completely!
As the Mead pressed to try and get into the game, the natural spaces appeared at the back – spaces which lively home sub Newton came very close to exploiting on three occasions!
Yet in the closing ten minutes the visitors had their best opportunities as Banks pulled off the save of the game to deny Ainsley Everitt as the Mead substitute cut in off the left to drive the ball towards the top corner. Banks though pulled off a stunning save to keep his clean sheet in tact – a clean sheet that he was to lose in stoppage time when Fairweather-Johnson did really well to control the awkward bounce on the edge of the box before drilling the ball beyond the keeper’s reach into the bottom corner.
Problem is that the goal came in the 91st minute, and there was no time left for the equaliser that would have kept the Mead in the velvet bag on Monday morning!
Afterwards boss Terry Spillane was bitterly upset, as he said, “that game was there for the taking – we were beaten in the first five minutes. We warned the players about the pitch, but that’s no excuse as after we saw them on Tuesday, I honestly believe that we should have at least got them back to the SCT on Monday.”
“That hasn’t happened and so we’ll be back in training Tuesday and Thursday to get ready for our first home double header against Redbridge and Harlow on Saturday and Monday which now become that little bit more important!”
THAMESMEAD TOWN – Walker, Aziaya, Porter, Dark (Anidbuge 76), Gorbell (Everitt HT), Hallam, Uwezu, Kargbo, Gordon-Young, Addae (Fairweather-Johnson HT), Spencer
Subs not used – Butler, Webber