Croydon 1-4 Kingstonian
LIFE'S A BEACH

Four weeks after K's reserves failed to beat Croydon, the first team, against a full team, did what their counterparts had failed to do against Croydon's nine man version. With Eddie starting on 99 goals for the first time, expectations amongst the crowd of seeing a piece of history were high - although the same can't be said about the appaillingly low attendane - 104.

On a pitch filled with half of the long-jump pit's sand, David Leworthy opened the scoring on 19 minutes when he collected a through ball from Geoff Pitcher, rounded the goalkeeper and scored from a very wide position. The striker went close some time after with a long range effort, but saw his shot brilliantly turned around the post for a corner. No matter - from Luckett's set piece skipper Matt Crossley leapt highest at the far post to double the lead. And as far as entertainment went - that was it for the first half.

Just minutes into the second half K's had the chance to extend the lead once more. Tarkan Mustafa crossed to Leworthy, he touched back to Eddie who danced around one defender before being hacked down by the next. Penalty kick. So who was going to take it ? Spot-kick master Colin Luckett ? Or would he allow Eddie the chance of securing his century in the glamorous surroundings of the Croydon Sports' Arena ? Luckily, Luckett chose to take the kick himself and made it three-nil.

Just to keep the crowd interested, Mark Harris immediately gave away a penalty of his own to Croydon by jumping on the number 11's back, allowing number 9 to make the score 3-1. And all this in the first two minutes of the half. Just afterwards, Eddie seemed to allow jealousy to get the better of him. Clearly upset that Croydon's number 11 had won a penalty so soon after his own, he landed a superb left-hook on his opponent's jaw and managed to sneak away before the referee could spot him. Great fun.

Seven minutes before the end saw K's get their fourth. Pitcher picked up a long ball, avoided the cleverly camouflaged sand-trap, beat the goalkeeper, and slotted home from the left. And besides a Dean Thomas shot which just cleared the bar, that was that. K's were in the next round, and it had only taken the whole first team plus a replay to do it. One interesting note (well, there had to be one didn't there ?) was that Barry Blackman played the whole game for Croydon, whilst Jamie Ndah came on as a substitute in the second half. Roll on Molesey.