Sutton United 2-4 Kingstonian

For 25 years now, K's Web and kingstonian.com have provided match reports on most of our games. Even the less important ones are usually covered, albeit with some themed around Martians, dogs, Mitcham soft play or how Peter Dean was just like Lionel Messi.

So it must have seemed quite odd that a game which nine and a half years later we voted our best of the 2010s went unreported on. I'm afraid it was my fault. I was on report-writing duty last night but for reasons that I'm sure were good at the time, didn't have a chance to write it before we played Boreham Wood in the final.

We lost the final. We all know why. It was sickening, it was unfair and we didn't know if we'd ever get that close to Conference South again. As it's transpired, we haven't and we hardly look like doing so any time soon.

After Boreham Wood, that glorious night at Gander Green Lane seemed so bittersweet, irrelevant even. I couldn't bring myself to sit down and write the Sutton report, too consumed with anger at the final, along with desperate hope that the FA might punish Boreham Wood with more than a 'letter of operational advice'. Then I went on holiday for two weeks and, well, the moment had passed.

Still, better late than never? The highlights live on YouTube and when morale among the K's fanbase is at an 18-year low it's worth at least reminding ourselves of the good times.

We'd beaten Sutton three weeks previously in the league, thanks to a bizarre own goal from their skipper Jason Goodliffe and then a last-minute winner from Bobby Traynor (more about him later). It put us second in the league and almost guaranteed our place in the playoffs. Almost. But then we failed to win any of our last five and we needed other results to go our way to eventually scrape through in fifth. We'd conceded home advantage for both the semi and, if we got there, the final.

So we didn't go to Gander Green Lane chock full of confidence but we did go in big numbers and with hope in our hearts. And on just 11 minutes we were ahead, in chaotic fashion. Christian Jolley ran into the box, backheeled to Simon Huckle and then it pinged around for an eternity before Jolley emerged from the melee to poke it past Sutton goalkeeper Kevin Scriven.

The joy wasn't to last long though, Sutton equalising with a dictionary definition of route one football. Scriven launched a free kick from deep in his own half on to the head of Steve Perkins and it bounced through the K's box until Bradley Woods-Garness powered past Tolfrey.

And then the home side took the lead, Perkins' physical presence again too much to deal with as he looped a header in over Tolfrey. Again it came from a long free kick, this time pumped into the box by Karim El-Salahi. They threatened some more, with Tolfrey having to save a twenty-yarder from Farncis Quarm, before Traynor pulled a shot wide from a tight angle.

So it was despair at half time and it nearly got worse just afterwards but Tolfrey was well-positioned to save a close range header.

Then suddenly, five minutes into the half we were back on level terms. This time it was us who went route one with a long free kick and when Perkins could only head clear to the edge of the box, Adam Thompson was on hand to power it low past Scriven.

On any normal night, that would be the volley everyone would be talking about after the game. But this wasn't any normal night. Everyone remembers what happened next. We got the ball to Luke Hickie on the right (OK, no-one remembers that bit). He chipped a cross towards the advancing Traynor but as Traynor ran into the box, the ball ended up behind him.

It didn't matter. If you were there, it's still imprinted on your brain. It was ridiculous, at any level of football, let alone this level, between two local rivals in a tightly poised playoff game. He turned his body and made the most perfect contact with a scissors-kick to give Scriven no chance. He bounced up, he rushed towards the K's fans grinning as he knew the enormity of what he'd done, before his team-mates mobbed him.

The K's terrace was rocking after that. Part of me wanted to stay there forever. The other part saw every minute taking an eternity to tick down. 27 minutes plus stoppage would surely be too long to hang on?

But halfway through that period we wrapped the game up, Traynor running on to a header, turning inside Goodliffe and then skipping past Scriven before knocking the ball into the empty goal. 4-2 K's. Sutton created little for the rest of the game and eventually the referee blew time on one of the most extraordinary performances in our recent history.

It was certainly no sliding doors moment for the two clubs. We lost to Boreham Wood in the final and then the next season - despite us beating Sutton once more, thanks to a late Bashiru Alimi winner at Kingsmeadow - they won the league while we missed the playoffs after blowing a 3-0 lead at Margate on the last day. The two clubs' fortunes have diverged a lot further since. But we'll always have that night.