Leatherhead 1-0 Kingstonian

Kingstonian crashed out from their sole remaining cup competition, losing 1-0 to the Ryman South League leaders Leatherhead in the second round of the Surrey Senior Cup. Having put seven goals past Eastbourne on Saturday the Tanners made light work of a heavy pitch and ran out worthy winners having created a number of chances playing a vibrant brand of counter attacking football.

Whilst Alan Dowson rested Huckle, Hall, Thompson and Dolan and started with top scorer Traynor on the bench, it was still a strong side that travelled to Fetcham Grove and for the first 20 minutes they looked the better side, with Clayton in particular looking lively upfront. Chico Ramos in the Tanners goal was forced into a making a brave save as early as the 8th minute as Alimi ran on to a Jinadu flick on and three minutes later the keeper looked relieved as fiercely hit 25 yard free kick from Gray sailed narrowly over the bar.

Midway through the first half the Tanners demonstrated why they have been such a potent attacking force this season as Andrews neatly stepped inside MacDonald before rattling the cross bar from 20 yards. Shortly after in the 28th minute, following a Jinadu error on the half way line, Leatherhead attacked at pace and briefly there were four attackers against three defenders before the move ended with a speculative shot over from distance. Tolfrey was then forced into action as he confidently held a well struck Hutchings free kick from 25 yards out. The first half ended with the Kingstonian defence playing themselves into trouble when they could have cleared their lines and the Tanners No9, Andrews, should have done better but ended up skewing his shot wide.

Leatherhead came flying out of the traps in the second half and had three great chances to take the lead in quick succession. First off a 49th minute corner was met with a powerful back post header from Boulter, which Tolfrey did exceedingly well to push onto the post before it went wide. The resulting corner was whipped in and flashed across the face of the goal off the head of Hamlin. Finally the third corner in the space of two minutes resulted in Tolfrey producing another brilliant save to deny Macleod. Tolfrey was quickly called into action three minutes later as he dived at the feet of Hutchings.

The Kingstonian fans sensed it wasn't going to be their night as MacDonald was booked despite winning the ball cleanly in a 50:50 challenge and then Hamlin was booked for dissent. Dowson took this as the sign to mix things up as he replaced Quarm and MacDonald with Traynor and Duffy in the 61st minute. Shortly afterwards there was a loud shout for a penalty as Gray went down after a mazy dribble into the area but this was waved away before Gray also found himself in the book for dissent.

Having survived this rare bit of Kingstonian pressure Leatherhead then took the lead in the 75th minute. Marc Elston was the architect as he broke at speed before playing in Andrews whose shot came back off the inside of the post and was put away by Hutchings following in. Kingstonian almost bounced back immediately as a neatly worked free kick found Traynor in space but he didn't hit his shot cleanly and whilst he beat Ramos, Boswell was on hand to clear off the line.

Kingstonian were now playing with more urgency as they sought an equaliser in the dying moments of the game. The closest they came was from a 20 yard free kick in a dangerous central position, but Gray was unable to get the ball up over the wall and down again and it flew harmlessly over the bar. Leatherhead continued to defend in a committed manner and held out for a well deserved victory.