Well, where to start! Eight goal cup tie with six of them in City’s end, but their debutant young keeper Austin Tearle, was probably their man-of-the-match!
To explain fully, the game needs splitting into two segments – firstly, the hard fought 2-2 draw in the ninety minutes which lurched from entertaining to festering with a hostile edge and included everything in between, and in which Borden twice took the lead through two far from convincing penalties. City took that in their stride though and twice came back before the game went to extra-time despite Borden shading it and, also due in no small part to a string of fine and brilliant saves by Tearle.
The killer for City though was conceding the third goal in the first minutes of the extra period and then whilst eventually trying to rescue the tie by pushing forward, they were ruthlessly exposed at the back as Borden filled their boots!
The game started slowly as befitting the stifling hot and very sunny conditions with the first concerted effort on goal not coming until the sixth minute when Borden’s George Latham fired just over. They came closer four minutes later when Reiss Crimmen’s free-kick was flying in under the bar before Tearle pulled off his first good save of the afternoon with a very smart one-handed tip-over at the expense of a corner.
The home side were enjoying most of the attacking play as Bailey Catherick curled another free-kick just wide of the City upright before Fred Carroll’s shot was blocked away by City at the near post and from almost off the line. Tearle and his defenders had already successfully dealt with three assorted corners and high crosses, but it was from another high ball that indirectly brought Borden their first goal. City’s George Clark was challenging for the ball and was adjudged to have pushed a Borden attacker in the back. Now from my view point, if there was any touch it was absolutely minimal, but the referee’s ability to be able see it when Clark was around half the size of the attacker and directly behind him, plus said player’s staged collapse into a sudden heap, was somehow sufficient for the official to be sure enough and point to the spot. Catherick duly obliged chipping, possibly fortuitously, the spot-kick in off the inside of the post for 0-1.
City almost spectacularly and immediately equalised when just seconds after the restart – and from just inside his own half, Louis Brooks-Read chipped the keeper only to see Reece Heasman furiously back-track and just about push the ball two-handed over his own bar to safety! From the resulting corner, George Acland fired wide before minutes later a Clark effort brought only a hurried parry from Heasman with Jake Lemar following in just unable to adjust his body in the air enough to probably divert the loose ball into the net.
On thirty-five minutes, City scored a superb goal to put themselves level. It all started when Ade Kunlee who had only just come on as an early substitute, won the ball well just outside his own box and moved it forward to David Olayia. He played the ball onto Mark Newman who in turn found Clark making an excellent over-lapping run down the left. He got to the ball a second in front of a covering defender and whipped in a perfect first-time cross that Acland threw himself forward to, to plant a great stooping header home and just inside the post for 1-1 – a brilliant team goal!
City went close again when Newman’s snap shot was only parried away by Heasman, but there was no City player on hand to take advantage, before at the other end, they probably should have fallen behind again when Alfie Welling got behind the City defence and with a goal seeming certain, he lobbed the ball wastefully and well over the bar.
City finished the half on the attack with Newman seeing an effort blocked, but frustratingly, four different dead-ball situations in the closing moments all failed to test Heasman. Among those though, it was Borden that came closest to scoring – but another golden chance was missed – Latham the guilty party this time when, with a clear sight of goal, he volleyed well over from just fifteen yards out.
Half-time then all square at 1-1 and probably just about fairly even and fair at that point.
City could have taken an early second-half lead when Olaiya rushed through in pursuit of a ball forward but came across Heasman charging towards him at pace and as the City player tried to knock the ball around him, the keeper made a great spreading save to deflect the ball away from harm and save a certain goal.
Borden were then denied a goal themselves, this time from a corner when a clean header goal-bound was cleared off the line by Clark. City then survived a couple of long throws deep into their box before a run down the left by Ross Pagett saw a zipped in low cross bypass the onrushing Latham but almost bundled in at the far post with Clark again the City hero with a tremendous last ditch block to deflect the ball out for a corner.
City’s relief was short-lived however when another penalty went against them. There was the usual pushing and holding in the box and just before the corner seemed to be taken – although to be fair with most eyes on the corner taker, two players went down in a tangle and the referee blew the whistle and awarded the penalty. City were adamant that the corner hadn’t been taken so the ball was effectively dead, but the referee was having none of it and Catherick gladly stepped up and thumped the ball home – despite Tearle getting a hand to it, and restored the Borden lead at 1-2.
The penalty was merely the latest ‘injustice’ that added to the illusion that City were getting the rough end of the decisions and Borden, having gone from at the start getting in the referee’s ear before migrating before the break to getting on at each other, now had the City players in their sights with skipper Aaron James coming under particular and frankly unnecessary and totally unjust barracking and needling from several of the Borden personnel both on the field and off it!
City responded well, but Clark could only spiral a chance past the angle after latching onto a ball over the top, whilst Acland struck a decent effort just over the bar from twenty-five yards.
Tearle and Drake Muhumuza then combined to thwart a left-sided home attack that had threatened down at the foot of the post after a bit of a goalmouth scramble and when the play moved down the other end, City were denied a penalty shout for a handball that just added to the frustration, with Olaiya consequently managing to talk himself into the sin bin in the aftermath!
City were striving hard to get back into the game and peppered the Borden box with a couple of long throws and a free-kick before Jamie Southby latched onto a through ball on the right and fired it past Heasman only to see it also bounce past the far post.
City were then indebted to Tearle again with a cracking double save, firstly a point-blank reflex stop to deny Latham’s close-range header and then reacting smartly to scoop away the loose ball before the attacker could poke it home. He quickly followed that with a further excellent save when he rushed out and made another close-range block to thwart Riley Carroll who had escaped the last defender and was clean through on goal.
With the game opening up and Borden not appearing to sit back on their lead, Tearle then made a super catch under severe pressure when a high ball launched in had seen a brief game of head tennis in a very crowded box with both defenders and attackers involved, before he started the move that led to City’s second equaliser. A long ball out from the keeper on eighty minutes, was chased down by Oscar Weight who smartly found Acland, he tried to turn towards goal but was upended – a clear foul, but to the referee’s credit he saw Southby converging on the loose ball and called an advantage which Southby calmy took, tucking the ball home nicely for 2-2.
With ten minutes to go, the game was suddenly set up for someone to win or lose. Tearle punched another high ball clear under pressure again as Borden piled players into City’s box, before Brooks-Read did well to block a Latham shot. A Borden corner was then well cleared one handed by Tearle but the hosts recycled the ball and Kai Parkinson fired across the City goal and wide from out on the left.
Catherick then launched a stinger straight down the middle that was brilliantly turned over the bar one-handed by Tearle, before a Brooks-Read free-kick for City was just about cleared from under their own bar by Borden. We were now into the last minute and Borden’s Parkinson must have thought he’d won it for his team when he headed Josh Arnold’s cross towards goal from two yards out only to see Tearle suddenly appear and with a flailing arm somehow palm the ball up and away – it was an absolutely brilliant save!
Borden would finish the last few minutes the stronger though and Tearle plucked Carroll’s header out of the air, before he got down well again to deny the same player at the foot of the near post with another super blocking save. The resulting corner was the last action of the ninety and another chance for the hosts as Catherick’s ball in was headed well over the bar by Latham.
So the game moved into extra-time and this is where City were finally beaten. It took Borden less than two minutes after the restart to retake the lead when a routine attack looked to be covered but the ball ran loose for a second and Arnold pounced to rifle it in from the edge of the box, across the keeper and low, into the opposite side of the net for 2-3.
From the very next attack they could have got another when Latham bull-dozed his way through and hit a bouncing ball towards goal but Tearle rescued City again, closing him down and getting enough of something on the effort to deflect it past the post!
Borden were suddenly going in for the kill and a plethora of corners followed, one was headed off his own bar by a City defender, another saw two or three defenders combine to deny Latham’s swivelled effort, before Parkinson saw his shot blocked and then Catherick saw his go wide.
Still the hosts pressed forward even having a goal disallowed as although Tearle had made an initial save from a long shot the follow up was adjudged as offside and chalked off. Riley Carroll then fired off-target, but the increasing pressure soon told when Catherick’s ball round the defence picked out Arnold and with some space and Tearle exposed, he couldn’t really miss sliding the ball home for 2-4.
Little seemed to keep them at bay but Tearle made yet another save using an outstretched boot to deny Latham before Parkinson found some space again in the City box but hit his shot wide.
A quick turnaround for the second-half of extra-time saw Clark clean through for City but as he tried to set up or shoot he was pulled back by a very early offside flag raised almost before he had even made the move which prompted howls of derision from the City bench and some supporters which were right by the incident. Just after that moment, City’s Harley White was yellow carded for a foul and Kunlee clearly frustrated with a capital F, was sent to the sin bin, leaving City down to ten for basically the rest of the game.
With City shuffling the pack and desperately trying to get back in the game and time running out, they were open at the back and John Turner fired in from wide left against the City bar before Latham pounced to steer the ball past Tearle – who had just only been able to palm away a whizzed in shot from the right, to make it 2-5.
Tearle then got right behind a distance effort from Welling, before he could do nothing to stop Pagett who picked his way through in the last minute for 2-6.
A late City free-kick was hammered against a defender by Brooks-Reid but in truth, the early extra-time goal and the dominant display by Borden in that first period of extra-time proved to be the turning point in the contest, one which suddenly left too much for City to do and with them needing to chase the game thereafter, it just took it or any chance they had of winning it away from them.
Final score: Borden Village 6 Canterbury 2