TONBRIDGE ANGELS came down from the high of their impressive victory over Leiston in midweek with a poor second-half showing against a Tooting & Mitcham side who chalked up their third consecutive win in the Bostik League Premier Division.
The early pressure came from the home side and was rewarded after 11 minutes when Joe Turner’s pile-driver from 25 yards gave Tooting keeper Mattie Pierson no chance.
The lead was to last only three minutes, however, when good running off the ball by Omar Folkes allowed the Terrors forward a chance to shoot low past Jonny Henly in the Tonbridge goal.
Tonbridge generally had the better of the first half with Nathan Elder missing a glorious chance to restore his side’s lead on 40 minutes.
The half concluded with a flurry of Tonbridge crosses but the two sides went in for the break at level pegging.
The second half was something of stop-start affair with neither side able to impose themselves on the game.
The best chance for the hosts came in the 58th minute when Xavier Vidal found himself one on one with Mattie Pierson but the custodian did well to put the midfielder off.
In the 59th minute the ball bounced around the Angels goal area with and Craig Stone’s clearance rebounded off his team-mate Callum Adonis-Taylor and into the goal for what was to prove the winner.
Tooting defended well thereafter and despite a decent chance for the Angels’ Dan Thompson deep in stoppage time the points returned to South London with the away side.
Angels manager Steve McKimm said: “First half I thought we did OK but the second half was frankly a disgrace, and to be honest I thought some players hid.
“Not taking anything away from Tooting, they’ve come here and done a job on us, but our players need to have a close look at themselves and after Tuesday it was particularly frustrating.”
