FA Cup Preliminary Round
Redhill 0 Horsham YMCA 0
The magic of the FA Cup was not so apparent as Redhill and Horsham YMCA have a replay to look forward to in the Preliminary Round. The sides playing out a goalless draw on Saturday at Kiln Brow, with Gavin Gordon having a goal controversially ruled out in stoppage time.
Redhill manager Mike Maher made 4 changes to the side that lost 4-3 to Merstham on Bank Holiday Monday, with new goalkeeper Michael Hunter catching the eye, pulling off some fine saves in the process of keeping a clean sheet to deny the Sussex County Football League team a Cup upset.
The hosts made a fine start to proceedings as Tre Mitford's volley was palmed to safety by Horsham's number 1 Simon Lockwood, with the Redhill frontman buoyed by his goal on Monday. However, the visitors looked lively themselves with Nick Sullivan dragging his shot wide from Dave Brown's flick on, much to his frustration.
Horsham had another chance just after the quarter of the hour mark as Luke Gedling followed Sullivan by not troubling Hunter and miscuing his shot. The home side had another scare not long afterwards as Horsham took the game to them and looked on top in the opening exchanges with Sullivan denied by Hunter with a smart low stop, only to be caught out by Brown charging into the box, but he was denied by Jordon Anderson with the 6 foot 8 central defender clearing the winger's effort off the line to keep the scores level.
Redhill couldn't take their chances as well, with Joe Bingham only able to head Chris O'Flaherty's corner into the hands of Lockwood, and a few minutes later, a lack of concentration from the visiting goalkeeper nearly gifted Tyrone Pink a wonderful chance to take the lead, but Matt Crane's intervention spared his blushes, much to Pink's frustration. The clearest chance came to Mitford, a loose ball in the area was seized upon by the Redhill man, yet he could only clear the bar from 10 yards. The crowd of 97 started to fear that a goal wasn't coming soon. Even more so when just before the break, Pink's low effort was parried by the stubborn Lockwood into the path of O'Flaherty who missed his chance, with the goal gaping. No surprise the half ended goalless.
Into the second half, this scrappy affair was evenly matched until a last 15 minute frenzy when both teams had the opportunities to progress in the competition with the Horsham substitute Farzad Bidgood trying a smart flick and volley, only to find the arms of Hunter. Soon after, Hunter was called into action again as Sullivan bore down on goal and the new Lobsters keeper stood up as long as possible before getting down well again to deny the Horsham number 9, who had yet another good chance from a cross on the right, but could only guide his header wide.
Another Redhill signing in the week Fiachara McArdle looked to make a difference, but his best effort was a tame header that was easily saved.
But in the first minute of stoppage time, Maher's side looked to have found a reward with a Bingham cross spiralling into the air via a deflection that wasn't dealt with until Gavin Gordon bundled the ball into the back of the net, only to see David Smart rule the goal out for a foul on Lockwood, much to Redhill's confusion.
Horsham had a half-hearted appeal for a penalty waved away by Smart in the third minute of added time, leaving this one to go to a tense replay on Wednesday at Gorings Mead.
