Carshalton Athletic 0 Badshot Lea 1

It all started so well for Carshalton in this Surrey Senior Cup second round tie, with Joe Dolan’s header from Josh Webb’s corner grazing the bar and Stefan Cox’s drive from the edge of the area flying over, but Badshot weathered the early flurry and hit back with Nick Sowden’s effort that touched the woodwork on its way over.

The visitors grew in confidence as the game wore on and Joe Sowden on the right was given far too much room when his team moved forward as the home team struggled to build any moves likely to test Matt Watson, the Badshot keeper.

Stefan Cox on the left caused a few early problems, in particular a cross that cleared Watson but was headed just wide by Jolly, with David Ray far better placed and coming in on goal behind him.

Late in the half, Cox found defender Dave Woozley in a forward position, but his shot was poor and easily fielded by Watson.

The hope was that the Robins would raise their game after the break, but Badshot had other ideas and took a surprise lead five minutes into the second period.

Mark Peter’s shot resulted in a corner that was only half cleared and, when Sowden crossed the ball in from the right, Robb Westell found space to head unchallenged past Hamann to put his side ahead.

The expected response form Carshalton failed to materialise and Badshot had several good chances to increase their lead, with goalscorer Westell failing to take advantage when Woozley lost possession.

McCoy and Bailey picked up bookings as the visitors dug in, but Westell missed a golden chance to make the game safe, when Sowden again broke free on the right and picked out his midfield colleague who contrived to miss from close range.

Carshalton’s efforts grew more desperate as the minutes passed, but their substitutions had little effect and the longer the game wore on the more obvious it became that it would take a mistake by the tiring Badshot defence or a piece of individual brilliance to produce an equaliser.

In the event neither occurred and, for the second year in succession, the Robins experienced the earliest exit from the county cup competition.

Robins: Nick Hamann, Rob Watkins, Justyn Roberts, Joe Dolan, David Woozley, David Ray, Louis Bell (Karl Murray), Joshua Webb (Kenny Beaney), Jones Awuah, Richard Jolly, Stefan Cox (Rashid Kamara)

Subs not used: Luke Badiali, Jimmy Hearne