Heath played five FA Cup matches last season and after that run many Heath supporters were really hoping that the jinx of going out to lower level teams at the first hurdle had finally come to an end; but unfortunately it came back to bite them again when Cherry Red Combined Counties Premier Division outfit Cobham FC left The BodyMould Community Stadium with the victory that will see them host Margate in the next round.

Having said that Cobham only just missed out on promotion in the final play-off against Jersey Bulls in May and with a bit more luck they could well have been playing Step 4 football in the Isthmian League themselves this season.

In a pretty nondescript first half the best goal scoring opportunities did come Heath’s way; on 10 minutes Luke Bejashvili cut in from the right and blasted a right foot shot straight at the Cobham goalkeeper Conrad Knight, the ball was worked around before coming back to Bejashvili who struck another right foot blast but Knight was alert to save again.

On 26 minutes it was the turn of Ta’Shae Andall-Gibbons to force Knight into another fine save with a shot from the edge of the penalty area, the ball came back out to Bejashvili who was again denied with Knight making a save with his legs to deflect the ball out for a corner and it remained goalless at the break.

Heath were again denied in the early stages of the second half when Francis Junior Ze broke into the Cobham penalty area, his right foot shot managed to get past Knight but a covering defender cleared the ball off the goal-line.

The deadlock was finally broken on 51 minutes when a Cobham player got round the back of the Heath defence and fired in a powerful right foot shot that Heath goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield blocked at the near post, the ball squirmed across the face of goal towards Sal Marino whose attempt to clear saw him bring down Derick Hayford and Patrick Murray stepped up to fire a right foot shot from the penalty spot low to Hadfield’s right.

The visitor’s made it 2-0 on the hour mark when a long through ball straight down the middle of the park allowed Elijah Simpson to run through on goal and finish in style with a low right foot shot past Hadfield.

Heath manager Chris Simmons made a host of changes and gradually The Bears began to get the upper hand but that final clinical finish was missing, then against the run of play on 77mins Cobham killed the game when a mistake in defence allowed Murray to sprint away down the right before playing the ball across the goal to Hayford for a simple tap in from 6 yards, his second and his team’s third of the day.

Heath did pull a goal back on 87mins when a corner from the left was played to the far post where Sal Marino hooked it back into the goal but it was a case of too little too late and another early FA cup exit for The Bears.

Team: Hadfield, Staight, Young, Marino, Terry, Peters, Dowdell, Andall-Gibbons, Junior Ze, Romain, Bejashvili. Subs. Hay, Connell, Lowery, Kowalcyzk, Frankland