Nine-man Broadbridge Heath exited The Isthmian League Velocity Cup on Tuesday night to a late injury time goal on a cold winters evening at The BodyMould Community Stadium.

The Bears having already gone further in the competition than ever before played host to Kingstonian from the Isthmian League Central Division. The visitor’s have struggled of late but their line-up included new signing and last season’s Central Golden Boot winner Eddie Simons who scored 40 goals in 46 matches for The Kings last season.

The visitor’s had much the better of the first half play but the only goal was scored on 7 minutes when Dennis Kelmendi received the ball in the centre-circle and advanced forward before he unleashed a low right foot shot from 25 yards wide of Heath goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield into the bottom left corner and it remained 0-1 at the break.

Minutes into the restart Heath were reduced to 10 players, defending a long Joe Pratley-Jones throw-in from the left into a crowded penalty area saw Louis Evans and a Kingstonian player holding and pushing each other before falling to the ground, the referee stopped the play to consult with his assistant; meanwhile Evans walked away from the incident only to be confronted by another Kingstonian player who he pushed away, the referee immediately came over and showed Evans a yellow card for the push before returning to complete his deliberation with his assistant which resulted in a second yellow card for Evans and Heath were down to 10.

That incident seemed to spur The Bears on to raise their game and on 53 minutes the 10-men were level when Charlie Gibson played a long ball down the left flank to Callum Dowdell who played it first time inside to Jake Lawrence who drove into the penalty area and hammered a low right foot shot past Kingstonian keeper Liam Allen.

Minutes later a strong challenge saw the departure of Gibson through injury and while waiting to make a substitution Heath were down to 9-players and the visitor’s capitalised on the extra 2-men when Pratley-Jones played the ball in to the feet of Tom Jackson who twisted and turned on the edge of the penalty area before striking a left foot shot past Hadfield to regain the lead for his team.

Heath continued to create the better chances and drew level on 83 minutes when Zac Young advancing down the left, played a low ball across the face of goal for Lawrence to net at the far post for his second of the match. However, celebrations soon turned to despair when Emmanuel Abudiore collected the ball from the back of the net and inexplicably threw it at a Kingstonian player lying on the ground and was immediately shown a straight red card by the match referee and The Bears were down to 9-players for the remaining minutes of the match.

The visitors threw everything at attack and 6 minutes into time added-on they grabbed the winning goal when the ball was delivered into the penalty area from the right, Jackson’s attempt at goal was blocked on the line and the ball fell kindly to Eddie Simon’s to score from close range to take his team into the next round.

Team: Hadfield, Staight (Romain 80), Gibson (Marino), Connell, Hyde (Richardson 66), Peters, Dowdell, Evans, Lawrence Young, Doughty (Abudiore 66).