In the Emirates FA Cup Broadbridge Heath welcomed AFC Greenwich Borough to The Air Engineering Stadium home of Broadbridge Heath Football Club for this Extra-Preliminary Round match.

This was the visitor’s first ever match in the FA Cup following their promotion last season to the South Eastern Premier Division and both sides came into the game with a good pre-season behind them and hoping to continue that form into the new season.

Heath’s Mason Doughty had the first goal attempt on 5 minutes when he struck a right foot shot from distance narrowly wide of the post and at the other end on 12 minutes Oluwatomisin Obilana fired a shot wide of Alfie Hadfield’s goal when well placed.

The Bears were forced to make an early change to their line-up on 18 minutes with Lewis Hyde coming off injured and being replaced by debutant Tito Salaam.

Broadbridge Heath continued to create the better of the first half openings, Louis Evans had a left foot shot from 16 yards deflected over the crossbar, Ben Royall had one shot from the edge of the box blocked by a defender and fired another left foot shot wide of the post, Doughty tried a left foot shot from distance which went straight into the arms of Borough’s goalkeeper Javarn Pitterson but it remained 0-0 at the break.

The second half continued to be a close contest, Heath started well but it was the visitors who should have taken the lead on the hour mark when the ball was played to the feet of striker Abel Vendrells who turned sharply but put the ball over the bar from 6 yards.

Minutes later a Heath attack broke down in the Borough penalty area, a long clearance upfield from defence to attack saw Vendrells run through on goal, Hadfield came out to meet the striker who took the ball around the Heath keeper and hit a low right foot shot that was cleared off the goal-line by the retreating Jay Richardson.

The winning goal came 12 minutes from time when Hadfield threw the ball out wide left to Royall who was quickly closed down, the Heath fullback played it inside to Charlie Connell whose touch let him down and Obilana was on it in a flash to fire a low left foot shot past Hadfield before the keeper had time to react.

Broadbridge Heath threw everyone forward in search of the equaliser and in the closing minutes a long Royall through-in from the right was headed on by Richardson at the near post to Doughty on the back post who headed the ball back across the goal over the Borough goalkeeper but cleared off the line by a defender.

With only seconds remaining a clumsy challenge on Doughty by Obilana saw the striker pick up a second caution of the game quickly followed by a red card to bring his eventful afternoon to a premature conclusion and with the resulting free-kick coming to nothing the game came to an end.

Team: Hadfield, Cotton, Royall, Marino (Hay 65), Hyde (Salaam 18), Richardson, Yakubu (Bejashvili 68), Connell, Doughty, Evans, Young.