Yeovil Town and Leatherhead will do it all again in an FA Cup fourth qualifying round replay at Huish Park on Tuesday night after a frenetic first encounter yesterday. Dave was in the away end at Fetcham Grove and here are his conclusions.

That’s a different kind of six: When we said “we want six”, this wasn’t quite what we meant! I think the “magic” of the FA Cup is as near as I can get to explaining that one. We looked like we were cruising to a comfortable win, suffering a giant-killing and then clinging on for a draw all in the space of 20 second half minutes. We did not deserve to lose that tie, but fair dos to Leatherhead, they played their part in proceedings to perfection. I bet the photographers who snapped their celebrations after the third goal thought they had got the story – thank goodness for Johl Powell.

We lost control after the changes: With an hour played, I think we had controlled at least 50 minutes and looked to be cruising comfortably in to the First Round Proper. But four changes including withdrawing Ryan Jones, James Daly, Ben Radcliffe and, perhaps most importantly, captain Brett McGavin, on 58 minutes was a lot of change all at once – and then we put a central defender in the middle of the park. We never quite got in to our rhythm again after that and once the home side got one back, their tails were up and our fragilities were exposed.
We needed to be more clinical: That sounds ridiculous when you side we won our previous two matches 6-0, I know, but this game could have been dead and buried by the hour mark if we had taken our opportunities. There were chances for Archie Davies and Mason Obeng just before Leatherhead pulled a goal back where both players looked like they were going for the spectacular, when the simple was an option and let’s not forget McGavin’s penalty miss. We dominated so much of the possession (our passing game really was a joy to watch again) that to be four up with an hour gone would not have flattered us. That finishing almost cost us.
Stick with us Prabhu: It was great to see chairman Prabhu Srinivasan in the away end again, he has been a regular sight at recent matches and I know a lot of fans appreciate how accessible he makes himself. But to see him in amongst it at 2-0, but then making a swift exit at 2-2 did not go unnoticed. Stick with it through good times and bad, Mr Chairman, that’s the way we do it.
We’re still in the hat: It’s a cliche, I know, but Ball 68 of the draw for the First Round Proper of the FA Cup is still Leatherhead or Yeovil Town. A replay on Tuesday night is not ideal, but our next league opponents, Altrincham, also face a replay with FC United of Manchester in midweek. Leatherhead performed absolute heroics to run us this close yesterday and they will have to be almost superhuman to do that again on Tuesday night at Huish Park. Dust ourselves down and go again, we should have enough to get through – but they haven’t lost away in 2026!
Not your average football fare, but steak and chips was on the menu at Leatherhead.

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CullomptonGreen
13 hours ago

Dave, is that you and Lector by the corner flag when the first goal went in? What a rollercoaster!

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