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Godalming 0 Leatherhead 1
The Tanners moved into the quarter finals of the Championship Manager League Cup with a determined performance at their highflying Ryman 1 South rivals Godalming Town on Tuesday night.
Godalming nearly made an early break through after just 4 minutes when a free kick from the edge of the Tanner’s box bounced back off the foot of Colin Harris’ right hand post but the loose ball was swiftly hacked clear.
Tommy Hutchings, who was a thorn in the home defence all evening, then burst free on the left and his cross was met by a sliding Marc Elston at the far post, but a home defender did enough to ensure Rodney Chiweshe in the home goal was able to save comfortably.
The hosts then began to look dangerous, firstly Glen Stanley drilled a 20 yard shot just wide of the goal, and in the 20th minute Godalming thought they had scored but the linesman’s flag cut short their celebrations.
Tanners were struggling to make an impact with too many misplaced passes, but just before half time Elston had their best effort when he cut in from the left but his shot sailed just over.
Leatherhead were forced into two changes at the interval with Iain Hendry replacing Dan Dean at centre back and Michael Corbett taking over from Hassan Nyang in the middle of the park.
Clearly Mick Sullivan’s half time talk had galvanised the Greens as they took the game to their hosts straight from the break.
On 47 minutes Elston saw a rasping drive well held by Chiweshe at the foot of his foot, and 5 minutes later Hutchings burst past three defenders but saw his clipped effort deflected just wide by a desperate defence.
It was little surprise when the ever dangerous pairing of the front two combined to give Tanners a deserved lead on 65 minutes.
Hutchings was the architect as he beat his man on the right and when his low cross found Elston he hit a superbly controlled curling effort past Chiweshe's despairing dive and just inside the left hand post.
It was all Tanners now as they poured forward in an attempt to seal the game.
On 67 minutes Hendry expertly fed Elston down the left, and the veteran Jamie Beer saw his close range shot blocked, then Hutchings sent another powerful effort inches wide after cutting in from the right onto his favoured left foot.
Godalming briefly threatened with a long range effort that was dragged past the far post, but Hutchings came close again with another shot from distance that just flew past the post with the home keeper well beaten.
As the game crept into injury time, Godalming were finally able to mount some pressure but the Tanner’s rearguard, once again superbly marshalled by the dependable Chris Boulter, held firm and Leatherhead finally recorded a victory at Wey Court.
Leatherhead: Harris, Coke, Boulter, Dean (Hendry), Goodwell, Hill, Andrews, Nyang (Corbett), Elston, Hutchings (Barilli), Beer
Report by Sir Richard Wilkinson