VLeatherhead 1 - 0 Burgess Hill
(Andrews)
Leatherhead won this Championship Manager Cup tie with a late extra time winner from Greg Andrews.
With several of his players missing through injury or suspension, Tanner s boss Mick Sullivan brought in some new faces to his starting line up.
Colin Harris made his debut in goal after Craig Bradshaw was released last week. Rob Hill and Michael Corbett were drafted into defence in place of the injured Iain Hendry (groin strain) and Adam Goodwell (suspended).
After a quiet opening spell Burgess Hill opened up the Leatherhead defence with some probing attacks. The first of these saw Matt Piper fire wide then a shot from Lloyd Cotton produced a good save from Harris.
The Hillians certainly had plenty of chances in the opening half hour, but some poor finishing and good positioning from the new Leatherhead keeper kept the scores level.
Leatherhead’s best chance in the first half came when Kev Terry broke down the right wing. Terry’s shot from the edge of the box hit a post.
The Hillians continued to press forward. An attempted lob from Danny Curd was well anticipated by Harris who managed to paw the ball away from danger. Another chance went begging for the visitors when a corner found Cotton unmarked in the box, but his powerful header failed to find the target.
Another Hillians corner after 35 minutes found the head of tall centre half Danny Gainsford. But once again Harris pulled off a great save to keep out the visitors and Leatherhead went in at half time very fortunate to be on level terms.
After all the excitement of the first half very few opportunities fell to either side in the second period as defences tightened up at both ends, although Harris had to be at full stretch to keep out another shot from Curd after 58 minutes.
Mid way through the second half Liam Collins was replaced by Greg Andrews. Sullivan then made a double substitution, replacing Dominic O’Shea, who had played a lone striker’s role up front, and Kev Terry with Julien Thompson and Billy Joe King.
A change in formation saw Andrews and Thompson push forward. With the introduction of a two pronged attack Leatherhead looked like the team most likely to break the deadlock.
With no further decisive attacks the game moved into extra time. As time ticked by it looked as though the game would end in stalemate and the tie would have to be decided by penalties.
But after 118 minutes of play the Tanners made one final assault on the Burgess Hill goal. Tommy Williams forced a good save from keeper Joe Adams, but the rebound fell to the feet of Andrews who stabbed it across the line for the winner.
Leatherhead’s reward for their endeavours is a home tie in the next round against Bognor Regis Town.
Leatherhead: Colin Harris, Jon Coke, Rob Hill, Chris Boulter, Michael Corbett, Liam Collins (Greg Andrews), Dan Dean, Tommy Williams, Dominic O’Shea (Julien Thompson), Kev Terry (Billy Joe King), Josh Smith.