The Tooting and Mitcham United FC lads have had a mixed month... Roger Butcher gives us the low-down in his November Review.

Tooting picked up a couple of good victories this month, but some of the old defensive failings meant that the overall results were rather inconsistent. We picked up our biggest win of the season against Harrow Borough early on in the month. We stormed into a 3-0 lead by half time – Dan Clements headed us into an early lead, and then Mike Dixon and Omar Folkes increased the lead before the break. It was a different story in the 2nd half as Harrow pushed forward a lot more and managed to reduce the deficit to 3-2 with 15 minutes left to play. There was a nervous period as we struggled to hold on but 2 goals from substitute Danny Bassett restored the 3 goal lead and set us up for a fine victory.
 

We were unable to back this up and suffered consecutive defeats against Burgess Hill and Folkestone. This led up to the visit of Kingstonian. Apart from Dulwich, Kingstonian are probably our biggest local rivals in this division, although we have been in different divisions for a lot of recent seasons so we don’t really have much recent history against them. Again, we started well and were rewarded with an own goal following a Peter Wedgeworth corner, before Wedgeworth got himself on the scoresheet, albeit with the help of a vicious deflection.

Kingstonian pulled one back just after half time, but Mike Dixon restored the 2 goal cushion with his 4th goal in 5 games. There was still time for Kingstonian to score a 2nd, but Tooting held on for a 3-2 victory despite a few nervy moments in the last few minutes.

But again we were unable to follow this up and we slumped to a home defeat against Margate in a rather lack lustre performance. It’s possible that we can point to a few long term injuries to a number of players such as Juevan Spencer, Eddie Dines and Billy Dunn, but at the same time, we have been able to bring in a couple of youngsters for their first taste of senior football, and they have acquitted themselves well, with Dominic Morgan-Griffiths being singled out for praise from the Tooting supporters.
 

The last league game of the month was the long trip to Leiston in Suffolk. We were supported in this game by Tooting MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan who managed to combine a visit to the game with a talk to the Leiston Labour party. Sadly, her attendance didn’t improve our luck. Dominic Morgan-Griffiths hit the crossbar with the score still goalless, and for long periods we were on top. But a defensive slip up provided the home side with the opening goal and as Tooting pressed for an equaliser, Leiston sealed the win with a 2nd goal late on.

So, needless to say, its been nice to pick up a couple of wins, but we really need to get a little undefeated run going to try to climb up the table. Maybe December is when we add a bit of consistency to our play! If you haven’t been to a game yet, why not pencil in a visit on Boxing Day for the game against our biggest rivals, Dulwich Hamlet for what will be our largest attendance of the season.

Upcoming Home Fixtures:

Lowestoft Town – Sat 2nd December, 3:00pm

Thurrock – Sat 16th December, 3:00pm

Dulwich Hamlet – Tue 26th December (Boxing Day), 3:00pm

Merstham – Sat 30th December, 3:00pm

Come along – the 280 bus stops right outside!

Keep up to date with all the TMUFC goings on at the Unofficial Website Or Official Facebook Page.