Balham stunned by last-minute equaliser

Epsom & Ewell 2 Balham 2

"You are the most mature team in the division, and play the best football" kindly stated the Epsom coach after the match. With Ty, Charlie and Dylan playing despite being ill, James adding to the growing injury list and Max and Matthieu absent, the boys can be absolutely thrilled by this performance. Given we also played with ten players for a large chunk of the first half, the Whites can count themselves really unlucky not to have come away with three points.

Balham started well, with Jude heading wide from a useful cross from George. Yet again though Balham went behind with a gaping hole in the defence, not helped by being a player down, and some sloppy midfield play giving away the ball. For the rest of the half, the Whites looked stronger with Joe, George and Sammi running themselves into the ground in midfield. George hit an indirect free-kick just over, and Jude could not beat the onrushing keeper after an excellent through-ball from George. The boys finally got a deserved equaliser after Jude poked in a spill from their goalkeeper after Ty's free-kick.

With Chris on after 25 minutes, the boys took even better control of midfield despite several fouls from the opponents who were clearly getting frustrated. Whilst they passed the ball around well at the back, they were not really creating many chances and Balham went on to take a deserved lead. Ethan had made several strong dribbles down the left wing, and did so again, completing the finish with a lovely side-footed shot. The goalscorer had a fine effort from a corner, hitting a half-volley just wide and the boys went into the break on top. With an Epsom player yellow-carded for kicking out, you could tell they were getting riled by our dominance.

Balham had a couple of chances early in the second half which they would live to regret. Jude's left-foot shot was a little tame, and Sammi couldn't quite finish off an excellent passing move involving George and Jude.

Ethan had to come off for a while after a nasty stamp, and the home side started to push for an equaliser. It looked like Balham had held on when a free-kick was given to Epsom after it initially looked like it had been given Balham's way for a shirt pull. Disappointingly, the shot went all the way through our defence with no-one getting a head to it, bouncing agonisingly in front of Alex and going in. There was still enough time for Alex to pull off a superb block and Balham to go close from a corner but the ref blew the final whistle with the ball sailing wide. A muddy and exhausted set of boys left the pitch, disappointed in the result but hopefully thrilled with the performance which showed so much grit, determination and skill.

There are three matches to end off the season, and Balham should approach them with confidence despite recent results. There will be news about plans for next season soon - please look out for a WhatsApp message from Jamie on this.