By Daniel Brookes
September 23 2019, 18.25
Follow @SW_Londoner
Ashley Bosah believes Tooting & Mitcham’s shock 1-0 FA Cup win over Dorking Wanderers on Saturday proves it is going to be a good year at Imperial Fields.
The Terrors beat the National League South side – two tiers above them in the football pyramid – thanks to Danny Bassett’s goal and despite Sol Patterson-Bohner’s red card with 30 minutes left.
It set up a third qualifying round tie with Southern Premier South side Poole Town and also kept up Tooting’s unbeaten start to the season.
“I’m over the moon,” said co-manager Bosah, who praised his team’s commitment to extra days in pre-season training.
“I’m happier because of the hard work we’ve put into it.
“We’ve probably worked the hardest at this level where we’ve had them in extra days and I think for them to come in and do that showed me they’re going to do well this year.
“We knew we were going to match Dorking but to go a man down with 30 minutes left and still beat a team in the Conference is amazing.
“You’re always worried because you’re a man down.
“We’ve been in that position a lot of times so we knew how we wanted to handle it and we were just hoping it played into our hands.
“Dorking had to change their game so instead of bringing on an extra defender we sent another striker up to carry on pressing so it was harder for them to get the ball into our box and they couldn’t commit everyone to go for the goal.”
On his side’s chances in the next round, match winner Bassett added: “If we play to our strengths, I don’t feel like any team is miles better than us.”
