| Thurrock FC | 2 | - | 3 | Carshalton Athletic |
| Akurang 28 | Lebiham 35 pen | |||
| Akurang 31 | Marvell 61 | |||
| Todd 89 |
One poor decision by the referee was enough to change the outcome of what was looking like a home win for us.
The Fleet defence restricted their opponents to a couple of half chances which Paul Gothard dealt with comfortably. It came as no surprise when we took the lead after forcing a succession of corners midway through the first half. Dave Collins drilled in a low corner which was touched on by Paul Linger and there was Cliff Akurang to fire home from close range to give us a deserved lead after 28minutes.
Cliff struck again just three minutes later this time with a powerful header from a Dave Collis free kick.
No sooner had the game restarted Carshalton were awarded a penalty. Up stepped Lebiham who made no mistake from the spot. Fleet went into the half time break leading 2-1 and deserved to be given the hard work they had put in.
The visitors began the second half at a very quick tempo as they went in search of an equaliser and went close on a couple of occasions. Fleet had just begun to get their own game together again when suddenly the referee turned the whole game upside down. One of his assistants adjudged that Fleet keeper Paul Gothard had handled the ball outside of his area. This despite the fact that the Fleet keeper had the ball inside his own area and there was not a player from either side within 30 yards of him. As Paul threw the ball forward the linesman felt that he had handled the ball outside the box and the referee to the amazement of the crowd ruled that Paul had done so deliberately! Then to the astonishment of everyone he then produced a red card and dismissed Paul.
Dave Collis took over in goal for Fleet, after what seemed an eternity after all the furore that had taken place with the sending off. Sadly his first touch of the ball was to retrieve it from the back of the net after Marvell rifled home the free kick from the supposed handball by Paul. This 61st minute equaliser gave Carshalton even more encouragement to go looking for a winner.
Despite being reduced to ten men Fleet created the better chances and on another day they would have secured a victory. As the minutes ticked away it looked as though a draw was on the cards but Fleet were to be denied a point in the cruellest fashion. The visitors scored in the 89th minute when Todd found himself some space to fire wide of the unlucky Collis to snatch a victory.