They know they got away with it on Saturday, says proud Bridon Ropes boss Mark Murison

BRIDON ROPES manager Mark Murison feels Holmesdale got away with it during Saturday’s FA Vase stalemate.

The Kent Invicta League side were playing their first FA Vase tie in their history and were held to a 1-1 draw by the Southern Counties East Football League side.

Nick Dunsdon went down in history by scoring the Charlton-based club’s first goal in the competition with thirteen minutes left, before Holmesdale grabbed a last-gasp equaliser through substitute Michael McKenna.

The two sides meet again at Oakley Road tonight to see which club will travel to Erith Town in the Second Qualifying Round on 3 October.

“Whatever happens on Wednesday night, I’m proud of the boys and I think we’ll start shooting up the table now where I think we deserve because we are much a better team where we are at the moment,” said Murison.

“It’s going to be difficult enough.  We play with confidence wherever we play.

“We’re not going to go away and try to play any different. We’re not going to sit back and hope for a draw and take it to penalties because personally I think we were better than them on Saturday, so we’re going to go out there to try to beat them on their own patch because they know if they deep down look at it, they know they got away with it on Saturday and they’re probably more happy than us because we’re happy because it was our first game in The FA Vase and we’ve got to be proud with ourselves taking a team a division higher all the way.

“I think if we can do what we did for the first 25-30 minutes on Saturday and up that, it might be too much to ask them to do a full 90 at this stage, if we get that performance more and more into a game, maybe in football you need a little bit of luck.

“Because two top drawer quality saves from their keeper we’d probably have been two or three up within 20 minutes and it’s a different game.

“But focusing on the positives, getting back to a full squad, we’ve got another game on Wednesday night and we’ll have a good chance of progressing to the next round.”

For Holmesdale assistant manager Ross Mitchell, he just wants his side to take their chances and seal a trip to their Southern Counties East Football League rivals Erith Town in the next round.

“It didn’t happen but I’m confident enough in the future and once it clicks, it clicks but we’ve got to do the nasty bit of football as well,” said Mitchell.

“We’ve got to do the defending. They’ve got to put their foot in and throw their body on the line.”

Mitchell is confident his young side can do the business against a Bridon Ropes outfit that tired during extra-time on Saturday afternoon.

He said: “I think that’s quite natural. We always felt our fitness would show. We’ve got a bit of youth in the team and we’ve got some naturally fit players but again credit to them they dug deep and it’s one-all at the end of the day, so we both got what we deserve.

“I’m expecting a reaction from the boys, a reaction to put right what was wrong on Saturday, which is goals.

“The reality is I’m not being too negative because there are goals in that game and on another day it could’ve been seven or eight but it couldn’t been or would have been have got to come into happening.”

When asked how his side will progress through to the next round and avoid a cup upset on home soil tonight, Mitchell simply replied: “Score goals! It is what it is. Goals change games. We’ve got to score goals and we’ve got to take our chances and if we do that, we’re in the next round!”

Visit Holmesdale’s website:  www.pitchero.com/clubs/holmesdalefc

Holmesdale  v  Bridon Ropes
The FA Vase First Qualifying Round Replay
Wednesday 9^th September 2015
Kick Off 7:45pm
At 68 Oakley Road, Bromley, Kent BR2 8HQ