The Opposing View - Raynes Park Vale v Erith & Belvedere, FA Cup, 6 August 2022 & 9 August 2022
with Dominic Tait, Social Media Officer Raynes Park Vale FC.

We started slowly and E&B were the better team earlier on. Then we had a player sent off (Nathan Lewis) for two yellows, which added to the advantage and RPV's heads went down a bit before you scored in the 39th minute.

Your striker (Tunde, number 9) took his goal very well, cutting in from the right, a little stepover, another step and then bang into the bottom right-hand corner. He's from Beckenham, a very good signing for you. We saw him score a few goals last season, as they were in the same league as us - in fact, they won the league.

I thought "That's it"! The body language wasn't that good. To be honest, you look like a very good side, we were down to 10 men and we were going out.

But that was the first half - the second half was very different...

We did much better in the second half and our heads were up again, but we couldn’t really break down your defence. Your centre back (Ryan Johnson, number 6) looked very professional, experienced, calm and composed on the ball, playing in a deep sweeper role. He won a lot of the ball we were trying to put through either in the air or on the deck.

As the game went on, I thought you were trying to see at the game out, as opposed to attacking, but you did hit the bar before we had our very good spell in the last nine or 10 minutes. Also, you went down to 10 men yourself quite late on.

We had our chances. Jordan Gallagher (number 10) put a very good chance a foot wide of the right post when he was one-on-one with your keeper and he really should’ve scored. And then a few minutes later he hit the foot of the post! When those chances don’t go in you just think it’s not gonna be your day!

But Dan Moody, who would normally score about one goal a season from central midfield, scores his absolutely unbelievable equaliser and the whole place went mental with delight and relief to still be in the Cup and not to get beaten at home on the first day of the season - and avoid all that disappointment and lack of confidence that a defeat brings.

So it really was a game of two halves.

Do you feel unlucky not to win at the first attempt?

Absolutely not, I feel lucky that we are still in the Cup after going down to 10 men and our average first half.

Do you expect a similar game on Tuesday?

I expect it to be tough and close. I expect it to be hard. You’re a good side. To any neutrals or ground hoppers, I’d say get to the game because it could be another brilliant cup tie and I wouldn’t be surprised if it went to penalties after being 2-2 or 3-3 after extra time! And then maybe one of the keepers has to take a pen in the shootout and one of the keepers wins the tie!

The outcome?

I just don’t know what the outcome could be, both good sides so it could go either way, but it should be an absolutely great game.

It’ll be interesting to see how we do with 11 versus 11, presuming we manage to keep 11 men on the pitch for more than 19 minutes! We had difficulty breaking you down defensively with 10 men, You have a good defence, and it took an exceptional strike from distance to get one past your keeper.

And of course we won’t have home advantage with our slopy grass pitch, and we will have to travel away midweek. These could well give you the advantage. We also picked up a couple of injuries on Saturday but we have a deep squad and there could well be a few changes on Tuesday.

Of course, I’d love us to progress to the next round but it’s cup football and anything could happen.

Any other thoughts?

My main thought is that whatever happens in the replay, the magic of the cup has already happened for Raynes Park Vale. We had an absolutely golden moment when Dan Moody scored his equaliser. It was almost perfect, it’s late in the game, it’s a beautiful sunny day and it was just pure fantastic perfect non-league football in a little corner of southwest London.

All of us Vale fans, players & coaches who were there will always have that memory of that goal and just how awesome it was in the moment - that 37 seconds of build-up, the strike and then huge celebrations!

Good luck to Erith & Belvedere for this season ahead of you. Whatever happens in this replay, the magic of the cup still endures after 150 years. Up the Vale!