Disjointed Torquay must do it all again to face Charlton trip
TORQUAY UNITED .... 2 HAVANT ..... 2
LEAGUE One side Charlton Athletic are waiting for Torquay United in the first round proper of the FA Cup - if only the Gulls can get past National South side Havant & Waterlooville on Wednesday night after a late equaliser by the National South club took the fourth qualifying round game to a replay on Saturday.
It finished 2-2 at Plainmoor against the spirited Havant side, who scored their second equaliser in the dying seconds. All the goals came in the second half, Ben Wynter scoring from a parried free kick for 1-0, before Havant equalised through Alex Wall.
It looked like Jake Andrews had rescued the situation when he came on for his first appearance of the season, and scored to make it 2-1 with five minutes to go - but a 94th-minute screamer by Tommy Wright made it 2-2.
Torquay manager Gary Johnson said: “I thought that they [Havant] probably deserved something out of the game anyway, not that we wanted to let them back in it - twice.
“We have got to go and try and win the game in midweek. We have got to rally the troops a little bit, they know they didn’t play well, albeit we didn’t play well as a team, I don’t think we looked like a team out there.
“Sometimes that is because people are trying too hard to get on the ball and their form is not good so all of a sudden they look worse. They want the ball, they get the ball, they lose the ball.
“We just had a couple of minutes to hold out and we weren’t good enough or strong enough to do that.”
There were early chances for the Gulls - two missed by Keelan O’Connell and Connor LemonheighEvans.
Dan Holman was pushed in the area and the referee should really have given a penalty - but the man in black, Dale Wootton, said ‘no.’
Soon after, Holman was pushed again, while running onto a through ball, and it looked a stonewall penalty this time - but the referee again waved away the protests.
O’Connell hit the crossbar and Armani Little shot wide and over. In the 45th minute Holman controlled the ball with his chest, turned, and shot well, but it hit a Havant defender’s legs right on the line.
For the second half, Klaidi Lolos came on for Tom Lapslie, who had hurt his knee. But Havant were the better team from the re-start. Tommy Wright hit the post, with Shaun MacDonald well beaten, and the Gulls were making far too many mistakes.
However, when Lolos was brought down on 67 minutes - 25 yards out Little bent the ball around the wall and the goalkeeper could only parry it - and Wynter was in the right place to hit it home.
Andrews came on for O’Connell right after the goal - making his first appearance of the season after catching Covid-19 in the summer.
On 74 minutes Havant broke well and Wright hit the post with a first effort, before Wall, who had only just come on, headed the rebound home.
Andrews scored to make it 2-1 in the 85th minute - sneaking in at the back post to slam the ball home from close range after some quality work on the byline by Lolos, who drilled the ball across the goalline.
A James Roberts shot was deflected wide as Havant went on the search for the second equaliser. Paul Rooney headed over from a corner; Ali Omar had to block another shot with his feet, and then, in the 94th minute, Wright found the top corner of the net with a wonderful strike that sent the away bench and fans into raptures.