As the tie got underway it soon became evident that the home side found themselves up against a very fast and useful outfit; indeed there can’t be too many occasions when the speedy Cars wingers Jon Phillips and Paul Pearce aren’t the quickest players on the pitch as was the case in this game.  The tie was only 3 minutes old when the opening chance fell to Cars' Dave Tilley, his shot though not testing the keeper.  The visitors were also into their stride by now, their pace and speed at which they closed down the player with the ball forcing Cars into some uncharacteristic mistakes which led to the back line coming under a lot more pressure than they’ve experienced in recent matches.  Despite this pressure, it was Cars that created the next chance of the tie in the 12th minute when a long diagonal right to left cross field pass was played back across the area to Matt Wigham who cleverly chipped the ball beyond the stranded keeper, but agonizingly for both Wigham and Cars the ball crept wide of the right hand post.  Just moments later with Cars attempting to play their way out of defence, Pearce was played into trouble by an over hit pass that saw him lose out to the Stars' left winger, who seizing his chance, sent in a low driven cross that was met by his centre forward, who skillfully slotted home from close range.  However, the away team’s cheers soon turned to jeers when they spotted the raised flag of the referee’s assistant, the goal being ruled out for offside.  Cars came under a spell of sustained pressure towards the end of the half when they faced a succession of corners that they did well to defend.  Half time arrived with Cars going in knowing that their opponents had probably just shaded the first half.

The opening action of the second half saw the visitors have a couple of early chances to break the deadlock.  The first of these coming courtesy of great run from midfield that was only thwarted by a last ditch block-cum-tackle as the Stars' player shaped to shoot and the second a well hit free kick that flew over Neil Backer’s goal having taken a deflection off the Cars' wall.  Seeing the opposition go close seemed to galvanise Cars into action, resulting in them enjoying a period of good play that had Stars on the back foot and led to them winning a free kick to the left of the area.   Keith Cave took the kick hitting it to the far post where Shaun Swan met it with his head and sent it goal bound, but yet again Cars saw a chance go begging as the ball went wide of the upright.  Cars had yet another opportunity to open the scoring after a great break from their own half finished with Wigham’s close range shot looking destined for the right corner of the goal until that is, the keeper pulled off a super save, the ball being retrieved by his long arm after it had seemingly gone beyond him.   

Two minutes later Cars fell behind to one of those bizarre goals that only cup ties seem to throw-up.  A challenge in the box on the centre forward by Pearce saw the ball squirm along the six-yard line to Garry Baker who turned it into his own net after it had taken a wicked bobble on the heavily sanded goalmouth as he swung to hook it away.  With only 10 minutes left on the watch, Cars won a hotly disputed free kick 25 yards from goal.  Cave stepped forward to hit an absolute scorcher of a free-kick that went in off the left hand post to put Cars on level terms.  The tie now looked set for extra-time and the possibility of penalties, but Cars boss Neil Edwards gambled and sent on another forward having earlier replaced the busy Gareth Hobbs with Mark Raven.  Deep into added time, Edwards saw his gamble pay dividends when his side produced down the left flank the best move of the afternoon allowing Dave Tilley to put in a teasing cross that cannoned off the keeper’s chest and into the path of Phillips who stooped low to head the winner much to the delight of the packed pavilion balcony.  Remarkably the referee managed to find another 2 minutes on his watch, but now in front Cars weren’t going to throw this one away and successfully played out time to record a memorable win.

This wasn’t by any means a vintage Carshalton performance, nevertheless though, the team did display the great team spirit that has seen them put together a nine match unbeaten run.  In recent games it has been the younger players in the team that have been winning all the plaudits, but this week it was the senior members who turned the game around and carried the youngsters through a very tough cup tie.  Understandably then the MOM this week is one of those aforementioned senior players, Keith Cave who had a very good game and scored that scorcher of a free kick.