Ten-man Golds suffer injury-time heartbreak

Golds were forced to play with ten men for the whole of the second half after Mitchell Hand was shown a straight red card for violent conduct after a coming together shortly after the half-time whistle.

The match was feisty throughout and it also saw the police called owing to crowd trouble.

The visitors had goalkeeper Jon Hendrick in fine form and he pulled off a string of decent stops. Liam Humphreys went closest for Golds in the first half, but his free header from a corner was off target.

With Golds a man down in the second period, Hendrick made a number of fine saves before the visitors almost pinched it at the death. Ben Gray beat his man and the goalkeeper parried his effort straight to Alex Kew, but he shot straight at the goalkeeper.

The hosts then went straight up the other end and James Dryden volleyed home from close range to seal Ashford’s spot in the third round.

Golds assistant manager Richie Hellen said: “They shaded the first half and in the second half, with a man short, we tired in the end.

“Jon Hendrick was fantastic for us though and man-of-the-match. It was gutting really. It would have been nice to get something out of it and bring them back here.”