So, after a night of storms and heavy rain, the sun was peeping out for today’s early kick off between Horley Town and AFC Croydon Athletic in the FA Cup Preliminary Round. The tie today was also being screened live on BBC’s red button, hence the 12.30 pm kick off time.

The New Defence is a modern ground with a grandstand built against the leisure centre and modern clubhouse. The ground has also got a small seated and covered stand behind one goal. The New Defence has a good quality refreshment stand although, with a big crowd today of 420, the queues were quite long.

AFC Croydon Athletic have attracted media attention this year, having been purchased by a consortium including Grime artist, Stormzy and ex Crystal Palace star, Wilfred Zaha, both of whom have strong affiliations to the Croydon area. The team play currently in the Combined Counties League South, Premier Division and are managed jointly by Lee Roots and Kevin Raynor. The new season sees them lying in tenth place out of twenty, after two draws from their opening two fixtures.

Horley Town play in the same league as their opponents, and similarly have two draws from their opening two games. Joint managers, Martin Rapson and Tyler Chambers will be keen to see a cup run this season and will have got their team hyped to play in front of the live cameras.

The opening 40 minutes of the match saw the sides tied evenly, despite some heavy AFC Croydon Athletic pressure. On 41 minutes the deadlock was broken, when Michael Phillips found space in the Horley Town penalty area and shot on the turn, to score and make it 0-1.

At the half time break, the teams went in with AFC Croydon Athletic ahead by one goal. Stormzy made his way around the pitch at the break, causing much excitement to the children and young people watching.

After the break the second half saw Horley Town play themselves back into the game. As AFC Croydon Athletic failed to capitalise by building a bigger lead, it was Horley Town FC who came closest to scoring on three or four occasions.

Despite both sides creating opportunities the second half remained goal free and it was the AFC Croydon Athletic players and supporters who celebrated a win at full time, as their side progressed into the next round of the FA Cup.