At the other end, David Lovell made an excellent block to deny Stuart Blackburne at point black range, but was left stranded in the 21st minute as the unmarked Blackburne headed home a cross from Maharjan from 15 yards out. As half time was approaching, the home side were definitely in the ascendancy as they controlled possession of the ball. However Wingate & Finchley seemed to magically regain their composure in the 38th minute and strung a succession of quick accurate passes together moving the ball sharply between both flanks. The ball landed in the path of Joe O’Brien 40 yards from goal, he shaped to cross the ball - which drew the keeper out of his goal – and instead powered a spectacular shot into the top right corner to bring the scores level.

The second half was a similar affair, as both sides cagily went about looking for the second goal. Daniel Stanton sent in a perfectly weighted cross towards Clarke but he could not direct his header on target. Due to the speed of the zippy wet pitch, both sides looked to use bursts of pace in the counter attack to try to find a breakthrough. Substitute Tashan Bradshaw-Brown sped past his marker as if he wasn’t there and sent a rasping shot that keeper Blackburn covered well at his near post.

The turning point of the game came in the 78th minute when captain Craig Ellis was sent off for kicking out at an Edgware player. Only one minute later Edgware scored the winner through Greg Ngoyi who had only been on the pitch for 4 minutes. He latched onto a short backpass and evaded the desperate challenge of Billy Amarteifio before unleashing a shot into Lovell’s near corner.

Wingate & Finchley: David Lovell, Marc Weatherstone, Anthony Limbrick, Craig Ellis, Billy Amarteifio, Shola Oyedele, Dan Stanton, Joe O’Brien, Daniel Clarke (Tashan Bradshaw-Brown 61), Elvis Balic (Darren Assiamah 71), Lee Jay (Marcus Sawyer 25). Subs: Denis Paratusic, Calvin Petrie.