Danny Berg fired the first shot in anger when he struck a Lee Williams cross first-time but the keeper Randes held the ball comfortably. As the game stayed scoreless, Kingsbury grew in confidence, and after a quick counter attack Kingsbury’s full-back Sojalo Dimontino fired inches wide of the far post leaving Ed Thompson scrambling. The deadlock was broken two minutes before the interval. Jirka Houdek received the ball on the left touchline, he pulled the ball back towards Leon Wilson on the edge of the ‘D’ and he sent a left-footed daisycutter that skimmed off the wet surface into the bottom right corner.

The Blues still had time to double their advantage before the break when a lofted through ball from Danilson Vicete fed in Dean Williams. Williams showed good strength to hold off his marker and he calmly slotted past Nunez Randes.

Kingsbury’s half time team talk clearly had the desired effect as they came out all guns blazing, and within two minutes of the restart Tarik Ellekhlifi sent a thunderbolt into the top corner from 18 yards which pulled the deficit back to one goal. Both sides soon realised that the game was not nearly over and some excellent fluent passing football resulted. Leon Wilson came close with an effort from 20 yards, but a slight deflection took the power out of the shot.

Danny Berg thought he had scored a great goal when his shot from Danilson’s lay-off seemed to be heading for the top left corner, but the ball whistled agonisingly past the far post. The match nearly descended into chaos after Kingsbury’s Morietz was booked twice for persistent complaining at the referee’s decision to not award a corner. A few of the home side’s players subsequently lost their composure and sent in some crunching challenges any of which could have had disastrous consequences.

The Blues were not fazed by this and continued to play their football, and in the 80th minute a third goal sealed the win. Danilson closed down the Kingsbury right-back and played in Dean Williams. Williams was again composed as he flicked the ball past Randes from a tight angle and ball trickled in off the post. In one of the rare occasions that Kingsbury beat the Wingate & Finchley defence, Ed Thompson was equal to the task as he dived low to tip a good drive from Ivan Forbes around the post.

Stand-in captain Billy Amarteifio was delighted to progress through to the next round after a tough battle. He said “we knew that if we kept our discipline they should not have troubled us as long as we weren’t complacent. History looked like repeating itself when they pulled a goal back after half-time, but we played with confidence and took control of the match again and our third goal finally put the game to bed.”

Wingate & Finchley: Ed Thompson 7, Miles Beerman 7, Jirka Houdek 8, Danny Berg 7, Billy Amarteifio 7, Stephen Badu 7, Safraz Pivano 6, Leon Wilson 7, Dean Williams 8, Danilson Vicete 8, Lee Williams 6 (Dan Stanton 30 7 [Guy Morris 82 n/a]). Subs: Leon Osei, Chris West, Craig Ellis.