It was a hard-earned victory as we endured a bruising encounter against Whyteleafe, writes James Barrett.
Team news: Alex Kozakis and Sean O'Toole returned, while on-loan midfielder Anthony Folkes was handed a full debut. Ex-Robins Owen Roberts and Bentley Graham lined up for the visitors.
The game begun in blustery, yet sunny, conditions and while Kalvin Morath-Gibbs and Paris Hamilton-Downes did well to deal with a couple of searching high Leafe balls, Bobby Price didn't quite catch a left-footed volley from 18 yards during the opening exchanges.
O'Toole was unfortunately forced off with an early knock on 13 minutes with Ricky Korboa taking his place.
After scoring free kicks in two consecutive games recently, Tommy Bradford would've been full of confidence taking one awarded to us on 15 minutes but, this time, he saw his strike ping off the top of Tom Stewart's crossbar.
Leafe's best spell of the opening 45 minutes then arrived and Alex Kozakis twice denied Andrew Mensah, the second by extending a leg and deflecting the visiting striker's near-post effort away.
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| Back of the net: Korboa poaches our first |
We then began to enjoy possession of the ball and frustrate our visitors for long periods, although we almost gifted them a goal on 41 minutes as Kozakis misplaced a pass which was gathered by Ibrahim Akanbi. He cut across our area and teed up Sam Clayton but his shot went wide of the near post.
HALF-TIME: 1 - 0
The second-half started at a high tempo with Stewart and Kozakis denying Folkes and Mensah respectively.
Morath-Gibbs did well to slide in and cleanly win the ball from Scott Day on 53 minutes and Miller took the ball over 70 yards before crossing from the left but Bradford couldn't guide his header on target.
Kozakis was then alert to a 30 yard snapshot by Leafe defender Liam Collins that threatened to end up in the top far corner.
But, that aside, we were still in control of the game and bossed possession for long periods without really threatening to add to our lead.
Our visitors began to get frustrated and many a-time the game was stopped after late tackles went in on our forwards, but the referee kept his cards in his pocket.
One flowing move on 71 minutes, which began with Kozakis, saw four players get the ball into Korboa whom skipped past three opponents before teeing up fellow sub Peter Adeniyi, but, despite making space for a shot by the penalty area, a Leafe foot deflected his effort wide.
But we eased the atmosphere around Colston Avenue seven minutes later as a Miller flick put Korboa away on goal and he thumped home his 19th of the season in off Stewart's left-hand post.
Still the late challenges came however, with the referee deciding, despite reaching for his top pocket, eventually not to book Day for a second time after he recklessly took out his man. Graham (whom plainly pushed Ricky Korboa over after a free kick had already been awarded to our man) and Courtney Ellis (for a late tackle that dumped Bradford to the deck) also both went unpunished.
We had a chance to add a gloss to the scoreline on 88 minutes as Miller burst through on a perfectly weighted Adeniyi through ball, but Roberts tracked back well and just managed to get a foot in the way of our man's effort from 10 yards.
More photos from the game can be viewed here.
Next up: We host Corinthian Casuals on Monday 5th December before heading off to Three Bridges on Saturday 10th December.
Carshalton Athletic: Kozakis; Price, King, Morath-Gibbs, Hamilton-Downes (c); Hibbert, Folkes (Adeniyi - 68), Kaba, O'Toole (Korboa - 13); Bradford, Miller
Unused subs: Aikhionbare, Healy, Phillips
Goals: Korboa (13 and 78)
Assists: Bradford, Miller
Whyteleafe: Stewart, Collins, Adebowale, Grant (Oluwatimilehin - 75), Roberts, Scarborough (c), Akanbi, Graham, Mensah (Ellis - 64), Day, Clayton (Clement-Peter - 86)
Unused sub: Amghar
Booked: Day
Attendance: 218
Our Man of the Match: Ricky Korboa