We registered a first league draw as we came away from Whyteleafe with a hard-earned point, writes James Barrett.
Team news: Sean O'Toole came in for Sekou Kaba, who wasn't passed fit enough to start, in the only change from Monday night. Ex-Robins Luke Colquhoun, Jake Downs and Bentley Graham lined up for our hosts.
We had two fair shouts for a penalty within the first 10 minutes as Ricky Korboa was seemingly bundled over as he took aim from just inside Leafe's area on four minutes, then the second appeal came as a Tommy Bradford strike appeared to hit a defender's arm shortly after that.
But we fell behind in the 14th minute as Leafe won a corner and Downs, despite Alex Kozakis claiming he was impeded, towered highest to thump home a header.
And it could've been worse just two minutes later as Roscoe Dsane intercepted a poor pass and eventually teed up Karl Parker, but his shot hit the side-netting.
We responded and Colquhoun was out quickly to block at the feet of Korboa after Mickel Miller put his teammate in with a pass from deep.
Bradford then tested his former teammate with a 20 yard free kick that Colquhoun palmed away at full stretch.
Then Miller and Dean Hamlin were both booked after a coming together off the ball before the game became a bit of a stalemate until we created two good chances after the half-hour mark.
Firstly, we broke from a Leafe corner and Hamilton-Downes picked out Korboa whom had kept his run onside but his attempted lob over the oncoming Colquhoun lacked the power to get towards goal.
Then a fine move involving Peter Adeniyi, Korboa, Bradford and Hamilton-Downes saw our captain square the ball for Miller but, from six yards out, his shot took a deflection off a Leafe player to balloon wide.
Kalvin Morath-Gibbs made two good interceptions as Leafe tried to push forward after that, but Hamilton-Downes should've really got something on a Brendan Murphy-McVey cross with Colquhoun stranded.
The half ended in quite unsavoury fashion as Scott Johnston was booked for scything down Korboa before Sean O'Toole was left in a heap by an elbow in the face from Graham as the pair chased a loose ball, but the officials deemed it a 'fair challenge' despite stopping play for our man to receive attention.
HALF-TIME: 1 - 0
The game swung back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the second-half, with Nathan Daly booked for a foul on Korboa and us not making two quick counter-attacks pay.
But we slowly began to dominate the forward play and we eventually pierced the Leafe defence on 61 minutes.
Adeniyi played a perfectly weighted through ball between Daly and Downs for Korboa to calmly side-foot home into the bottom far corner.
Miller was almost in on goal but for a desperate tackle by Downs just two minutes later and, as our man chased the loose ball, we could've had a penalty as it appeared Daly pushed him in the back.
Then Bradford played a neat one-two with Korboa on the left before driving at goal and then slipping a reverse pass for our goalscorer to latch on to, but a clash with Colquhoun and a defender meant his stabbed effort lacked pace and was cleared in front of an open goal.
Another tackle on Korboa yielded a booking - this one for Downs - but a lot of our fine forward play was just let down by either our final pass or good defending, while we worked hard to regain possession whenever Leafe sort to push forward; Miller and O'Toole in particular chasing back and tackling well.
Bradford tried his luck from 20 yards on 79 minutes but it was always straight at Colquhoun, while Sekou Kaba and Matt Males were thrown on with less than 10 minutes to go.
It would've been harsh on us to leave Church Road with nothing after such a dominate performance but we were grateful to Morath-Gibbs for denying Parker twice, as the striker had Leafe's only two shots of the half in quick succession, at the death.
Next up: We travel to Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday 27th September before we welcome Faversham Town on Saturday 1st October.
Carshalton Athletic: Kozakis; Price, King, Morath-Gibbs, Hamilton-Downes; Bradford, Adeniyi, Murphy-McVey, O'Toole (Kaba - 81), Korboa (Males - 83); Miller
Unused subs: Ismail, Panton
Goal: Korboa (61)
Assist: Adeniyi
Booked: Miller
Whyteleafe: Colquhoun, Hamlin (c), O'Leary, Francis (Bird - 76), Downs, Daly, Fowler, Graham (Grant - 59), Dsane, Parker, Johnston (Lyle - 67)
Unused subs: Coleman, Price
Goal: Downs (14)
Booked: Hamlin, Johnston, Daly, Downs
Attendance: 246
Man of the match: Kalvin Morath-Gibbs