We went from pole-position to suffering a terrible end to our night as a late controversial penalty dumped us out the Surrey Senior Cup, writes James Barrett-Sterling.
Team news
Joe Jarrett was handed his full debut in midfield, while Mekhail McLaughlin, Mohammed-Idris Oshilaja, Ryan Healy, Brendan Murphy-McVey, Levi Phillips and Omar Koroma were given chances to impress. Ex-Robins Lewis Taylor and Sol Pinnock were in our hosts' squad.
We more than matched our Ryman Premier hosts for long periods of the game, with the pace of Phillips and Ricky Korboa providing their defence problems in particular.
The returning Koroma also looked sharp and had a fair shout for a penalty before half-time but it wasn't given.
Koroba sadly had to come off during the break after being on the receiving end of one too many late challenges but his replacement, Mickel Miller, opened the scoring in the 70th minute with his 23th strike of the season.
He almost doubled our lead a minute later but our top scorer watched as his firm shot cannon back off the crossbar.
But, with four minutes remaining, we allowed Dorking to level as Guiseppe Sole planted a free header on an 86th minute corner beyond Billy Bishop.
And things went from bad to worse before we could think about any upcoming penalty shoot-out as the referee adjudged a foul to be inside our area. Once our protests had been waved away, Sole stepped up and converted the spot-kick.
We suffered further in added time as Paris Hamilton-Downes picked up two yellow cards within the space of one minute, while Oshilaja was dismissed after the final whistle for dissent.
Next up: We welcome East Grinstead Town on Saturday 20th January before travelling to Phoenix Sports on Saturday 27th January.
Carshalton Athletic: Bishop; Oshilaja, Dudley, McLaughlin, Hamilton-Downes (c); Healy, Jarrett (Morath-Gibbs - 81), Murphy-McVey; Korboa (Miller - 46), Koroma, L Phillips
Carshalton Athletic: Bishop; Oshilaja, Dudley, McLaughlin, Hamilton-Downes (c); Healy, Jarrett (Morath-Gibbs - 81), Murphy-McVey; Korboa (Miller - 46), Koroma, L Phillips
Unused subs: Healy, Bradford, Cheadle
Goal: Miller (70)
Booked: Hamilton-Downes
Sent-off: Hamilton-Downes, Oshilaja
Dorking Wanderers: Huk, Hamlin, Boulter, Dyett, Oakes, Moore, Taylor (Putman - 78), Sheridan, Chendlik, Tolfrey (Pearse - 64), Beard (Sole - 78)
Unused subs: Philpott, Pinnock
Goals: Sole (86, 90 pen)
Booked: Hamlin
Attendance: 102