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Manager Dan Scorer could only watch on Facebook as Kennington bowed out of the FA Vase on penalties.
Scorer had to miss Saturday's third-round tie against Sutton Common Rovers after being told to self-isolate by the NHS test and trace app.
He’d been about to leave for training on Thursday night when the notification came through.
Assistant manager Sam Fisher took charge as Ton came from a goal down to force penalties with Gary Lockyer’s late equaliser after a dominant second half.
But Ryan Philpott and Gary Clarke missed from the spot as Rovers won the shoot-out 4-1.
Scorer, whose isolation finished yesterday, was frustrated to miss out but proud of his side’s efforts.
“I was just getting ready to leave for training on Thursday when the message came through,” he said.
“I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk. I felt fine but I would never have forgiven myself if I’d not followed the guidelines and then someone caught Covid, especially at this time of year.
"The most important thing was that the boys got an opportunity to play the game.
"I watched the live stream on Facebook. There were moments where there was a bit of a lag in the stream so I missed a few of our chances.
"It wasn’t until I watched the game back the following day that I realised how dominant we were in the second half.
"It’s a real shame because, based on that, we probably should have won in the 90 minutes.
"We’ve got the boys wearing the sports tech stuff, so we can see the distances they’ve covered, and the data recorded was probably the best so far this season.
"The boys can be proud of their performance. They ran themselves into the ground.”
Scorer cut a frustrated figure watching at home but was able to speak to assistant Fisher at half-time.
He considered submitting a list of penalty takers before changing his mind. Those who missed were on his list.
Scorer said: “I felt a bit helpless watching at home. It was frustrating more than anything because the first half I don’t feel we got much of a foothold from what I could see.
"I found myself shouting ‘relax’ constantly, because we looked like we were trying to force the ball too much.
"I spoke to my assistant at half-time and said to be more patient and keep moving the ball.
"We did that and created chances to win the game but penalties are the luck of the draw.
"I was trying to work out how long was left so I’d actually written out a text to send to my assistant with who I thought the five penalty takers should be.
"Then I thought, ‘Do you know what, I’ll let them decide because if the five I’ve picked aren’t confident I wouldn’t forgive myself.’
"I left them to it but the two that missed would have been in my five anyway.”
