If it’s the end of the season, then the Tanners must be losing to the Casuals.

Over the past few seasons, the Mole Valley side have not had the best of fortunes against the Ryman league’s perennial strugglers.

Despite having comprehensively beaten them at the Grove back in November, it took a speculative 30 yard shot from Tyrone Myton to secure the points to follow on from their second win in a week.

Leatherhead were without Tony Cuff (ankle) and John Cartledge (almost back to match fitness) but had Steve Goddard starting and Sacha M’baye continuing in the middle of defence alongside Iain Hendry.

John Wilfort continued in the central midfield slot.

The conditions did not help either side. A hard pitch and swirling wind made the ball difficult to control – and given that the balls were the infamous “red nose” sponsored balls, excessive flight and bounce were the order of the day.

With neither side really having the guile to create anything flowing, the play went from end to end without any real penetration from either set of forwards.

The Tanners should have done better when, after a pair of Casuals corners they broke away to see Kev Terry outpace a static home defence.

His cut back ball did not fall too kindly for Jason Henry but the tricky winger should have done better than the air shot that let the home side off the hook.

The middle of the first half gave the Tanners their best period for some time. Steve Goddard tested the Casuals defence with a cross then a shot, both of which were blocked.

A little later Goddard yet again turned his marker, a home defender sliced his clearance and Iain Hendry headed the resultant corner wide. It was one of those afternoons.

With the referee giving some mystifying decisions to both sides, the second half started in a similar scrappy fashion.

It was after just eight minutes after the re-start that the deciding goal was scored. The ball was fed to Tyrone Myton some thirty yards out from goal.

He had sufficient time and space to control the ball and hit a looping, dipping shot that flew over Chris Lewington and into the top of the net. Most goal-keepers would have had trouble with that shot.

With the yellow card count rising from an overly fussy referee, the Tanners pressed hard to get back into the game. Tom Hutchings could have added to his goal tally when a push in the back of Goddard resulted in a Tanners free kick twenty five yards out.

His shot was sweetly struck but crashed off the angle of the bar and post – it was one of those days for the Surrey side. Leatherhead had precious few other chances to claw the game back but Hutchings luck deserted him again when he met a good cross only for his header to fly wide.

It was not as though the Tanners were by far the poorer. They fought hard and showed more positive football than a Casuals side who have had an extremely high player turnover this year.

It took just one goal to break the deadlock and the Tanners were just unable to show that penetrative edge that should have given them the victory.

They have played better against stronger sides this season and gained better results. They do seem to have a problem killing off the weaker teams in the division – something that Bob Langford will want to eradicate as he starts to consider his options for the next season – and the end of this one.

With two tough games this week against Sittingbourne (Monday) and a home match against Croydon Athletic, Leatherhead will want to put the disappointment of this game behind them and finish the month the same way that they started it.

Team Lewington, Williams, Palmer, M’Baye (Shannon), Hendry, S Holmes, Goddard, Wilfort, Hutchings, Terry (Musungu), Henry