Match Report

T his was a real battling performance by the team. We only had eleven men to start with due to holidays etc. so five of our 16 man squad were unavailable. Added to that Danny Thrussell played the whole game carrying an injury which meant he could hardly run. Effectively we were down to 10 and a half players. AC Youth are in our division, so it was important to try and strike a psychological blow by beating them.

Yours truly had to referee the game so this report will probably be briefer than usual as I wasn’t able to take in all the relevant action.

Giorgio Fullone scored our first as their keeper failed to hold onto his shot after AC Youth failed to clear a corner. We seemed to be in the ascendancy but again did not capitalise on our approach work. On the half hour mark Fullone conceded a penalty which they scored from making it 1-1. There had been plenty of interruptions so I was playing three minutes added time which gave AC time to score a brilliant strike from the left side at an angle and then for Ricky Stevens to go up the other end and equalise with a left footed shot from the edge of the box, 2-2 at half time.

It seemed an entertaining game to be watching and all the remaining action took place in the last 10 minutes. Stevens scored with a really sweet finish from an impossible angle down by the byeline in the right hand side of their penalty area, Wray had a goal disallowed, the linesman had his flag up but I wasn’t convinced, however I went with his decision. Then Liam Hunt scored with an excellent right footed shot and the impressive Stevens completed his hat-trick in the dying seconds with a customary finish past the keeper.

So, into the third round and our dream of cup glory is still alive. Well played lads!