Defending Champions Alport breezed into the semi-finals of this year’s Shropshire Senior Cup with a five star performance against Shawbury at the KMJ Mortgages Stadium.

The Reds were simply scintillating in the first 45 blowing away any chances the visitors had of springing a surprise. Alport required just a point to progress into the last four but by half time the home side were 5–0 up. The only blot on the evening was that the game once again had to be played behind closed doors because this was easily the best display since Luke Goddard to charge in 2016.

Okay, after the break it was hard to keep up the momentum as the game was over but perhaps the biggest factor was the sending off of influential playmaker, Ryan Allcock, whose petulance earned him a red card a minute before half-time. In the same incident Shawbury also had a man dismissed but it was clear that Alport suffered the greater loss. Allcock had already clattered an early shot against an upright before the floodgates opened with Alport finding the net five times in just 25 minutes before Tom Delamere and even laid a glove on the ball.

The opening goal came after quarter of an hour when a superb passage of play ended with Alex Hughes converting from close range after a pinpoint low cross from skipper, Sean Griffiths. The defender very quickly became involved in the second with a defence splitting pass into the path of Joe Howell who sand wedged the ball over keeper, Delamere. Whitchurch just couldn’t stop scoring and Allcock provided another great cross over to Jud Ellis who was in the perfect position to tap the ball home for three nil.

By the half hour it became four when Allcock capitalised on some bad luck for Shawbury when Ellis’ shot looped over Delamere’s head to leave the number 10 with a toe–in from half an inch. Five minutes before the interval a foul on Hughes gave the referee a simple decision to make and he pointed to the spot. Byron Harrison made no mistake sending Delamere the wrong way from 12 yards. Liam Walton joined Allcock into the tunnel a minute before half-time with the latter almost faultless in the opening half of the game.

As the teams emerged David Jones slotted past Lewis Dutton with his teammates almost still in the dressing rooms. Harrison missed what looked like a gilt-edged chance to increase Alport’s goal tally but by this time the away side had pulled back another goal when Josef Pratt perfectly placed a freekick past Dutton after a foul from substitute Lewis Jarman.

The Reds continued to give their players some game time with a plethora of changes and it was only in the last minute that they stretched their legs when Harrison bagged his second of the evening. All the damage had been done in a breathtaking first half with Shawbury unable to contain a rampant home side.

Martin Wild