Alport 0 Cheadle Town 0
A missed penalty five minutes from time cost Alport a vital two points after they were held to a goalless draw at a fogbound Yockings Park. A foul on Steve Jones by Cheadle’s Davison Banda gave the excellent referee no option but to point to the spot. But with regular penalty taker Mike Blundell and his deputy Alex Hughes both having been substituted, it was down to sub Dan Tinsley to take over the duties from 12 yards. The Reds had despatched each one of their eight penalties prior to this one, but Dane Smith rescued Town when he plunged to his right to deny Tinsley what surely would have been the match winning goal.
The game almost didn’t go ahead with a blanket of fog over Yockings leading to a 10 minute delay. And when the game did finally get underway there were moments where you could barely pick out the players on the far side. The floodlights were on from the off and the two teams battled hard to try and get a stranglehold on the match. And the better chances all fell to Cheadle with Rhys Webb guilty of missing three really passable opportunities. The best of them saw the striker denied by the outstretched leg of goalkeeper Danny Read. Alport were strangely subdued and Smith was virtually a bystander apart from a decent save in the opening 10 minutes to deny Alex Hughes. It was a below par opening 45 from the Reds, but after the break, they were much improved. That said; how Michael Sherrington failed to score three minutes into the second half, goodness only knows. Matty Ashbrook conceded possession inside his own half and Cheadle quickly worked the ball into the box only for Sherrington to make a complete dog’s dinner of a glorious chance, with Read not even called upon to make a save.
There were one or two moments to excite the 203 spectators but by and large, there wasn’t that much on offer as Alport struggled to impose themselves particularly in the final third. Once ex-Northern Ireland international Jones entered the fray though, with 25 minutes left, it gave Whitchurch a bit more momentum up top. Ashbrook was wreaking havoc down the right hand side and a great ball in had just too much pace on it, otherwise Tinsley – popping up at the far post - would have opened the scoring with just 10 minutes remaining. And when he was presented with a glorious opportunity to decide the match with that late penalty, his effort was at a good height for the goalkeeper and Smith pushed the effort away. The Town stopper wasn’t finished there though, and secured a point for his team with another top drawer save to keep out Dean Twigg’s goalbound free-kick in the dying seconds.