Daisy Hill 3 Alport 7
In a quite remarkable game of football on Monday night, Whitchurch Alport showed all their fighting qualities with a stunning comeback against Daisy Hill. The home side – beaten 7-0 at home on Saturday – roared into a three-goal lead within 17 minutes to stun Alport’s superb travelling support. But four goals in 11 minutes towards the end of the half turned the game completely on its head to give Alport a 4-3 half-time advantage. The pace in the second half was equally frenetic and although the goal fest wasn’t quite as regular as the first 45, the Reds netted three more to run out 7-3 winners.
 
Daisy came out of the traps quickly and Daniel Gregory was on hand to net the loose ball after Danny Read could only parry Hensley Mills’ shot into his path. He wasn’t going to miss from 6 yards and Alport were exposed again two minutes later when Mills lobbed Read after a poor decision from the Reds stopper. Read put his name on the ball and as the defender let it go over him, Mills profited to double the Bolton side’s advantage. Three minutes later it got even worse for the Yockings Park men when the league’s top scorer Ashley Stott sent Read the wrong way from the penalty spot, and Whitchurch didn’t know what had hit them.
 
They settled for a 15 minute period and Matty Ashbrook saw his free-kick spectacularly pushed away by keeper Craig Heynes on the half hour. Four minutes later Alport got the breakthrough they so badly needed to give them some belief. A great through ball from youngster Luke Walley saw Mike Blundell take one touch before blasting into the bottom corner. With six minutes to play before the half-time whistle, it was hoped that Alport might get another one back – in fact, they got three! Blundell was there again to smash home from close range after Heynes spilled the impressive Nick Marley’s delivery. The irony there was that the keeper had made the save of the night to palm Blundell’s piledriver onto the bar to concede the corner that led to the striker’s second. In the stand, Alport’s supporters were singing non-stop to provide excellent backing for their team and they got their reward when skipper Si Everall skipped past a defender, and ran along the by-line before coolly slipping the ball underneath the advancing Heynes for three apiece. And Alport weren’t finished as Everall’s cross ended up dropping in at the far post close to half-time. It had been an incredible first half.
 
After the break, Ashbrook twice went close to a fifth for the Reds but Gregory shot horribly wide when it looked like Daisy might draw level midway through the second period. The Reds needed a fifth to kill the game off and got it on 77 minutes when Everall’s superb switch of the ball saw Ashbrook run at the defender before blasting high past Heynes. Elliot Ledwards was left out in favour of Louis James but he’d only been on the pitch two minutes before heading in from Stevie McNichol’s corner to make it six. And in added on time, Alport scored their seventh. Sub Challis Johnson went clear only to be denied by Heynes, but from the rebound he selfishly squared for Ashbrook who had the simple task of knocking the ball into the empty net.
 
What a night, and what a game of football! It put Alport right back in the thick of things with eight remaining games.