Litherland Remyca 2 Alport 2
A 97th minute goal robbed Whitchurch Alport the opportunity of recording a 10th consecutive North West Counties away win on Saturday. Stevie McNichol and Elliot Ledwards struck either side of Michael Boyle’s goal for Litherland Remyca to give the Reds a lead to defend in the closing stages. And when Danny Read saved an 85th minute Colin Quirke penalty, it looked like Alport would extend that winning sequence to go 9 points clear of their opponents and retain their top of the table status. But with the referee finding an inexplicable amount of additional time, Alport were caught out right at the death when substitute Colin McDonald bundled the ball home with Read poleaxed attempting the save. It was a devastating blow which silenced Alport’s vociferous support just as they were about to celebrate another fantastic away day with the club.
Matty Ashbrook had already had a goal chalked off for a foul in the box seconds before he volleyed in off a post, but when Alport did strike it was a wonder goal from the right boot of McNichol. The midfielder had earned a recall with co-manager Carl Goddard sitting the game out through suspension, and when a corner was cleared it seemed like the danger had passed. But McNichol’s body shape was spot on and he leathered the ball high into net at waist height with Sean Lake in the home goal powerless to keep it out. What a way to celebrate your first goal in an Alport jersey! Si Everall netted before the break but was rightly adjudged to have strayed offside and he repeated the feat in the second half - with a flag once again being raised to cut short the skipper’s celebrations. That came soon after Jake Connor had been dismissed for a poor two footed challenge, but almost immediately after that flag had gone up, Boyle beat Read from outside the box to get Litherland back on terms. Edwards thumped home a header for his second goal of the season from a corner and Everall and sub Ollie Jepson both went close to making it 3-1, thus ending any hopes 10 men Remyca would have had of rescuing anything from the game. But when Nick Marley committed a foul in the box it gave Quirke the chance to make it two apiece, only to be denied by Read’s 3rd penalty save of the season. Alport tried to run down the clock and two really late free kicks were both played into the corner which seemed certain to bring the final whistle from the official.  But inexplicably he allowed the game to continue and with Litherland’s last roll of the dice, a long ball into the mix was worked into the flank and the cross left Read with too much to do. The ball agonisingly trickled over the line with the rotund figure of McDonald wheeling away to celebrate in front of the away supporters who had howled for his sending off, after the striker appeared to use an elbow whilst on a yellow card. It took several minutes for the groggy figure of Read to get to his feet, and he was in some distress when the whistle sounded immediately after play resumed.
Director of Football Lea Edge summed up his disappointment after the game: “Everyone’s talking about the referee but really we should have seen the game out,” he said. “I felt we had done enough to win the game but you have to stay focussed for 95 minutes these days because games can turn in an instant. If you’d have offered me a point on the way over I’d have taken it there and then and turned the car round and gone home. But it feels like a defeat in some ways with the goal coming so late in the game. I’ve no idea where the referee got the time from but it shows how far we’ve come as a football club when you’re bitterly disappointed to get a draw away to a promotion rival.”