Holker Old Boys 3 Alport 2
Two goals in the first period of extra-time made it an uphill battle in more ways than one at Holker Old Boys for Luke Goddard and Carl Everall’s men. The famous slope at Rakesmoor meant Alport needed to score in the second half of extra time to force a penalty shoot out, having conceded two goals in quick succession. They struck back quickly and briefly rallied to go into the last quarter of an hour at 3-2 but Holker dug in and saw the game out.
It was a bitty affair in the first half with the crossbar saving Alport after the impressive Chris Wraighte’s shot had beaten Danny Read on the half hour. And it was Holker who drew first blood when Jamie Pattinson curled in from the edge of the box two minutes before the break. Alport changed formation at half-time and looked much the better for it with Nick Marley pushed much higher up the pitch. He gave Billy Moss a torrid time but when the equaliser came 10 minutes into the second period, the move was built on the opposite flank. Dean Twigg picked out the run of skipper Si Everall who beat a defender before smashing the ball high past Jaroslaw Bitner in The Holker goal. It was a richly deserved equaliser and it took a smart save from Bitner to keep out a Ryan Thomas header 12 minutes later. The keeper got lucky with his parry though, with the ball falling inches behind Everall who would have had a second if it had fallen the other way. Everall did beat Bitner a minute before the end but a flag was correctly raised and so the game went into an additional half hour. Pattinson restored Holker’s lead with the aid of a deflection on 98 minutes and two minutes later it looked curtains for Whitchurch after Sam Joel grabbed a poacher’s goal following more good work from Wraighte down the left. But two minutes later Alport were back in it with a quite magnificent Twigg free-kick arrowing into the top corner. With just uner 10 minutes left another dangerous cross into the Holker box saw Nathan Cherrington clearly fouled in the area but the referee wasn’t interested. That just about summed up Alport’s day. Without the services of forwards Alex Hughes and top scorer Mike Blundell, this wasn’t the best time to rock up with an experimental side. And especially against a team like Holker who were classless in victory despite taking the scalp of the Shropshire side for the second time this season.