City of Liverpool 1 Alport 0
A 59th minute goal from Michael Roberts was enough to break Alport’s hearts and deny them a place in the First Division play-off final. In a game of very few opportunities it was Roberts who grabbed the decisive goal when the ball fell kindly to him just six yards out, and he swept the ball low past Danny Read to send the majority of a 747 crowd home happy.
 
Roberts and John Connolly were both booked in the first 20 minutes with Luke Walley and Alex Hughes both victims of poor challenges but this was far from a dirty game. With so much riding on it though, it seldom reached the intensities of the previous two matches between the sides which were both won by single goal margins.
 
Walley and Hughes both worked CoL keeper Stephen Longrigg but they were saves he would have been expected to make. But 10 minutes before half-time Longrigg made a stunning stop to deny Kevin Street whose long range drive was caught on the sweet spot and appeared destined to pierce the roof of the net. It was a superb piece of goalkeeping and it denied Alport a half-time lead.
 
In the early stages of the second half, Si Everall put an angled drive wide and at the other end Connolly and strike partner Jamie McDonald were both guilty of poor misses with the match finely poised.
 
But CoL struck just before the hour through Roberts in one of the rare moments that the Reds defence lapsed. The ball in from the right looked like it had taken an unfavourable bobble and the midfielder couldn’t miss with Read given no chance whatsoever.
 
It broke the tension and the home fans started to roll out their full repertoire of songs. Alport’s travelling support did their best to rally their side and almost saw their team level midway through the second half. Everall latched onto a great pass from Dean Twigg and advanced beyond Longrigg to get his left foot shot away. But defender Allen Weston had read the danger and made a brilliant sliding interception to deny the Reds skipper an equaliser.
 
Within a minute it was almost 2-0. Connolly was upended in the box and picked himself up to smash his spot kick low to Read’s left, but the keeper made a brilliant save to lift the supporters at the other end of the ground.
 
In the last 10 minutes there were a couple of occasions where the ball went into the six yard box but both times it just wouldn’t drop as kindly for Alport as it had done for Roberts in the decisive moment of the match. At full time while the Purples celebrated, Alport’s players got into a huddle and then took magnificent applause from all four sides of the ground. The players had given their all but had just pulled up short after a memorable season on and off the pitch.