Walsall Wood 3 Alport 1
 
Whitchurch Alport’s FA Cup fairytale ended almost as soon as it had begun with a 3-1 defeat in the West Midlands. More than a hundred fans from Shropshire made their way to Oak Park and they were in dreamland when Si Everall scored a superb goal to give Alport a sixth minute lead. But two goals from the hosts in the later stages of the first half put Walsall in the box seat and a third goal with 20 minutes left put the result beyond doubt.
 
There was a surprise when the teamsheets came out with Danny Read making a first appearance in goal since the play-off semi-final at City of Liverpool three months ago. Read has spent the summer months relaxing with his family but opted to re-sign for the Reds with Carl Everall instrumental in engineering the move. And Read was arguably Alport’s man-of-the-match with a number of fine saves to keep the score down. That’s not to say that this game was one-way traffic – far from it. Whitchurch competed very well against a side that have spent big in an attempt to bounce straight back up to Step 5, following last season’s relegation on goal difference.
 
But it was the away fans that were celebrating wildly as Alport got off to the near perfect start. Si Everall skipped past a defender and curled an absolute beauty high past Lloyd Ransome in the Walsall goal. The travelling fans went crazy with smoke bombs released and rather optimistic chants of ‘Que Sera Sera’ ringing out from a packed main stand. Ransome thwarted Everall again midway through the half but by then Walsall were growing into the game. Read made decent stops to deny Mitch Tolley and Joey Butlin and there was a lucky escape when Paul Sullivan latched onto a free-kick but dragged his volley wide.
 
With three minutes to go to the interval and Alport pegged back there was an opportunity to break. Right-back Marley – normally so assured – lost possession of the ball in the centre of the park and the punishment was brutal. Wood worked the ball down the Reds’ exposed right flank and Luke Goddard tripped Tony Clarke to give away a stonewall penalty. Sullivan sent Read the wrong way from 12 yards and we looked set for a first half that would end on level terms. Sadly for Alport, that wasn’t the case and three minutes later they were behind. A really poor corner was poorly defended and Butlin stuck out a boot to divert the ball back across goal and into the corner of the net.
 
After the break, Alport came into the game a little bit more and summer capture Ben Mills may have had a sleepless Saturday night after missing a glorious chance less than two minutes after having come on for Louis James. The striker did brilliantly to stay onside and with just Ransome to beat, Mills failed to hit the target. There wouldn’t be a better chance all game for Whitchurch although to be fair to Mills, he’d only just come on and hadn’t settled into the pace of the game.
 
Carl Everall put a volley too high and Ransome did well to deny young Ryan Thomas, and despite introducing last year’s top scorer Mike Blundell midway through the half, Walsall added a third when Sullivan wriggled free in the box to slot the ball beyond Read, for the goal that sealed the tie.
 
It was a brave effort from Whitchurch who hadn’t been disgraced against a team that many expect will win the Championship this term. On the evidence of this performance, they might not be the only ones celebrating when the honours are being distributed in 9 months time.