Alport 4 Pershore Town 4 a.e.t. (Alport win 4-3 on penalties)
 
One of the most thrilling games in years at Yockings saw Alport advance to the next stage of the FA Vase, having been taken all the way to penalties by Pershore Town. This was a game that had everything with both sides blowing two goal leads, a red card in extra time, and a few misses from 12 yards before being decided on sudden death.
 
It was Pershore who struck first having been awarded a free kick right on the edge of the box with just 35 seconds on the watch. Danny Priest’s set piece beat the wall and went past Danny Read to stun the home support. And it soon got worse when a huge kick from keeper Chris Rich caused uncertainty at the back and Priest latched onto it to lob a second 12 minutes in.
 
Alport weren’t at the races in the first 20 minutes or so but they went on to dominate the remainder of the half. Dean Twigg superbly headed a Chris Jackson cross past Rich after 25 minutes and with the keeper not exactly covering himself in glory, Luke Walley blasted the Reds level eight minutes before half-time.
 
After the interval Whitchurch struck twice in the first six minutes to take a 4-2 lead. Ed Moss saw a wonderful header come back off the bar and Nick Marley composed himself to net from close range. And minutes later Twigg had his second after really poor goalkeeping from the beleaguered Rich who spilled a routine volley to put his teammates right up against it.
 
But credit to Town, they made changes from the sidelines and the substitutions were to impact the game. Mitchel Butterworth halved the deficit with a fine finish after a good move down the right just past the hour and Pawel Tomczak had a great chance to level minutes later but wanted far too many touches.
 
Callum Devlin brought Pershore back on terms with a goal inside the last 10 minutes and Ryan Thomas saw a last minute shot drift wide as Alport looked to seal it before extra-time.
 
In extra-time, a suicidal back pass from Thomas put Tomczak clean through with only Read to beat, but once again the striker took far too long to make his mind up and Alport escaped. Then, in the closing stages of the first-half, the pendulum swung heftily in Town’s favour when Stevie McNichol was shown a straight red card for a poor challenge on David Wilson. But Whitchurch rallied and had a wonderful chance to avoid penalties when Matty Ashbrook fed Walley down the left where he marauded all afternoon. His exquisite ball into the centre of the box fell perfectly for Elliot Ledwards who’d made a late run. Sadly for Alport, the defender’s shot was more like a hoofed clearance and it went miles over the bar! Mills and Tomczak both went close as the clock ticked down but 120 minutes of football couldn’t separate the sides.
 
In the spot kick drama, Moss saw Rich make a brilliant save but Read was then equal to Priest’s attempt as the first two were missed. Mills then missed his second pen in two games with a horrid effort and Tomczak blasted high into the net to give Town a lead after four kicks. Lewdwards scored, Devlin missed and Twigg put the Reds 2-1 up to crank up the pressure once again on the away team. But Wilson kept his composure to level with just one kick each remaining. Ashbrook rolled his effort into the corner with nonchalance and Butterworth kept his nerve to trigger sudden death.
 
Walley slotted past Rich and that meant Mathewson had to score to keep the sequence going. But Read flew high to his right to beat the ball away sparking joyous scenes in the stands and out on the pitch.