Alport 1 Newport Town 2 (aet, 90 mins 1-1)
 
Whitchurch Alport’s dreams of reaching the Shropshire Premier Cup Final were dashed with a fifth successive defeat at the semi-final stage. Newport Town pulled off a remarkable extra-time victory against the Reds despite being reduced to 10 men just before half-time, when Liam Bould was dismissed for a horror challenge on Louis James. Nicky Porter blasted Alport into a 45th minute lead but they were pegged back 15 minutes from time when Simon Jackson rose at the far post to power home a header. And in the dying moments of the first half in extra-time, Jay Russell lashed in a wonder goal from fully 30 yards that clipped the bar on its way past Cam Phelps.
 
Over 150 Whitchurch fans made their way to Greenfields and it took a good piece of defending from George Hill to prevent the Yockings Park men from going into a second minute lead after Ben Mills had delivered a dangerous low ball across goal. But the first real attempt on target came from Town with Phelps flying to his right to beat away a Jamie King shot. Tom Bradley then clipped the outside of the post – again from distance – with Newport plainly up for the task. That was made all the more harder though when Bould flew into a tackle that wasn’t there to be won, and he was rightly red carded once the referee had managed to regain control after a large coming together six minutes before the interval.
 
With Newport a man light and desperately hanging on to go in level at the halfway stage, they fell behind. Porter got on the end of a flowing move down the right hand side and smashed the ball beyond Andy Heal and into the far bottom corner of the net. Within a minute the Reds ought to have been comfortable. Lee Pickerill roasted the right back and put over a telling cross which Arron Johns controlled superbly. But having done the hard work his finish was poor and Heal wasn’t forced into a save.
 
At the resumption, Mills jabbed over from inside the 6 yard box after a rare Heal slip but the elusive second goal wouldn’t come. Jackson headed Newport level and Ed James blazed over 5 minutes from the end of normal time which was a real let off for Luke Goddard’s side. When the winning goal came, it was worthy of settling any match. Russell let fly and a slight deflection took the ball up and over the stricken Phelps to find the top of the net, and Newport celebrated wildly. A late chance was spurned when Joe Howell fired wide but on the night, few would argue that the 10 men fully deserved their place in the final where they will face Haughmond.