Armthorpe - Match Report

At last we were able to get the game on that we had all been waiting for. Then the fog started to come down but it didn' get bad enough to hold the game up.
Wroxham were first on the attack and had a corner in the first minute which came to nothing. Play then switched to the other end and Armthorpe had three corners on the trot but goal keeper Howie was always available to collect safely.
The game then went Wroxhams way with another corner which Howes put into the penalty area for Martin McNeil to head into the top corner of the net to give Wroxham a 6 minute lead.
From then on it was end to end play with both defences having plenty to do, the game being fairly even at this stage. In the 30th minute things changed,
Wroxham had a corner and Lemmon was brought down in the box and a loud call went up for a penalty. The referee waved play on, Lemmon was then stamped on by an Armthorpe player as the ball was cleared . The ref, after hearing the shouting, was now on the half way line, looked back but still allowed play to go on although Lemmon was still on the floor. By now Henry Sibenge only had Howie to beat but his shot rebounded back off Howie to land at the foot of Liam Hardy and as Howie raced out to collect the ball he was judged to bring Hardy down for the linesman to flag for a penalty.The ref then blew up for Lemmon to have treatment. Hardy took the penalty with Howie just getting a hand to it to make the score at halftime 1--1.

The second half started with Armthorpe on the attack but the Wroxham defence were coping well. Carrus came on for Challen and Daniels replaced Gilmore. Both sides had their chances, Armthorpe hit the bar, Cook had a goal disallowed but Armthorpe were now on top and again had Wroxham pinned back very deep in their own half but survive they did. With only 2 minutes of time left Wroxham rode their luck when Armthorpe put in a good shot from 18 yards which took a deflection sending the ball on to the far post with Howie stranded in no mans land.

Full time 1-1.


As the game went into extra time the fog was getting worse and the players were beginning to look tired but no one gave up trying and Wroxham looked the better in the first part of extra time.and in the 120th minute Armthorpe were down to 10 men.
Ian Farmary was shown a red card for his second offence but Armthorpe seemed to lift their game again and it was as if they had an extra man instead of having only 10 men.
At the start of the second half of extra time each time Pauling came past us we gave him a new bottle of Oxygen to keep him going! The bugler (hired for the day) was calling the cavalry but they never arrived so Wroxham were having to look after themselves and this they did. Armthorpe continued to pressurise the Wroxham goal but the defence stood solid with McNeil in outstanding form.With no further time left the game went to penalties. Armthorpe were first to take the penalties and with Howie, arms spread, was ready for Walker who was first up, let fly and Howie threw himself at the ball to push it wide.Shaun Howes was first for Wroxham who planted the ball into the corner of the net 1-0 to Wroxham. Next up for Armthorpe was Green, their goalkeeper, who took a 15 yard run to put the ball well over the top of the bar. Next up for Wroxham was Matty Daniels who placed his shot nicely into the corner of the net to make it 2-0 to Wroxham.Things were looking good with only one more goal needed and when Buck, for Armthorpe, put his shot over the bar it was all down to Owen Paynter to win the game for Wroxham. He looked very casual as he took a short run up to put the ball past the Armthorpe keeper for the winner.
The cavalry arrived just in time to enjoy the celebrations and send Wroxham to Royston next saturday for the next round. Although Armthorpe looked the better team this Saturday they were held back by a resolute Wroxham side that never gave up trying and could not have worked any harder on a very heavy pitch.This was made playable by Alan Royall and Vernon Feltham who had spent all friday afternoon and saturday morning forking the pitch to enable us to play the game. Lets hope we can keep it going! The attendance was 175 and the officials cost £321.
Submitted by Kenny.

Submitted by Chris Green on Sunday 7th February 2010 at 12:16

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