North Hants Senior Cup - Round 1
AFC Aldermaston 1, Stockbridge 1 (aet; Stockbridge won 5-4 on pens)
STOCKBRIDGE needed a penalty shootout to squeeze past Aldermaston after 120 minutes of action had failed to separate the two teams last Saturday.
Aldermaston, belying their lowly league position, put together some neat moves with Barry Smith and James O'Keefe prominent; the two combined after five minutes for Smith to take the ball in his stride and skim the crossbar with a powerful shot.
Five minutes later Mark Vowles seized on a loose pass and advanced on the Aldermaston goal. Keeper Matty Desay, charging off his line, hauled Vowles down outside the box with the Stockbridge man seemingly poised to stroke the ball into an empty net. Astonishingly, neither red nor yellow card was forthcoming, and the free kick came to nothing.
Five minutes before the break the visitors' sense of injustice was heightened when O'Keefe was flagged offside as he burst through on the left. He set up Joel Scotford to score, and the referee over-ruled his assistant to allow the goal to stand.
The second half was fairly even, the only goal coming midway through the half when Tristan Burton sent a raking ball though to Gavin Flye. Flye broke through two tackles and rolled a short pass to Paul Copping, who fired a crisp equaliser.
There was no further scoring, either in normal time or the additional half-hour; in truth neither side really looked like breaking the deadlock.
In the end the match boiled down to a penalty shoot-out. Nine of the ten penalties taken were successful, but Alan Ralph saved the hosts' fourth spot-kick, taken by Andy Ramsden.
"Champagne Charlie" Spencer kept his nerve and lived up to his nickname by converting Stocks' crucial fifth penalty, and Stockbridge were - at last - through.
Stocks will feel that justice was done in the end, but Aldermaston were far from a pushover and on this form should soon be climbing away from the bottom of the Wessex Division 2 table.
Nearby, Stockbridge Reserves edged through to the second round of the same competition by beating Tadley Calleva Reserves 1-nil. Nick Coates scored the only goal of the game.
Stockbridge 1, Ringwood Town 1
Stocks and Ringwood produced a good Wessex Division 2 game on Wednesday night in torrential rain. But the Rec pitch held up well under monsoon conditions.
Stocks took the lead after ten minutes when Mark Vowles headed home Sam Coleman's free-kick. But they couldn't get the crucial second goal even though Paul Copping hit the bar and Gavin Flye had a good penalty shout rejected.
Vowles hit the post just before the break, and Ringwood broke away to equalise through Andy Wright.
That's the way it stayed in the second half. Lewis Bain came closest to a winner in injury time; the Ringwood keeper managed to deflect his effort over the bar in a one-on-one.
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