1874 Northwich vs Stone Old Alleynians

Recap

2^nd placed Stone Old Alleynians visited the Creative Hut Stadium, as ’74 wanted to extend their 100% start to the Midland Football League campaign.

The Greens made two changes from their ‘Cupset’ over Stocksbridge Park Steels: Vinny Wright made his debut, replacing the injured Tom Morris and Liam Anderson made his first start ahead of Scott McGowan.

Northwich started the better side and Joel Jones forced the Stone stopper, Raajan Gill, into a good save early on.

Stone came forward for their first chance and it was only half cleared to William Bailey, who put it straight back into the danger area. It was flicked on by Jack Tomlinson, which caused a bit of a mess that saw Mark Jones clear the ball into his own bar and it was headed behind for a corner.

The resulting corner was missed at the front post and it bounced up and over Mike Shorthouse in goal to fall to Josh Sedgley for a tap-in at the far post.

In the 34^th minute, Matt Woolley and Jack Tomlinson challenged for a header. Jack Tomlinson used his height to rise higher, but he hit Matt Woolley with an elbow to the head. The referee, in no hesitation, gave Tomlinson his marching orders.

Stone began to sit back in an attempt to hold onto the lead, but also never gave up on the counterattack.

Only 4 minutes after going down to 10-men, Kacper Mikulski had a glorious chance to double Stone’s lead on the counter, but he hit it out of the ground.

Some very resilient defending and goalkeeping saw Stone take a one-goal lead into half-time.

In the 58^th minute, ’74 took off leftback, Vinny Wright, to bring on forward Matty Williams.

The resilient defending continued, but the breakthrough came in the 75^th minute.

A long, diagonal ball was played towards Matty Williams, but it was cutout by Kacper Mikulski. He was pick-pocketed by Matty Willams, and his pass was deflected to perfectly curve into Joel Jones. Joel’s shot was deflected over the goalkeeper to level the game.

The game wouldn’t be level for long, as the Greens kept knocking. ’74 started the attack from their own half, as Matty Fenton played wide towards Liam Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick turned his man beautifully, leaving him bundled on the floor. He drove down the left and into the box, feeding it to Scott McGowan. Scotty found Joel Jones in the middle of the box. Joel turned his defender and his shot bounced under the diving ‘keeper to give Northwich their deserved lead.

’74 didn’t want to settle for a 2-1 win, they won a succession of freekicks on the edge of the box, but nothing came of them.

A great comeback from the Greens, as they leapfrog Stone back into 2^nd in the Midland Football League Premier Division.