1874 Northwich vs Ashton Athletic

Recap

Buildbase FA Vase Third Round – 1874 Northwich 2 Ashton Athletic 0

1874 Northwich booked a place in the Fourth Round of the FA Vase for the first time in their history, with a 2-0 win over fellow Premier Division side Ashton Athletic.

A Ryan Mitchell header on the half hour mark gave the Greens the half time advantage in what had been a closely contested first half of few chances. It was a game which took a while to warm up, and the opening half hour produced little in the way of clear cut chances, aside of a shot in the 4th minute from 1874’s Adam Whitlock that was well saved by Martin Pearson in the Ashton goal.

But on the half hour, the home side broke the deadlock when Scott McGowan swung in a free kick that was met by Ryan Mitchell, the big centre half evading his marker to steer a glancing header into the far corner of the net. On the stroke of half time, Ashton came close to drawing level when a fine passing move ended with a shot from Daniel Regan just missing the target.

The second half began in lively fashion with chances at both ends in the opening minutes.

Ashton’s Regan was unlucky with a shot across the face of goal that evaded attackers and defenders alike, while at the other end a terrific double save from Martin Pearson in the Ashton goal kept his side in the game.

First, he reacted well to push a stinging shot from Mark Jones over the bar, and then from the resulting corner, Jack Pritchard struck a low shot that was heading for the bottom corner before Pearson got a strong hand on the ball to push it away to safety.

But the introduction of Jake Parker as substitute proved to be a masterstroke by the 1874 management team, as within minutes he doubled his side’s advantage with a shot across the keeper into the far corner of the net.