Winsford United vs 1874 Northwich

Recap

1874 JUST MISS OUT IN A SECOND SEMI FINAL GAME

WINSFORD UNITED 3 V 2 1874 NORTHWICH

1874 just failed narrowly in their efforts to retain the Mid Cheshire Senior Cup as they lost to a last minute goal by their landlords – Winsford United on Wednesday evening.

Having played a game on the previous evening as well as having two other big league games on the Thursday and Saturday it was no surprise that 1874’s management fielded a somewhat “different side” from 24 hours earlier and in fact the outfield ten players were a completely different unit from the previous game.

As a result the 1874 faithful supporters had the chance to see a number of new faces in the 74 line up including Under 21 players Josh Winthrop and Dylan Wagster making their first starts in the first team whilst the ever popular Rick Bailey was making an appearance in midfield alongside Aaron Clayton and Shelton Payne.

Selecting a different side for a semi-final game was a Big Call for the Managers but one that was fully understood by the majority of 1874’s supporters who did their best to encourage their side from the kick off to the final whistle.

The game started lively – just like a local derby cup game would be expected to start with both teams trying their luck on goal from distance but both keepers looked comfortable.

In truth when Winsford opened the scoring after 6 minutes it was really against the run of play as 1874 had been threatening the Winsford goal area but Foster scored well by heading home a cross from a free kick.

This reverse should have woken 1874 up but it was the hosts who also scored the next goal after 24 minutes and this had some considerable debate going on in the stand and on the terraces by both sets of supporters!

A minute earlier Winsford had a “seemingly” good shout for a penalty waved away by the referee but then after an innocuous tackle by an 1874 defender the referee quickly pointed to the spot and Gardner made no mistake from the resultant penalty to put his side two goals to the good. HT 2-0

After the interval 1874 came out strongly knowing that the next goal had to be scored by them and so it was after just five minutes when Ryan Jackson scored after Aaron Clayton’s initial shot was pushed out by Green the home keeper.

This goal certainly lifted the 1874 side and their supporters and a few chances were created but the home defence stood firm until the 82nd minute when 1874 drew level through Josh Winthrop who hit an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner. This was his first goal for the club but it could quite easily have been his second as he mishit a shot off target minutes earlier when it seemed as though he would definitely have scored.

With there being no extra time having to be played it looked very likely that the tie would be decided on a penalty shootout but with just seconds remaining Scot Taylor won the tie for Winsford as he fired in a shot from 20 yards after Hall had saved well from a Taylor shot.

1874: Hall; Dylan Wagster; Woods; Lever; Thomas; Clayton; Payne; Bailey; Riley (capt); Jackson & Winthrop

Referee: Simon Richmond Attendance:171