FA Cup First Qualifying Round
Tuesday 22nd September 2020
The FA Cup dream is over for Frickley Athletic for another 12 months as 'plucky' Marine edged them out in this contest at Westfield Lane.
Although both sides showed plenty of endeavour and desire, if truth be told the game lacked quality or a cutting edge where it mattered. It was scrappy, it was untidy, and things weren't helped by either a bumpy playing surface nor an inconsistent referee who got plenty of decisions wrong and seemed intent on dishing out yellow cards.
The official, unfortunately not named anywhere, set a precedent by cautioning so many players for 'first offences' when a simple warning would have sufficed and it's a wonder that no player from either team was dismissed.
In regards to the game itself, Marine, who compete in the NPL Division One (North-West) - a level parallel to their counterparts, were the better team for much of the opening 45 minutes.
Despite the fact they could have gone behind early on when Jonny Margetts was in the right place to finish but instead handled a cross, the Merseysiders then started to get on top and create some openings with Mo Touray (No.10) looking lively on occasions.
After the interval, Frickley upped the ante with Brad Grayson causing a nuisance in one instance as the visitors were forced to defend resolutely.
Nevertheless, having been on the back-foot for a good 20-25 minutes, Marine snatched what proved to be the winner with their first proper venture into the hosts' box in the second half, as David Raven got on the end of a 72nd minute free-kick to head home, via the post, for what proved to be the winner.
Touray would have wrapped things up had it not been for an horrendous miss in a one-on-one situation when he blazed a shot over the bar in the closing stages, whilst at the other end there was a grandstand finale as 'keeper Tom Nicholson went forward for a corner which ultimately came to nothing because the prat with a whistle got in the way of a defender's attempted clearance - thus meaning he had to award a dropball.
All in all, it wasn't a game which will live too long in the memory and the home-made silver foil FA Cup trophy which was on show amongst some of the home fans will have to be safely stored away for another year.
Marine are in cup action in Yorkshire again on Saturday as they travel to Tadcaster Albion, whilst Frickley will be hoping for a better result as they travel to Newcastle Town.
I've now seen 995 competitive games in England (across all the leagues stretching from Premier League to the Northern Counties East League and including cup competitions) and I just hope that raging idiot who is running the government behaves himself for long enough to let me reach 1,000.
Next Up: Who knows? Boris is a d*ck!
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