The Cherry Red Records Challenge Cup
Round 1
Witney United 1 Yate Town 5
Saturday, 28 September 2002
A hugely entertaining cup tie that had everything saw United put up a battling performance in a match where the score line really did flatter the Premier Division team.
In fact after just 9 seconds Witney took the lead as people were still taking their seats. Ricky Dash chased down the keeper and gained control before crossing for David Lawrence to steer the ball home for 1-0. However within 60 seconds Yate were level when a clipped free kick by Stuart Minall was headed home by Julian Freeman for 1-1.
The action was relentless and twice more in the first five minutes United went close with Ben Border volleying narrowly over and a Scott Dash direct free-kick being spilled by keeper Tony Court and causing mayhem before the visitors cleared their lines. In the 8th minute however the scoring continued when another free kick by Minall was floated into the box where Joe Miller dropped the ball on to the head of Lee Barlass who guided it into the empty net.1-2.
In the 14th minute Witney's shape and pattern was severely disrupted when Scott Dash was booked twice within 60 seconds, first for dissent and then for a trip leaving the referee no option but to show the youngster his 2nd red card of the season. Witney went closest to scoring again though when Ricky Dash pushed a short free kick to Border whose sweetly struck shot flew narrowly wide with Court beaten. The visitors though extended their lead as they exploited the extra man when a long punt by Barlass was flicked on to Freeman whose shot was touched onto the post by Miller but bounced into the far corner of the net.1-3.
The home side should have hit back straight away when a lovely cross by Ricky Dash saw Gary Boys head wide from 12 yards when totally un-marked. The game then had its second red-card when after Border cleared Leon Simpson clearly elbowed him in the face and again the referee was left with no option. The two red-cards were totally out of charcter with a match that was being played at a high tempo but was never nasty.
Half Time: 1 ? 3
After the break United took control and dominated their higher Division opponents for long spells. With 20 minutes to go it looked like the sustained pressure had paid off, when, a long ball was controlled by Barlass with his hand inside the area but the officials adjudged it to be just out side and the home side wasted the free kick. United kept pressing and Liam Ranger intercepted a pass across the box and broke through but couldn?t finish with his shot going wide and Ricky Dash was very unlucky when a rasping volley flew straight into the arms of a grateful Court.
As is always the way in football you have to score when on top and Yate made the home side pay with two goals in the final five minutes. First a through ball found Paul Metheringham who poked it into the corner for 1-4 and in injury time a shot by Andy Neal took a wicked deflection off Border and looped into the far corner to make it 1-5 and send the visitors through to the 2nd round.
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