On a beautiful night for football, Alderley United's under 16's met Woodhouse Park in the Timperley & District Junior Football League Division 3 cup. Held at Flixton FC football ground, it was destined to be a good game given it was both sides only chance at silverware this season.
With Alderley beating local rivals Wilmslow in a close game in the last round and Woodhouse on a good run of form in the league, both sides were up for it.
The game started with a lot of pressure being applied by Woodhouse, and a couple of sloppy passes in the first few minutes from Alderley which offered three great chances to score. For the next 10 minutes James Tidey in the Alderley goal was on fine form to deny Woodhouse every opportunity and eventually after 20 minutes the pressure told and a penalty was awarded after the tugging down of a Woodhouse player. The penalty was well dispatched in the top corner leaving the keeper with no chance to make it 1-0 to Woodhouse.
This acted as a wake up call for Alderley and the game became more even. With a few great chances for Alderley at the end of the half, and after having what looked like a sure penalty claim turned down, the teams entered the changing room at half time at 1-0.
At the start of the second half Alderley came out a different team, having the majority of the possession and, after 10 minutes, a neat flick over the defender and a strong left footed shot by left winger James Bundred evened up the scores.
Less than 5 minutes later a Bundred cross was controlled and laid off perfectly by Harry Slade, enabling Johnny Williams to hit it home from the edge of the box to complete the comeback.
But with 25 minutes to go the game was by no means over. A period of scrappy football left an interesting last 10 minutes until from a corner, which they failed to clear, Woodhouse were awarded another penalty for a trip in the box. Up stepped the striker for the second time, who went for an identical strike - only for the ball to fly past the post and leave the striker beating the floor.
The remaining time was played out quite scrappily with no major chances and after a large period of added time, for a number of cramp related injuries, the final whistle blew leaving Alderley victorious!
A well contested game to say the least, ending up with the Alderley captain Reece Howells lifting the trophy and all the Alderley players ecstatic.
Thanks go to all the players, officials, managers, fans and organisers for a great game of football.
This is a member posy by James Cheetham.
