Alderley Edge Men’s 1st team faced premier league Oxton in the Cheshire Cup, following last week’s dramatic win, hopes were high of another shock.
Oxton started the brighter and took the lead with a fine reverse stick finish. Alderley defended stoutly with Benton and Brown impressing.The first half continued in the same vein and Alderley did well to hold on until half time.
The second half was far more open with Gregory and Warburton going close to an equaliser. Alderley exerted control through Badger, Hanley and Williams, but couldn’t find the equaliser.
Oxton grabbed a second when a penalty corner was blocked, but the rebound fell kindly for the striker who fired in a first time effort.
The game took a bizarre twist, as the tempo increased Alderley were on the end of a series of unfortunate decisions. First Ben Gregory was sin-binned for his first foul of the game and moments later his brother, Joe, joined him for a technical infringement.
Keeper Riley then kept Alderley in the game with a fine diving save. With only 9 men, Alderley played their best hockey, keeping possession and breaking forward seemingly at will. But again it was Oxton who grabbed the next goal as they found a fortunate finish in the middle of a melee in the ‘D’.
With the decisions seemingly going against Alderley, they found themselves down to 9 once again as Butterworth and McGoun were sin-binned within minutes of each other.
Again the composure of Alderley was to be admired and when Ben Gregory beat his marker and held off tacklers to force home, Alderley sensed an opportunity to get something from the game.
When back to full strength Alderley dominated the later stages and McGoun fired into the roof of the net to pull the deficit to one.
Time ran out before Alderley could snatch an equaliser, but credit to all for the fine performance and battling spirit throughout against a team strongly fancied for promotion to the National League. This bodes well for the start of league season. Alderley Edge host Sheffield Hallam at Fallibroome School on Saturday.
