Alderley Edge travelled to Deeside in the Cheshire Cup following their impressive 9-1 victory over Chester in the previous round.
Alderley were wary of Deeside's threat from penalty corners as they possess a former international who was last year's National league top scorer in their ranks.
Despite the clear instructions Alderley could not have got off to a worse start within the first minute they conceded a cheap penalty corner and found themselves one down.
This was compounded only minutes later when Deeside made the most of disharmony in the Alderley back line after being caught out by a quick free-hit after believing the decision was theirs, the ball was worked to the open player who had a simple finish.
Alderley did not let their heads drop and fought back with some incisive attacking play that lead to their first penalty corner, the shot was deflected into his own body by the defender on the line and James Warburton calmly converted the resulting penalty stroke.
Alderley were now on top and their pace and movement was causing trouble to the Deeside defence. This was exemplified when Tim Pont's accurate pass found the run of Joe Coxon who deflected the ball over the 'keeper. Alderley completed the comeback when Coxon drew the Deeside defence and found Warburton, who finished from a tight angle.
Deeside were still in the game and constantly looking for penalty corners, they equalised before half time when they were first to react following Riley's initial save passing the ball to the extra man for another easy finish.
The second half was a similar tale with Andrew Jackson playing well in defence with Scarsbrook and Badger. Andy Williams providing stability in the middle and with the attacking runs of Sam Gregory and Andrew Drummond Alderley were creating plenty of opportunities. It was a jinking run from Drummond that lead to Alderley making it 4-3 as Coxon was the most determined rifling the loose ball through the crowd of players and into the net.
Then the game became ragged and Deeside had a man sin-binned and Alderley given a team warning for untidy tackling.
Deeside's obsession for winning corners was highlighted when they turned down shooting opportunities to ensure a corner would be awarded and they started to come regularly, James Riley pulled off several saves as Deeside varied their routines.
Eventually Deeside did grab an equaliser, inevitably from another penalty corner.
This seemed to fire up Alderley who were starting to get control of the match and were on the whole looking the fresher of the two sides but were not able to make any gilt edged chances.
Deeside playing more on the counter attack forced another corner but were kept at bay and ironically Alderley then won one of their own and Pont stepped up to fire Alderley back into the lead.
With two minutes remaining Deeside won their 11th corner of the game but Riley pulled off another save and Alderley successfully held out to progress to the semi-final.
The league programme starts next week and Alderley face the tough trip to last season's runners-up Sheffield University Banke
Elsewhere in the club there were fine wins for the 2nd team, away at Winnington Parks 1s, who are in the division above 3-1 with goals coming from Oliver Wildig (2) and Chris Hardy.
The 4th team beat Winnington Park 3s 7-2 and the 5th team beat Wilmslow 3s 2-0. The 6th team completed a local double beating Wilmslow 4s 2-0. The 3rd team went down 1-0 at Winnington Park 2nds.
Photo: 1st team 'keeper James Riley.
This is a member post by James Riley.
