Newport IOW 1 Winchester City 1

(after extra time; City won 3-2 on penalties)

Hampshire Senior Cup

Winchester City won their second cup match in five days, defeating Newport in the Hampshire Senior Cup in a penalty shoot out. After heavy rain during the day, the match began on a saturated pitch, which fortunately began to dry out as the match progressed.

The visitors went close after 19 minutes, when Jamie Musselwhite and Ian Mancey worked the ball to Mark Gamble on the right, who forced Andrew Smallpiece, the Port keeper, to turn the ball behind. From the resulting corner, Mark Jones put a header against the bar. However, a minute later, a Newport break at the other end gave the Islanders the lead. A break on the left gave Ashley Wright the opportunity to slide the ball past David Hook.

The lead lasted only seven minutes. Lloyd Webber had a stunning drive just tipped around the post by Smallpiece. The ensuing corner led to a goalmouth scramble, where Dave Goss, back in the City side, was on hand to force the ball home. City were in the ascendancy now, with Gamble getting clear all the time on the right. On one such occasion, Gamble’s shot was dropped by Smallpiece, but the danger was cleared off the line by the last defender. Just before half time, Port’s Wayne Newnham was belatedly waved on by the referee after being treated for injury, and immediately found himself in acres of space by the touchline. He received the through ball, but controversy was avoided when his shot went wide.

In the second half, the game at times became quite literally bogged down in midfield, but City were running the show for much of the time. A couple of chances fell to Tom Vavrecka early in the half, but both went wide. A trademark Pete Smith run put Musselwhite clear on the right, but Smallpiece just tipped his shot over the bar. From the corner, the ball was eventually worked to Jones, who put his header just over.

Newport, whilst pinned into their own half for lengthy spells, were always dangerous on the break, especially when pacy sub, Mike McEnery, came on up front. He headed one excellent chance over the bar when left unmarked on the right side of the box. But City had plenty of chances to win the game themselves. Twelve minutes from time, Smith burst between two defenders to shoot and the ball cannoned off a defender’s outstretched leg onto his own crossbar. There was plenty of action in the Port goalmouth in the last ten minutes of normal time, but still the home side were able to wriggle clear a couple of times to create matchwinning opportunities of their own.

As the game moved into extra time, there was space all over the pitch as the heavy ground took its toll. The play flowed from end to end with both sides creating chances, but unable to break the deadlock. Port probably had the better chances at this stage, mostly from high balls over the tiring City defence, for the relatively fresh McEnery to run on to. However, City nearly won it in the 120th minute, when Musselwhite’s header from a corner went just wide of a post.

And so on to the first-ever penalty shoot out at St Georges Park in the nineteen years since the ground opened. In all, sixteen kicks were taken, but only five were scored. Hook made a number of comfortable saves, but City themselves had great difficulty in even hitting the target. Eventually, after three rounds of sudden death, the home side’s ability from the spot proved even worse than the visitors, and three penalties from Mark Gamble, Tom Vavrecka and a match-winner from Chris Flood were enough to secure a 3-2 win and a place in the last sixteen of the competition.

Winchester City: Hook, Dolan, Smith, Jones, Goss, Rogers, Webber (Davis), Vavrecka, Mancey (Flood), Musselwhite, Gamble. Unused subs: Darnton, Diaper, Zawadski