F.A. Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay | Tuesday 6 August 2024
Both teams were largely unchanged from Saturday’s joust, though Hanley’s Manager, ex-professional Ryan Shotton (their outstanding performer at the week end) was on the touchline, as he considers artificial pitches now bad for his knees. Visiting supporters were cheered by the inclusion, at centre half, of rugged Joel Stair, considered their best player.
Only nine minutes in, the Mikes could (should?) have scored what would have been the decisive goal. Hanley were caught napping, and robbed of the ball, thirty yards out. Two Boldmere forwards were clear on goal, and as we waited for the net to bulge – it came back off the bottom of the post. Shots at either goal now came in, at regular intervals: at least this was a better first half than the one we’d seen in Stoke!
From the quarter mark, Hanley began to turn the screw, and balls were regularly hoofed upfield from the home defence – always a sign of a team under pressure. Both teams, though, had a lucky escape in the next few minutes, surviving defensive mistakes which showed the tempo the game was being played at. The save of the night came once the hour yard passed, Adam Whitehouse throwing himself to his left to push out an Ollie West twenty-yard fizzer. As we neared the interval, Joe Hull had to go off to have treatment for an earlier head injury. He returned two minutes later, heavily bandaged (and, in the second half, with a replacement shirt: they’re very particular about possibly infectious liquids nowadays). We reached half time goalless.
The Mikes began the second half like an express train, the night’s loudest “Oooh!” coming when Liam Murphy nearly connected with an incisive Gyasi cross, following slick interpassing up the right wing. Two Mikes substitutes arrived with only ten minutes gone, as you wondered whether a tight, fast game would be decided by one of the errors that was being made under pressure. Newcomer Harry Sweeney bowled his man over in the box; but despite the completeness of his discomfort, and howls for a penalty from the Hanley bench, play was waved on. The compliment was returned on the hour, Sweeney being felled at twenty yards, the wall seeing off the resultant free kick. From now on, efforts at goal were becoming fewer, the nearest to scoring when Whitehouse, in added time, somehow managed to keep out an acutely angled stonker from Theo Rowe.
Extra time continued the deadlock, as the combatants cancelled each other out. The pressure was telling on the visitors, who conceded two yellow cards inside four minutes, Gyasi clearly shirt-pulled to give away the second. Shots were coming in from distance, but were off target: though Sean Devlin took the paint off the bar with a long-range rocket. Boldmere (physically fitter?) had more of the territory in the closing stages; but no goal came, and so we went to penalties.
All of Hanley’s four spot kicks were efficiently dispatched, though Jonathan Brown was palpably cross with himself about number three, which went under his body. The Mikes’ first, and fourth, efforts were saved, and so Hanley progress: the first time in some years that Boldmere have fallen at the first hurdle. Sincere handshakes concluded an evening where the gladiators, having drawn after three and a half hours’ football, had come to respect each other.
Boldmere St Michaels: Jonathan Brown; Joe Hull; Alfie Taylor (Harry Sweeney, 55); George Cleet; Harry Craven; Oliver West; Gus Macedo Sanches (Lewis Allison, 90); Sean Devlin; Liam Murphy (Jake Collins, 55); Daniel Gyasi; Theo Rowe. Subs. not used: Joe Daley; Pierre Phillips; Callum North; Kyle Burke.
Hanley Town: Adam Whitehouse; Reece Jones (James Askey, 46); Louis Keenan; Marc Grocott; Joel Stair; Jake Moult; Ollie Heywood; Jack Degruchy; Tyrone Ofori; Sam Turner (Tom Pope, 82): Joe Mswalie (Luke Walsh, 69). Subs. Not used: Ben Chapman; Tim Sanders; Jack Bostock; Lucas Baker.