FA
Trophy 4th Round - 23rd February 2008
At Nene Park - Att 1,626 (333 York)
Report
City bounced back from the disappointment of their first defeat
under Colin Walker
with a narrow win at Nene Park that takes the club to the FA
Trophy semi-finals. An entertaining game which flowed from end-to-end
was fairly evenly split, but City managed to convert their one
real chance in the first half while Rushden and Diamonds wasted
some glorious chances at the other end.
With Leo Fortune-West and Simon Rusk cup-tied, there had to
be changes. Martyn
Woolford dropped back to midfield to cover Rusk's absence
while Onome Sodje
and Craig Farrell
were restored to their striking roles.
It would be a while before the strikers would see anything of
the ball, but it was Sodje's shot that was deflected wide that
gave City a corner in the 15th minute. Wroe
swung in a teasing ball and Danny
Parslow fired a bullet header past Dale Roberts and into
the net for 1-0. It was City's first real attack of any consequence.
While play in the first half was pretty even, Rushden shaded
the better chances. Charles Ademeno got to a long throw slightly
before Tom Evans after
Parslow slipped, but seemed to bottle out of having a real go
and the ball sat up tamely for Evans. It was Ademeno's strike
partner Michael Rankine who really should have brought the Diamonds
back into it; he had two glorious chances. Darren
Craddock missed a long ball letting Rankine in round the
back. One-on-one with Evans, he played it gently back to the
City stopper. That was a let-off, but he really should have
scored with a far-post header after Ademeno's deep cross. With
Evans beaten and from point-blank range, Rankine somehow managed
to put it wide with almost everyone in the stadium expecting
the net to bulge.
City's best work in the opening period came down the right through
Ben Purkiss and
Nicky Wroe, but Anthony
Lloyd saw much more of the ball in the second half and he
almost carved out the chance for City to extend their lead.
After turning Curtis Woodhouse inside out down the left - the
former City junior left spinning round as if he was on the fabled
rotating dancefloor on board Gateshead's (in)famous Tuxedo Royale
floating nightclub - his tempting cross early in the piece managed
to evade everyone. Moments later he played Farrell in, but his
shot was weak and easy for Roberts.
Purkiss picked up a dead leg and was replaced by Manny
Panther; City switching to 4-4-2. Rushden rang the changes
too, fortifying their attacking line. Consequently, the game
opened up wider than the Cheddar Gorge. It was counter-attack
after counter-attack as the game ebbed and flowed. Sodje had
the ball in the net 17 minutes into the second half, but he'd
strayed offside as Farrell's shanked shot fell to him. Farrell
managed to get in the way of David McGurk's goal-bound header.
Rushden hit the bar with a looping header which had Evans scrambling
back, reminding anyone who wasn't aware that the game was by
no means done and dusted. Offsides continued to plague City's
best attacks with substitute Richard
Brodie often as far out of place as a pink pig in a pen
full of black sheep.
Where Rushden had spurned some great chances in the first half,
it was City's turn in the second. A five-on-three break should
at least have produced a shot, but Woolford was tackled by Phil
Gulliver when pulling the trigger. Far more culpable was Sodje.
With City three-on-one, Sodje decided to go it alone despite
having Farrell to his right and, much better placed, Wroe on
his left. As Sodje dithered, his colleagues couldn't keep themselves
onside and the cover got back to deny Sodje a shooting chance.
City's wastefulness was reaching epic proportions. Woolford
had a tame effort when teeing up one of a number of colleagues
may have been a better idea. It nearly bit City on the backside
when substitute David Brown shot narrowly over the bar with
an overhead effort. Try as they might, however, Rushden just
didn't work Evans enough to give themselves a chance to get
something out of the game and City wound the clock down to bring
the curtain down on an entertaining game between well-matched
sides.
Of that profligacy, Colin Walker told us that "We've
mentioned it to the individuals concerned. It's a team effort
and we can take the pressure off ourselves by being less selfish".
Compared to last week, the contrast in surroundings could scarcely
be more marked - Nene Park is a great facility. "It
was a fantastic pitch to play on", said Walker,
"and some of our football was
excellent". A two-legged semi-final is now
all that stands between City and a trip to the revamped national
stadium. "It's been a massive
learning curve for the players and for me; not Eric though",
joked the boss. "We've got a
chance to go to Wembley and the players are starting to realise
it now, but we've got to put that to one side and think about
Cambridge next week". The next few weeks see
City come up against some of the sides at the sharp end of the
table: Cambridge as mentioned and Burton. These next few games
could determine how this season will come to be defined.
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