Congleton’s FA Vase Run Comes to an End

Congleton Town’s run in this season’s Buildbase FA Vase came in an end with a close fought defeat by a single goal at Northern League Division One team Hebburn Town.

Congleton made one change from last week’s victory against Malvern, with Stan Tatters replacing Jordan Johnson, who picked up an injury last week, but did make the bench.

Congleton opened the game brightly, forcing Hebburn back and a free kick from Cope was put out for a corner by the Hebburn defence after just four minutes. Congleton were playing the ball around nicely in midfield but a very hard, dry and uneven pitch was making good football difficult. Both sides looked good on the ball with Groves and Potter linking well on the Hebburn right but again the final ball was proving elusive.

Hebburn looked like they were about to break the deadlock on twenty-six minutes when Purewal was through on Parton but he hesitated for far too long over a shot and his final scuffed effort rolled into Parton’s arms.

As the half went on Hebburn increased their pressure but without really troubling Parton and it was Congleton who next went close when Cope turned and half volleyed inside the penalty area but his effort was over the bar.

With the half coming to an end there was the first booking in a game, which was played in a good spirit, when Morris was yellow carded for pulling back a Hebburn player as they threatened down the right hand side

Half Time : Hebburn Town 0  Congleton Town 0

The second half began with Hebburn back on the attack and after gaining a corner the whipped in ball narrowly missed the far post of the Congleton goal.

However, on fifty two minutes Congleton had a great chance to go ahead and their best opportunity of the game. In a similar fashion to last week’s goal against Malvern a long ball over the top found Johns. He had had a very quiet first half but he raced clear with just Foden in the Hebburn goal to beat. In his defence the ball did bounce a little high for him on the hard pitch and in attempting to lob Foden he put his effort well over the bar.

Almost immediately Hebburn responded and a long range swerving shot from Spence was well gathered by Parton. A rash of bookings followed, all of them well justified, as Beaumont, Spence and Storey all received yellow cards within a few minutes.

With time running out both sides made changes with Jepson coming on for Cope for Congleton and Martin replacing Purewal for Hebburn. The two telling substitutions however were the replacement of Potter by Lambert for the home team and Baker being forced off by injury and being replaced by Griffith. Tatters dropped back to right back with Griffith filling in in front of him.

Penalties were looming when a raking ball out to the Congleton right found Lambert with Griffith and Tatters out of position. Lambert raced into the space and crossed low into the box. The ball evaded the Congleton defence but found Richardson on the Congleton left. His low shot was not particularly well hit but hit a body in the box, looped into the air and over the stranded Parton into the back of the net.

. With only a couple of minutes to go plus injury time there was no time for Congleton to get back into the game and Hebburn had done just enough. They will go on to contest the 2019-20 final in an empty Wembley Stadium against Consett on May 3rd and could yet be in the 2020-21 final at the end of May. In the quarter final they will play Warrington Rylands who beat West Auckland on penalties.

Final Score: Hebburn Town 1  (Richardson 88) Congleton Town 0

Teams:

Hebburn Town: Foden, Groves, Lough, Spence, Storey©, Carson, Potter, Mullen, Armstrong, Richardson, Purewal.

Subs: Coulson, Lambert, Rutherford, Martin, Eleftherlades

Congleton Town: Parton, Baker, Morris, Graves©, Duffy, Ryder, Buckley, Beaumont, Cope, Johns, Tatters.

Subs: Fenton, McCarthy, Jepson, Griffith, Bott, Johnson

Ian Corbishley
Ian Corbishley
Sports Reporter & Theatre Critic

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