History was made at Castlecroft as far as Congleton Town are concerned as they progressed to the quarter-finals of the Isuzu FA Vase for the first time in their history as they won by a solitary goal at AFC Wulfrunians.
Congleton winger Dan Needham got the goal on 23 minutes when he profited on some rather poor defending to score, the Bears then had player-manager Richard Duffy sent off just before the halftime break. That red card completely changed the flow of the game as the hosts threw everything at the Cheshire side in the second half. However, the defence repelled everything led by North West Counties Football League Premier Division goalkeeper of the month- Dave Parton as they held out for the victory.
The first half was a scrappy affair with neither side wanting to give any inch or quarter away with so much at stake. As such the first chance of the first half came on nine minutes when AFC Wulfrunians forward Jumanne Meggoe got into the area but, Parton easily smothered his shot.
While at the other end, Tom Pope was in the thick of things as usual for the Bears. He had one chance on 17 minutes when he headed Ethan Hartshorn’s cross just wide of the target. He then set up George Sankey with a cushioned chest pass to the winger, but Sankey was to put his shot wide of the goal.
The deadlock was broken on 23 minutes when Wulfrunians defender Ashley Jackson saw his attempted clearance fly straight up in the air rather than away from their penalty area, it forced Jake Jones to race out of his goal as he tried to collect the ball. He only succeeded in letting the ball bounce over his head and Needham was able to roll the ball into the empty net for his seventh goal of the season.
It might have been the winner, but it was certainly not the big talking point in the game as that came just moments before the halftime whistle as Duffy brought down Meggoe who looked to go through on goal. Sadly, for Congleton, their player-manager was the last man meaning that referee Matthew Scholes had no option but to send the former Wales international off for a professional foul. From the resulting free-kick, Craig Gregg forced Parton into a fine one-handed save to keep their lead intact.
Fortunately, the half-time whistle came without any more chances on the Congleton goal and it handed the Bears management team of Duffy and his assistant Anthony Griffiths 15 minutes to work and prepare their troops for what would be 45 minutes of constant Wulfrunians attacks. They made two changes bringing off wingers Sankey and Needham to replace them with Ryan Read and Marco Fragapane as well as electing to go three at the back keeping Pope up top as a lone striker.
In the second half, we lost count of the number of attacks Wulfrunians mustered as it must have been at least 20 attempts for them to force an equaliser which was never forthcoming.
Their best chance saw Meggoe flick the ball up before attempting an overhead kick which flew well over Parton’s goal. While the goalkeeper made a comfortable save late on in the game as Wulf’s captain Simon Williams struck a low shot from the edge of the area through a crowd of bodies, which was straight at Parton.
The former Nantwich Town goalkeeper was in top form as he marshalled his defence very well and, made a couple of other fine saves when called upon. He also had his defensive colleague Darren Chadwick to thank as he cleared a goal mouth scramble off the line when some of the Wulfrunians supporters in the main stand thought their side had equalised.
His opposite number Jones ventured forward to join the attack in the final few minutes of the game hoping for a late equaliser to take the game to a penalty shootout. However, like his teammates, he couldn’t find a way past a stubborn Congleton defence.
When the fulltime whistle finally came, after five long minutes of injury time, the Congleton players’ jubilation was evident. The result meant a whole lot more following Duffy’s dismissal who had joined his players out on the pitch to congratulate them on a fine performance.
The draw for the quarter-finals takes place on Monday 13th February at 3.15 PM with the fixture set to take place on Saturday 11th March.
AFC Wulfrunians: Jones, Meddows, Poole (Holdcroft, 87), Jackson, Rowley, Bright, Gregg, Williams, Meggoe, Bishop and Adams.
Unused subs: Bagley, Morris, Girtton, Ray, Turton and Katega.
Congleton Town: Parton, Faulkner, Nsaka, Hartshorn, Duffy, Sankey (Fragapane, 46), Griffiths-Jones, Pope, Beaumont and Needham (Read, 46).
Unused subs: Johns, Griffiths, Connolly, Buckley and Short.
Attendance: 473
