Dave Parton was once again the hero for Congleton Town as he saved two penalties to help the Bears lift the Macron Cup as they saw off Bacup Borough on a rainy Bank Holiday Monday in Lancashire.
Parton, who was the hero against Bury AFC in the FA Vase and Altrincham in the Cheshire Senior Cup saved from Scott Johnston and Michael Garvin to allow the Cheshire-based side to win the penalty shootout 4-3 after the two teams played out a 2-2 draw in normal time.
After a cagey first half which Congleton controlled, they finally took the lead just seven minutes into the second half when Dan Needham did well to get down the byline before squaring the ball across the six-yard box to Tom Pope who guided it into the back of the net for his 18th goal of the season.
Richard Duffy’s men should have gone on to dominate the game, however, that was not the case as Toby Wright equalised for Bacup with a bullet header that left Parton rooted to the spot.
Congleton retook the lead with just 10 minutes to go when starman Needham won a penalty when he was dragged down in the area. Up stepped Lewis Short and despite the best efforts of Mason Walker, the former Leek Town man scored.
Just as it looked like Congleton had won the game, they were pegged back in the final minute of normal time when Wright grabbed his second of the afternoon as he hit a screamer of an effort from 25 yards out which flew past Parton to take the game to a penalty shootout.
Like so often in shootouts, Parton did the business as he saved two of Bacup’s five penalty kicks which allowed Peter Williams, Darren Chadwick, Ryan Read and Short to all score for the Bears to hand them a second trophy in an unbelievable season for the club.
Moorlands Sport Extra made the journey up to Lancashire to record a special edition of the podcast which you can listen to below. It features reports and live commentary from Richard Scott and Will Bailey as well as interviews with Richard Duffy, Dave Parton, Ethan Hartshorn, Bacup manager Brent Peters and Gary Langley from the North West Counties Football League.
