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   Beechfield United Reserves 4 v Irlam FC 4
By Keith Long
Beechfield United's Reserves were guaranteed a place in the Manchester FA Saturday Amateur Cup semi-final's after they overcame Irlam FC's team following a terrific quarter-final tie at a snow covered Salford Sports Village. This absorbing cup tie ended level at 4-4 after a gruelling ninety minutes but with no extra time required the teams were suddenly faced with the dreaded penalty kick decider and it was United who won the shoot-out 3-1. After a couple of pitch inspections and a chat between the match official's and team managers the tie kicked off thirty minutes late and United made a dream start when they took the lead after just 30 seconds. A mistake by an Irlam defender gifted Michael Keane the easiest of chances and he made no mistake courtesy of a neat and accurate finish. United continued to enjoy a greater share of the ball and went 2-0 up after nine minutes when Peter Reid who had started the move in his own half cleverly created enough time and space to set-up Steve Crowe who sidefotted the ball home from about eight yards. The visitors quickly got their act together and played some excellent one-touch football with their best attacks based down the left flank which caused plenty of problems for United's makeshift back four. Following a mix-up between a defender and keeper Andrew Coogan in the 14th minute Irlam got a goal back via their No10 and suddenly Beechy surrendered possession far too easily. Coogan made a couple of brilliant one handed saves as Irlam started to carve out some clear-cut chances and once again it was the visitors No10 who made goalscoring look easy as he made it 2-2 on the half hour mark. The normal white ball was replaced by an orange one and in the blizzard conditions the long ball tactic seemed the best option but to their credit both teams refused to be negative and continued to produce some attractive soccer. Most of the heavy snow started to ease and another well-worked move down the left flank led to Irlam grabbing a 3-2 lead on 36minutes and they almost scored again minutes later but Dave Simmons was in the right place to clear the ball off the line. After a brief half-time talk United resumed looking more determined and got back level in the 54th minute thanks to great work by Steve Crowe who's lofted pass was controlled by Anthony Wallis and he hammered the ball home from the edge of the area. But Irlam quickly forgot the setback and launched a series of powerful attacks forcing some outstanding defending by the Beechy back four especially Dave Simmons and Peter Reid. United survived the brief onslaught and against the run of play went 4-3 up on 76 minutes when the referee was well positioned to award Beechy a penalty which was taken by Keane who struck the spot-kick with power and despite a brave attempt by the Irlam keeper the ball hit the back of the net. But once again Irlam threatened a quick reply via the counter-attack and one curling effort from their No9 hit the post just before they made it 4-4 after being awarded a penalty in the 85th minute which was easily converted and the visitors had chances to win it in closing moments. In the penalty shoot-out Irlam missed three out of four kick's taken while United's scored all their three. Dave Simmons and Peter Reid shared the Man of the Match award. Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
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