We went to watch Belper Town v Sheffield FC last night in the Unibond League President's Cup, 1st Round - this and the Derbyshire Senior Cup are the only 2 cup competitons Belper are still in this year having fallen at the first hurdle in the FA Cup, FA Trophy and Unibond League Cup!
Don't normally bother too much with cup ties - partly because my season ticket doesn't cover them and I have to pay to get in! (Only joking - we like to support BTFC as much as possible and get to as many games as we can.)
Anyway - we saw a cracking game of football! Belper, with some youngsters from the reserves in the squad, began slowly but built some pressure after about 10 minutes. Then, as on Saturday, a good goal (this time a header from Asa Ingall) followed fairly rapidly by a penalty kick gave us a 2 - 0 lead and things were looking good.
Sheffield pulled one back before half time and then very quickly got another from a penalty early in the 2nd half. Sheffield got their noses in front and it looked like another cup exit for the Nailers.
You've heard of "inspired" substitutions? Well Carnes and Danny made one last night, bringing one of the rising stars of the reserve side into the game. Oliver Warren is a young lad who has been fully "signed up" because this lad is a real prospect. I'd seen him a couple of weeks ago when the reserves played Staveley and before getting a head injury, he was the star of that show.
"Ollie" came on late in the piece and almost immediately made an impact. He scored to make it 3 -3 and what a goal. Receiving the ball in the penalty box, he didn't panic, showed some lovely close control and left 2 defenders on their backsides before slotting the ball home from 10 yards.
In fact, all of the youngsters had good games. Aaron Pride has been out of action with a broken foot for several weeks but he played the full 120 minutes last night and Sam "Shaggy" Johnson came on late on and acquitted himself very well, proving again that Belper have a strong "2nd tier".
Don't normally bother too much with cup ties - partly because my season ticket doesn't cover them and I have to pay to get in! (Only joking - we like to support BTFC as much as possible and get to as many games as we can.)
Anyway - we saw a cracking game of football! Belper, with some youngsters from the reserves in the squad, began slowly but built some pressure after about 10 minutes. Then, as on Saturday, a good goal (this time a header from Asa Ingall) followed fairly rapidly by a penalty kick gave us a 2 - 0 lead and things were looking good.
Sheffield pulled one back before half time and then very quickly got another from a penalty early in the 2nd half. Sheffield got their noses in front and it looked like another cup exit for the Nailers.
You've heard of "inspired" substitutions? Well Carnes and Danny made one last night, bringing one of the rising stars of the reserve side into the game. Oliver Warren is a young lad who has been fully "signed up" because this lad is a real prospect. I'd seen him a couple of weeks ago when the reserves played Staveley and before getting a head injury, he was the star of that show.
"Ollie" came on late in the piece and almost immediately made an impact. He scored to make it 3 -3 and what a goal. Receiving the ball in the penalty box, he didn't panic, showed some lovely close control and left 2 defenders on their backsides before slotting the ball home from 10 yards.
In fact, all of the youngsters had good games. Aaron Pride has been out of action with a broken foot for several weeks but he played the full 120 minutes last night and Sam "Shaggy" Johnson came on late on and acquitted himself very well, proving again that Belper have a strong "2nd tier".
Warren's goal meant extra time and eventually, penalties. Now, since I've never ever watched a Belper penalty being taken and being a highly superstitious sod when it comes to footy, I didn't watch the shoot out but Belper won it 3 - 1.
There's a much more professional report by Nigel Oldrini ("Scribbler" to his friends) on the Belper website (click on the link on the right as usual)
A brief chat with the players in the clubhouse afterwards and then an hour's drive back to Sheffield meant it was getting on for midnight when we got home!
On Monday evening I had felt rough and went to bed at 8:45 pm and I didn't wake until the alarms went off at 6:00 a.m. Nine hours sleep! - but last night, obviously, less than 6 hours sleep! So - I'm shattered and will now go downstairs and watch England v Belarus. The Duchess is at a football meeting and I'll have to see if I can stay awake until she's back!
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