The Emirates F.A. Cup 2020-2021. Extra Preliminary Round
Tuesday, 1st September
Eccleshill Utd 0-3 Silsden AFC
Britton 40, Brown 47. 51.
COBBYDALERS DOMINANT IN F.A. CUP
The Cobbydalers travelled to local neighbours Eccleshill for their first competitive game of the season, the 2020-21 F.A. Cup extra Preliminary Round.
Eccleshill were on the attack from the kick-off and Alfie Darke, in the Silsden goal, was forced to make his first save from Luke Aldrich in the opening minute. United pushed Silsden back and both Josh Kaine and Myles Foley had to block goal-bound efforts. Foley was booked in the ninth minute as the Cobbydalers were pinned in their own half.
Silsden then began to settle and Mark Trueman saw a shot blocked before United broke forwards with Somali Cisse almost catching Darke out.
Gradually Trueman began to control the midfield. When Joe Mitchell broke up the left, he managed to slip the ball to Khurram Shazad. It took two defenders to halt the Silsden man at the expense of a corner. Instead of driving the ball into the box, it was slipped back to Trueman who curled the ball to Foley who saw his volley go agonisingly wide of the far post.
The Eagles were looking dangerous as they broke forwards but the Silsden defence, marshalled superbly by Shaun Airey, held them at bay. Mitchell hit a low shot on target at the other end but, on too many occasions, Silsden were hitting straight balls from the back which were easily cleared by the home defence.
With ten minutes left before half-time, Matthias Britton broke clear, as the home defence had all pushed towards the half way line. Brad Emmerson, in the home goal, denied Britton with an outstretched leg. Three minutes later he was thwarted again. However, BRITTON finally got his reward on 40 minutes when he headed home Joe Mitchell’s cross.
With the half time whistle imminent, Airey made his only mistake of the game but Talent Ndlovu could only shoot into the arms of Darke.
Two minutes into the second half Silsden were two up. A superb run up the right from Britton ended with a pin-point pass to Antony BROWN, who cut back across the six yard box before hitting in a low shot.
Four minutes later BROWN ran onto a cross from Shazad to slam the ball home at the near post to make it 3-0. Immediately Brown had a chance to complete his hat-trick but shot wide before Shazad saw an effort saved.
The home side were shell-shocked and, to make matters worse, Aran Basi was sent off on sixty-four minutes. Brown then set up another chance for Britton but his effort was off target before Foley was denied by a superb save by Emerson.
Silsden were still determined to attack but almost paid the price for over-committing men forwards. However substitute Marcel Chigumira shot wide at the other end before he was denied in the dying minutes when Alfie Darke tipped his thunderbolt onto the bar.
The Cobbydalers will entertain Avro or Bootle in the Preliminary Round on Saturday, September 12th.
ECCLESHILL UNITED. Emerson, Bleau, Buchanan, Taylor, Omolukun(Owen 54), Basi, Ndlovu(Chigumura 60), Staunton, Aldrich, Irvine. Sub. not used. Mohammed, Garber, Kaba, Anjom, Josiah.
SILSDEN AFC. Darke, Kaine(Pownall 78), Everingham, Trueman, Airey, Foley, Barnes, Mitchell(Liam Hudson 88), Brown(Antony), Shazad, Britton(Wademan 78). Subs not used. Higginson, Morgan, Fox, Drovi.
Referee. MR, J. Phillips.
Photograph courtesy of Daniel Kerr (Twitter – @DKkaptured)
