League Cup Departure

League Cup Departure

The first twenty minutes of the game did not augur well as a spectacle, with the main entertainment coming from trying to work out quite how much earth had been shifted to the bottom left hand corner of the ground to partially iron out one of the many cambers. However, things slowly sprang to life, to the point that by the end of the game, tackles were flying in, chances were coming thick and fast and no one was checking their watch.

On 20 minutes, Colne’s journeyman striker Fish had the first real chance as he drifted in from the right and thumped a firm shot goalwards, which was parried well by Chris Thompson. Clitheroe were not making the most of kicking down the incline from open play, often over hitting the final pass, but from dead balls, Robbie Bromley was finding his mark.
On 22 minutes, his free kick from the left caused general panic, whilst his driven corners from the right wing saw a number of half chances from Clitheroe’s attackers. Ollie Crankshaw was showing more as the half progressed, and on 37 minutes, Clitheroe harried the home defence to the point that the keeper was forced to pick up a back pass. The indirect free kick from 10 yards came to nothing. Three minutes later, a Colne free kick broke down and a huge pass to Kurt Willoughby saw him run directly towards goal, but the keeper smothered his shot.

The second half kept up the tempo, although this time the Blues were trying to under-hit their passes as they advanced up the hill. On 55 minutes, Crankshaw cut in from the left, and hit his shot across the keeper only to see the ball hit the post and ricochet across the face of the goal. However, 10 minutes later the home team took the lead after a Clitheroe attack fizzled out, a handful of incisive passes sliced open the Clitheroe team and saw ex Blue Danny Wilkins dink the ball in.
The visitors continued to probe and on 81 minutes, a dinked cross was headed on the full by Brad Carroll, focusing a top drawer point blank save from the keeper. Still Colne searched for the two-goal cushion and Wilkins went close after hurdling a number of tackles en route. On 89 minutes, Crankshaw whistled a shot beyond the post, before in injury time, a huge goal kick bounced once but saw Thompson and the backpedalling defender in no man’s land as Colne ran on goal. The forward was dragged down and the penalty was tucked home.

There will be no semi final trip to Grantham this year, but Simon Haworth will be keen to turn good performances into victories, starting on Saturday at Goole.

Team : Chris Thompson, Robbie Bromley, Stephen Rigby (Ryan Cattermole), Michael Samson (Jacob Davis), Ryan Ellison, Charlie Russell, Joe Mitchell, Brad Carroll (c), Adam Bolton, Kurt Willoughby, Oliver Crankshaw. Subs - Ryan Cattermole, Jacob Davis. Not used - Matt Atherton, Jordan Prescott, Danny Eccles.