| FA
Trophy 1st Round Replay
Hinckley United 3
Rugby United 2
Rugby United gave their local rivals Hinckley a fright
in their FA Trophy first round replay on Tuesday night,
but eventually went down by three goals to two in a
closely contested match.
All the goals remarkably came within a fifteen minute
spell in the first half, with Wayne Dyer opening the
scoring on 23 minutes for the Leicestershire club. Their
lead was short lived however, when just two minutes
later a Robbie Beard shot was parried by the Hinckley
goalkeeper onto the chest of ex VS-Rugby player Stuart
Storer, and then deflected into his own net.
Rugby continued to press forward, and they took the
lead on 30 minutes with a goal from Beard - his eighth
of the season. Hinckley's response was another
quick one though, as sloppy defensive play let in another
ex Rugby player - Jamie Lenton to bring the tie level
again at 2-2.
The game was settled in the 38th minute when a penalty
was harshly awarded against United keeper Jason Pearcey,
and Lenton stepped up to score his second goal of the
evening.
Both sides seemed to lose a little momentum in the second
half, and Rugby were unable to find their way through
a Hinckley defence superbly marshalled by the earlier
unfortuate Storer.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on a second
round tie at fellow Dr.Martens Western club Gresley
Rovers, Rugby can take consolation from the fact that
they competed so well over two matches against a team
from a higher league (Dr.Martens Premier) - a league
that they are well-placed to join themselves next season.
United currently lie in second place in the Western
division.
United boss Tony Dobson was naturally disappointed to
go down on the night, but took pride in the way his
team performed, "We thought that Saturday might
have been our best opportunity to go through, but tonight
we battled hard and could easily have caused an upset.
Their penalty just before the break knocked the
stuffing out of us really, and I don't think we ever
really recovered from that."
United now can concentrate on league action, and visit
Mangotsfield this Saturday, hoping for three more points
to maintain their title challenge.
|
|
