Our third round FA Vase clash ended in a dramatic 6-5 win on penalties on Saturday.
Kelan Swales fired the visitors ahead before Nelson Ogbewe equalised via a corner in the first half. After a cagey second half, the Robins did it the hard way, and it was Ogbewe again who stepped up to score the winning penalty.
The first half of the game was lively, with both teams having much of the ball. The first big chance for the robins came in the 12th minute when Wanless took a shot on his right foot which drilled along the floor and past the post.
A clever one-two between Brandon slater and Wanless then found Nelson Ogbewe in the box, who came close, but ultimately fired wide.
Liversedge soon broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute, when Kelan Swales cut inside the box and curled a venemous left-footed shot into the top corner, very little Callum Elliott could do about it. 0-1.
Sedge nearly doubled their lead at the half hour mark, a feint by Chris Atkinson’s sent our defence the wrong way before he hit the post with his subsequent effort.
Not long afterwards, we got our equaliser from a set piece. Ben Harmison flicked the ball backwards from a corner to Ogbewe, who made no mistake to nod the ball home, despite the pressure of Liversedge’s Ryan Watson in the box. 1-1
We enjoyed the lion’s share of possession for the rest of the half, with solid displays from the back line thwarting most of Liversedge’s attempts to create.
After Dan Cherry was booked for a late slide tackle, and following a dramatic goal-line clearance, we launched a dangerous counter-attack. Wanless attempted to play a through ball to Adams on the wing, but it was slightly overhit and ran out of play.
In added time, Elliott had to make a key save to keep us level. Swales drilled another effort with his right foot, but the 22-year-old keeper got down quickly to make the save.
In the second half he was called upon again, this time making a brilliant acrobatic save to tip substitute Anthony Brown’s header over the bar, although the offside flag was raised this time.
Like in the first half, Shields pushed close to goal after the break, firing dangerous balls into the box, but a stubborn Sedge defence cleared or blocked most crosses.
Still showing that they had the ability to grab another goal, Liversedge fired another warning shot, this time in the form of a header towards goal after a long free kick into the box, whizzing past the post by mere millimetres.
After several more changes in Mason, Lashley and Paterson coming on for Lish, Anderson and Slater, the Robins pushed hard for a late winner, Wanless forced a near-post save from Jordan Porter, and Ogbewe almost grabbed a decisive goal in the dying moments when Lashley tried to square the ball across the box. An interception from captain Jack Stockdill allowed the keeper to sweep in and claim it just before Ogbewe could connect.
As the final whistle blew and penalties loomed, some Robins players were seen with hands on heads as the adrenaline of the dramatic final moments wore off. Brian Smith gathered the squad for a team, and they got the job done in the most dramatic fashion
Both teams missed their opening penalties, and both keepers made two big saves to keep their sides in it, Elliott made his second save during the sudden death period, meaning the job of winning the game fell onto the shoulders of Nathan Ogbewe, who struck the ball low and hard into the bottom left corner, despite Holmes getting a fingertip on it, sending the Daren Persson stadium into pandemonium as the forward wheeled away in celebration with the rest of the squad at the corner flag.
“I didn’t really want to take it!” Confessed the forward after the game,
“but then Mason was like, ‘Go win it for us’ and I had no choice but to go and take it, it was nerve racking but I just had to smash it, but it worked out for us”
Brian Smith said after the match:
“We were really good in the first half, in the second half it was quite an even game, we had to deal with a lot of balls in the box and they looked dangerous from that.
“But we’re over the moon, I think we probably edged the game but it’s great to get through.
We’ve done everything we’ve been training for and we did the right things in the first half in particular.”
