Well we did it in the end but to say we made hard work of it would be an understatement. The get out of jail card was used big time tonight and the should the black cat be missing from Bescot for the rest of the season then we can have little complaint.
Following the perfect start that was Andy Rammell’s stunning left foot volley after twelve seconds we stuttered and stumbled to another penalty shoot out victory and a place in the southern area final. To be fair the referee and his partners in crime on the lines didn’t help matters but we shouldn’t have needed to worry about them.
A very robust and direct Cambridge side dictated the play for far too long periods and only the fact that we had the better quality players kept us in it. The visitors line led by the apparently sought after Martin Butler weren’t intelligent or inventive enough to really trouble our defence and although they dominated parts of the game it was still a shock when they equalised.
The aforementioned squirt barging Ada off balance and crossing deep for John Taylor to tap home from six yards out. Taylor reminds me of Tommy Tynan and the legendary AB as he seems to have been prolific in the lower division for donkeys years and unlike former partners Dublin and Claridge he is still working in the lower Nationwide divisions. He has though retained the dignity of never turning out for Villa or Wolves.
Extra time beckoned and neither side looked totally in command but that might have changed if the referee had sent off the United number six for an identical challenge to the one he was booked for two minutes earlier, however he inevitably failed us. As did the linesman who ruled a goal out because of a foul throw. How many times a season do you see a foul throw given? It was that type of night.
Golden goal arrived without the necessary golden ending and so it was on to the evening’s raffle or penalties as they are sometimes called. They scored, we scored, they scored, we scored, they missed, we scored, they scored, we scored, they missed and we won if you follow.
I think it’s called going the long way round.