ERREA CUP 4TH ROUND TUES 12 FEB 2008, KO 7.45 PM

Didcot Town 2 Cirencester Town 2  

After extra time, Didcot go through 4 – 3 on penalties

Lacking the injured Lee Molyneux and Ashan Holgate, The Centurions fielded Jon Else on the right of midfield and put Andrew Chapman in centre midfield and Matt Shaxton taking the left flank. Didcot were also a man down from their usual squad, Farnborough having signed free scoring Michael Bartley the day before when he accepted an offer more than doubling his weekly wedge.

Within 2 minutes, Shax collected a nicely weighted pass from Alex Stanley, and slid a pass between the two central defenders. Jon Else had seen the move, made a tremendous effort and just got there first but then sent his shot wide. Done well to get there, maybe could have found the corner of the net.

But on 4 minutes, Didcot led with an avoidable goal. The towering Jack King rose to meet a free kick way above Dan Wallington to nod across for the unmarked Andrew Williams to loop a header inside the post.

Ciren calmly played their way back into the match, passing well and keeping the pressure on the Didcot back line, with both Shaxton and Else prepared to put their foot on the ball, look up, and make a good pass. Snaky was working Williams, making him turn, and trying to thread Robbo through.

Ciren equalised on 24 minutes, after Nathan Haisley forced a corner after running onto yet another defence splitting pass from Jon Else. Chapman returned the half cleared corner back into the middle where Richard Pierson, in trying to prevent Haisley connecting, instead looped the ball over his own keeper. They thought it was the 2 who connected but I thought I saw the cross from Chappo go over him .... either way, own goal.

Next minute Ashley Vine clashed with Haisley in midfield and was sent off. Not sure what he had done exactly but whatever it was it produced an instant melee of bodies in the middle of the park. The ref took a long time to sort things out and eventually carded Nathan.

The fella next to me, with the action taking place on the other side of the pitch, thought it was retaliation. He also said 'that's 2 of yours carded, then.' I had not seen Snaky (he'd filled me in – Your Ten) get a yellow so have no idea what that was about, either.

Didcot played very defensively to contain Ciren, with Williams outstanding and doing well to keep Robbo away from some neat passes from Elsey and they survived up to the break without really being threatened. .

Cirencester kept up the pressure second half and penned Didcot back, with the big Richard Witt on in place of the little 11, Mulvaney, in what was an obvious attempt to put some beef into the Didcot midfield.

Andrew Chapman capped a long period of good, passing possession by firing The Centurions in front on 55 minutes with a wicked dipping long range shot. Michael Watkins fumbled it at the base of the post and it reared over his shoulder and hit the roof of the net. But the keeper did well with his next two saves, stopping efforts from Robbo and Snaky that were on their way to the net.

For all the effort, with Robbo running his socks off to get to the passes from Chappo and Elsey, Ciren were not killing off a game they were dominating until on 70 Jon Else came in to meet a neat pass from Andy Chapman, getting goal side of Matt Jack. All in one movement he spun, controlled and reverse passed Steve Robertson through the gap.

For once the outstanding Williams had been beaten by the timing of the pass and Robbo was driving towards the angle of the box. With Peirson closing on him and the opening needing an early slot inside the near post, with Watkins coming out, Robbo took one more touch. Lost his angle, had to try for the far post and missed by a whisker.

The game turned on another sending off and on an astute Didcot substitution. The referee blew for a foul, Richard Witt at once stopped the ball and took an instant kick while literally still bent over the ball. It hit Nick Stanley's backside just 3 yards away.

The referee issued a second yellow card in what seemed a harsh decision, telling Nick he 'had to do it' because he had prevented the free kick from being taken. Oggy, among many on the sidelines, was not impressed by that reasoning, since it had not appeared at all as if Snaky had any intention of blocking the ball. Oggy was invited to climb over the wall and watch the rest of the game from the sidelines.

The Didcot substitution put the speedy Anaclet Odhiambo on for centre forward Liam Hope. His pace and positioning at once created problems, with the Ciren defence coping but now under a lot more pressure and finding it much harder to maintain the accuracy to feed Chappo and Elsey.

It gave Didcot the edge, with the mobile Matt Jack now dominating centre midfield and surging repeatedly onto laid back balls to redirect the Didcot attacks. It was effective, tactical football.

Replacing Jon Else with Michael Jackson did not solve the problem for Ciren. Very quickly finding himself playing just in front of the defence, from then on Ciren hardly had a creative pass inside the Didcot half with Robbo and Shax the only players up to try for whatever could be sent up to them.

But the defence looked to be holding out even when Didcot were throwing caution to the wind and were piling bodies forward. Until, with 3 additional minutes played, Richard Pierson connected with a long forward free kick from Witt deep on the right to hit the net with his header.

Neither side could work a clear opening in extra time. In the penalty shoot-out uncharacteristic misses by Matt Shaxton and Alex Stanley gave Richard Pierson the deciding kick. The karma of the day had to be with him. Inevitably he netted it.

Good luck to the Diddy.. They had coped well with being one short for an hour, had worked the ball well when they had possession and had defended stoutly and with disciplined organisation. While it would have been something to look forward to in still being in the Cup, the huge fixture backlog with 2 games a week for the next 8 weeks has to be the priority.

Not to suggest that Ciren bottled it – they played well to try and win it and until that last second had looked as if they had done enough to go through. Maybe the experiment of playing Chappo centre midfield did not quite work and maybe Else could have swapped with him a bit, but the overall pace and pattern of play suggests that the confidence is still high and will get its due reward in the run in to the end of April.

Railwaymen:  Michael Watkins, Jamie Heapy (c), Scott Davis, Andrew Williams, Richard Peirson, Matt Jack, Matt Bicknell [Mike Hopkins 77], Jack King, Liam Hope [Anaclet Odhiambo 72], Ashley Vine R25, Josh Mulvaney [Richard Witt 45]
subs: Jamie Thomas

Centurions: Matt Bulman, Chris Collins (c), Dan Wallington, Nathan Haisley Y24, Alex Stanley, Paul Cochlin, Jon Else [Michael Jackson 77], Andy Chapman, Steve Robertson, Nick Stanley Y22, Y 71, Matt Shaxton
subs: Paul Hunt, Robert Dean, Sean Bailey

Ref: Mr C Berry    Did fine, except for his failure to recognise that Snaky maybe was not in any position to avoid being hit by that free kick ....

Att: 229    freezing night but not a bad turnout of Ciren fans, disappointed that we did not put the game away when we had the chance, but Maroseli at least chuffed that he won the raffle.

MoM: I thought their lad at the back, Williams, had a cracker and was the MoM. Positioned himself well, made it very hard for Robbo and Snaky to get behind the defence, and was excellent in his distribution. At the other end of the pitch Paul Cochlin had a similar game and if I'd done a poll probably would have got a lot of votes.

But I didn't take a Ciren poll and, with Shax and Jon Else the pick of the bunch of the rest, I've gone for the youngster. If only because he played a disciplined game, rarely wasted a pass and with his quick thinking and quick feet was making the Didcot defence move around to try and cover the angles he was making.