Handsworth Parramore 3 v Cheadle Town 2 - FA Vase 2QR

Saturday 3rd October 2015
FA Vase 2nd Qualifying Round
at Windsor Food Service Stadium, Sandy Lane, Worksop
Handsworth Parramore (0) 3
Kieran Wells 59, 76
Stephen Warne 87
Cheadle Town (2) 2
Thabiso Magida 22
Chris Sherrington 28
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 86

Many thanks to Paul Hill at Handsworth Parramore for printing
me off an extra copy of the teamsheet. Much appreciated pal.

In the previous round the Ambers had seen off South Liverpool by virtue of a single goal from Kieran Wells. While 11 miles due west, Cheadle Town were beating mid table NCEL Premier Division side Staveley Miners Welfare 4-3 (see HERE), despite having been  3-1 down with just 19 minutes left to play.
This afternoon, the side formerly known as Grasmere Rovers, saw the roles from their first qualifying round game dramatically reversed, as Handsworth turned them over in the final 30 minutes, to claw back a 2-0 deficit and claim victory with a dramatic winning goal in the closing minutes.
You write Parramore off at your peril in these one off, knock out competition games... take last season's dramatic NCEL League Cup Final as an example, when they were 3-1 down with six minutes to go v. Cleethorpes Town, but snatched a thrilling 4-3 win in stoppage time, at Inkersall Road.

Cheadle went straight into attacking mode from the kick off and 'Archie' Sneath had to make the first save of the match inside the opening 30 seconds as Thabiso Magida bore down on his goal through the left channel.
Handsworth recorded their first effort in the second minute, when Kieran Wells got on the end of Danny Buttle's left wing cross, but he headed the ball straight at Josh Samberg.
Samberg was soon involved again when he slipped while making a clearance and gifted Steve Warne with the opportunity to open the scoring, but the Parramore number 8 went for power instead of precision and thumped the ball over the bar, much to Samberg's relief.

The small but extremely jovial and good natured band of supporters following Cheadle, were up out of their seats and cheering loudly on 22 minutes, when the home side took too much time trying to defend a right wing cross from Darrhyl Mason and Thabiso Magida stabbed the ball home from close range.
Handsworth were stung into action and the visitors goal led a charmed life as the Ambers attacked them down the flanks and came close to pulling level from a brace of corner kicks, that saw Wells finding the target twice, but being denied by a great reflex save by Samburg and a goal line clearance.
Kieran Well isn't the best striker in this division, but for purposes of clarity, I will finish that sentence with the words... not yet anyway!

The visitors took a two goal lead in the 28th minute, when Magida cut into the right hand edge of the Parramore box and nudged the ball to his left, to where Chris Sherrington had made a parallel run and when the Cheadle number 10 shot across the face of goal, the ball crashed back off of the right hand upright and ricocheted over the line off of the back of Sneath who had gone to ground in an attempt to turn the ball away.
They all count!
Within five minutes, Wells had the ball in the net, but was adjudged to have strayed offside.
Buttle and Samberg both went jumped to challenge for a free kick and as the ball spun loose it bounced away off of Cheadle's left back Luke Pearson for a corner, but the referee didn't have a clear view and he awarded a goal kick as both teams began to take up their positions for a flag kick.
Nothing, it seemed, was going Parramore's way today and right on the stroke of half time, Wells headed downwards in front of the oppositions goal to make things difficult for Samberg, but the ball bounced up into the keepers hands.
HT: Handsworth Parramore 0 v Cheadle Town 2

The start of the second half was fairly scrappy as one side tried to battle through a crowded midfield, while the other dug deep to preserve their lead and look for a breakaway goal that would probably clinch the game... the latter almost happened ten minutes after the break, when Mason charged forward in pursuit of a long ball towards the Parramore area, got there before Sneath had time to narrow the angle and fired wide of the goal, when just maybe a 'dink' over the advancing keeper would've have put the game out of reach. Such is life!
Samberg pulled off an acrobatic save to keep Colin Marrison's shot out as the home side set about mounting a salvage mission.
Cometh the hour (well he came slightly early, but by all accounts that isn't unusual for Wellsy), cometh the man... and Kieran Wells got his head on Buttle's corner kick and pulled a goal back for the home side.

Cheadle came under the cosh and pretty soon, 90% of the remainder of the game, was being staged in and around their goalmouth. Remember the Alamo!
Samberg was coming under increasing pressure and it beggared belief that Handsworth weren't on level terms with twenty minutes to go, when Samberg saved from Wells only to see the ball fall to Marrison, whose well struck effort was blocked on the line, before Buttle's piledriver was also blocked by the visitors keeper.
Evidently Samberg isn't only called 'the cat' because of his feline agility... he also has nine lives.
But, eventually, the home side's relentless pressure paid off and their second goal came from a Buttle cross/Wells finish combination again... and the shy and reserved Handsworth frontman turned towards his teammates to join in a calm and restrained celebration.

Jon Froggatt spotted that Wells was in a better position in him and selflessly cued up another chance for his strike partner, but Samberg stayed on his feet and palmed the ball away for a corner.
Froggatt muscled his way past Mick Kennedy, but Samberg threw himself behind an angled shot and turned the ball around the post, as extra time, with the home side in the ascendancy, began to look ever more likely. From the resulting corner Simon Harrison got to the ball before the Cheadle defenders but shot over.
Wells was picked out from yet another Buttle corner (surely Cheadle must've been aware of this ruse by now), but Samberg once more came to his sides rescue.
Steve Warne picked up the ball just outside the area, took a couple of strides forward to compose himself and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner of the net, to clinch the game for the home side in a dramatic fashion.

You had to feel sorry for Josh Samberg who had played out of his skin in Cheadle's goal, but Handsworth Parramore thoroughly deserved their win, for the non-stop barrage they put the visitors goal under for the final thirty minutes.
Handsworth substitute Alex Rippon could've added another goal in stoppage time, but that would just have been rubbing it in.
Great entertainment and a friendly welcome as always from the hosts.
Good luck to Peter Duffield and Michael Godber and their team in the next round.
FT: Handsworth Parramore 3 v Cheadle Town 2
As the teams left the pitch and the the spectators headed for the bar or their cars, the strains of Doris Day's 'Que sera, sera' belted out over the Sandy Lane PA system.
Dare to dream!?