Parkgate 2 v Frechville CA 3 - Sheff & Hallam Senior Cup

Wednesday 9th November 2016
Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup
at the Roundwood Pavilion
Parkgate FC (2) 2
Sam Thornton 30
Lebrun Mbeka 38
Frechville CA (2) 3
Jack Heald 9 Pen, 15 Pen
Gary Eades 49
Admission £5. Attendance 90

Winter is here and tonight's fixtures schedule was devastated by rain, ice, snow, pestilence and famine, but the pitch at Parkgate is more robust than most and an intriguing and eventful, no holds barred game of football ensued.
The tackles flew in, the referee needed two heads with eyes in the back of them and everybody present was thoroughly entertained... not always for the right reasons mind you, but I thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle nevertheless.
It was good to see Parkgate's Bruce Bickerdike back where he belongs, after an enforced period of absence from attending games following a recent argument with a staircase, that he didn't win.
It is always a pleasure to chew the fat with Bruce.

Graham Nicholas, who recently took over the managerial reigns from Steve Adams at NCEL Premier Division strugglers Parkgate, has an enormous task ahead of him, as he tries to steer the Steelmen away from the foot of the table, where they currently only have two points from seventeen games.
Tonight they were eliminated from the county cup on home turf, by a team from two divisions below them.
And if truth be told Frechville deserved their hard fought and feisty win, on a chilly night in Rawmarsh.

Parkgate team

The home side's goalkeeper Josh Lill was perhaps a tad fortunate to stay on the pitch, after advancing from his line and pulling down Kane Lawrance, who was clean through on goal through the right channel. Jack Heald drilled the ball into the bottom right hand corner from the resulting penalty, with Lill diving the opposite way and the visitors, having made a lively start to the game, were ahead on nine minutes.

The visitors doubled their lead on fifteen minutes, when the referee, Callum Gough, blew up and pointed to the spot, when Michael Golland's run into the left hand side of the area was cut short by Macole Lannaman's firm chaallenge. Heald stepped up once again and this time planted his spot kick to the other side of Lill, who got his fingertips to the ball but couldn't keep it out.

Frechville CA team

Parkgate went close from Josh Moore's twenty five yard free kick, after Brad Hanson, the Frechville skipper had earned himself a yellow card for a foul on Alex Lill, but the ball crashed off the crossbar and Steven Booth tipped it over as he dropped back down towards his goal line... and Lebrun Mbeka headed wide from Jacob Mason's left wing corner.
Golland provided a comedic interlude as he attempted to throw the ball towards the left had side of the home sides area, but somehow managed launched the ball backwards over his head, into the hedgerow that runs alongside one touchline of the pitch, hiding the ugliness of nearby Kilnhurst from the eyes of any unsuspecting visitors.

Parkgate halved the arrears with a well crafted goal on the half hour mark, when Michael Cuckson won the ball in the middle of the pitch and played it forward to Moore, who feigned a run, taking a defender with him and flicked the ball back into the path of (A) Lill, whose first time diagonal pass through the gap created by Moore, picked out Sam Thornton's run into the area... and he made no mistake from ten yards out as Booth advanced from his line.
If the Steelmen could play like that all of the time, instead of just in short bursts, they wouldn't be struggling in the league.
Ollie Yates delivered a long cross from out on the right towards Moore, who appeared to be restrained from getting to the ball by Ben Dronfield, but the referee never saw it and Frechville cleared their lines.

Blimey! He's tall!

But on thirty eight minutes, the Steelmen were back on level terms when Mbeka stabbed the ball home from close range after Moore unselfishly knocked the ball across the face of the visitors goal.
A bit of 'niggle', that was threatening to over spill, began to creep into the game towards half time, but the officials were just about keepingon top of things... for now.
HT: Parkgate 2 v Frechville CA 2
Frechville made the early running after the interval and (J) Lill had to pluck Steve Bayston's long free kick towards Brad Hanson out of the air, after Lawrance had been upended by Thornton.
But (J) Lill didn't have a chance of getting anything on the ball as Gary Eades struck a dipping twenty yard shot into the back of the goal, that took everybody by surprise.
Eades quality strike in the forty ninth minute, turned out to be the winning goal, but there was still plenty of drama to come in this feisty game.

Jack Heald went for his hat trick with a thundering long range shot that (J) Lill did well to turn past the upright.
Parkgate were struggling to make any inroads in the visitors final third as Frechville battled for everything, to keep their NCEL hosts at bay.
Chris Simpkins long ball into the visitors area was punched clear by Booth and a scrum of players from both teams  came together as Moore collided with the Frechville keeper.
It was a sign of things to come.
Mbeka latched onto Simpkins cross, but couldn't get any power behind the ball and his weak shot didn't cause Booth any problems.
At the other end, only a last ditch clearance by Lannaman stopped the visitors from increasing their lead after Lanzel Reid combined well with Lawrance on thye edge of the area from Hanson's probing pass.

A trigger point was reached as two players clattered into each other ten yards in front of the Parkgate dug out and the majority of the players moved in to add some muscle to their respective side's role in  an ugly stand off. Once an uneasy calm and some kind of order was restored, a player from each side, Wes Butler, who had only been on the pitch for six minutes, and Lebrun Mbeka were red carded, while the visitors keeper Booth saw yellow.

As (J) Lill ran from his line to smother the ball, Steve Bayston slid in and caught him late. As the angry keeper was restrained and led away from the incident, Bayston, who had already been booked was shown a second yellow card and was dismissed.

Mr Gough then also sent off the Frechville manger for his heated protest towards the official.

Parkgate finished the game with a flurry of corners that ultimately came to nothing, while at the other end, (J) Lill saved from Josh Barringham and punted the ball up the field towards Cuckson who sent Moore chasing a through ball into the Frechville area, where he was upended by a full blooded challenge... and subsequently booked for diving. Uh!? 

In stoppage time, Heald took the ball around a challenge by Cuckson, but scuffed his shot high and wide from eight yards.

FT: Parkgate 2 v Frechville CA 3

That was a bit lively, tha knows!