Wealdstone 3 – 2 Hillingdon Borough
Wealdstone2R
3 - 2
Hillingdon BoroughWEALDSTONE made extremely hard work of beating Minerva South Midlands League side Hillingdon Borough in this Middlesex Charity Cup match.
The struggle that was to come was not evident from the opening minutes which were as one sided as Stones supporters will see all season. Shots peppered the Boro goal, but all were off target. It was a quarter of an hour before Ben Alexander gave keeper White a shot to save.
Soon after, the visitors took the lead with their first attack. Sloppy defending led to the unmarked Lawrence tapping in at the far post.
Stones had to dig deep to make their extra class and experience tell. One of the two Wealdstone debutants, right-sided defender Cameron Mawer (the other was central midfielder Paul Coyne, both are from Watford), drew White into another save, before Dave Ryan levelled the scores showed with a powerful shot through a crowd of bodies on the edge of the box .
Stones enjoyed the majority of possession for the rest of the game, but failed to create sufficient opportunities to kill the game.
In rare Hillingdon attacks, Crosby went close and referee Downey disallowed a visitors “score” for offside.
When Stones took the lead ten minutes into the second half there was an air of good fortune about it. Beckford’s stinging shot was straight at the goalkeeper, but in trying to tip the ball over the bar White succeeded only in knocking it in the air and over his head, where spin took over and the ball went in.
Even now spirited Hillingdon did not capitulate, drawing level with 20 minutes to go. Lawrence scoring again after more ugly attempts at defending from the Wealdstone back line.
Stones top-scorer Richard Jolly was introduced in an attempt to finish the game before extra-time. He did this in spectacular and controversial circumstances. After bringing out a save from White in regulation time, the game was seven minutes into injury time when the diminutive striker strained his neck muscles to get the faintest of touches to Gary McKeown’s cross and deflect the ball past White.
Aggrieved Hillingdon complained vehemently at the huge amount of added time, Downey had played nine minutes in total. But the cup holders moved into the quarter final where the prospect of game against Harrow Borough is a distinct possibility.
Harrow Times – Steve Spaull