Neil Hollindale dropped last weeks man of the match Higginbottom to the bench through injury, and switched Shawcroft to the right side of midfield for the absent Bonson who had work comitments. This made way on the left for the returning Sean Hollindale. Boythorpe keen to make up for some indifferent league form were up against top of the 5th division British Rail who were on a 7 match unbeaten run. The blues pushed forward kicking down hill from the off and went close in the 1st min when a great run and cross from Shawcrot just evaded the attackers. Rail showed why they were 3 divisions higher in the 5th min by putting a free kick high into the Boythorpe area which wasnt dealt with and the Rail attacker finished well. Boythorpe recovered from this early set back and clearly belied thier lowly position by showing Rail very little respect. They began to put some very good moves together with Brown, Goodwin and Shawcroft putting in great deal of work, backed up by the two full backs Turner and Walton who linked up well with the midfield. On 11 mins Shawcroft shot just over from Browns throw in. At the other end a 17th min free kick was well saved by Potter, within a minute Brown won a ball in midfield with a strong tackle and found the powerful running Widerman, the ball broke to Hollindale off a defender, but he put his shot just wide when well placed. Rail almost doubled the lead on 25 mins as they broke the Boythorpe offside trap, but the attack was brought to a halt with a fine, well timed tackle inside the Blues 18 yard box by man of the match Lee Whitehead. They did however take a 2-0 lead somewhat fortunatly when Wright appeared to be fouled inside the Rail half, and not for the first time, play was waved on by the ref, Rail broke forward and a ball in from the wing was turned in to the net. Boythorpes spirit still wasnt broken and a foul just inside the Blues half on Shawcroft was pushed forward to Wright out wide, his low first time cross into the box was not dealt with, it ran through to BROWN on the back post who stuck away the chance. A great 3 minutes for Boythorpe was capped on 35 mins when they pulled level. A throw from Goodwin was knocked back to the midfielder, whose first time cross found Brown, who in turn fed WALTON who smashed his chance into the net from 22 yards. HALF TIME Boythorpe...2 British Rail...2
Boythorpe started the 2nd half as they finished the 1st, pushing forward uphill, and causing the Visitors problems, as thier nerves were begining to show. Walton went very close again with a 30 yard effort forcing the keeper to push his rasping shot round the post at full stretch as it threatened to bend into the net beyond him. Boythorpe were caught out again on 53 mins with a ball right down the touchline, the cross was put in and the Rail attacker. finished with a bending shot going in off the unlucky Potters head. Boythorpe still pushed forward showing the spirit and adventure asked of the players. Shawcroft and Hollindale switched wings with Shawcroft hoping to profit from the great amount of space down the left flank. Chance for both sides came and went with the game being a classic end to end cup tie. The tiring Hollindale was subbed after 78 mins, with Mick Cartwright coming on and going to left back and pushing skipper Turner up into midfield thus hoping to keep the Rail defence busy. Boythorpe unfortunatly failed to pick up on a corner after 80 mins and the fortuitously found its way into the net off the Rail players STOMACH. The blues still didnt give in and Walton picked up YELLOW card for something he said after giving away a foul out wide, but why the official didnt deal with the Rails captain interference at the offence was puzzling, but then a LOT of his decisions were to put it STRANGE. Boythorpe added the 3rd goal that thier play deserved when a shot towards goal came back off the defenders arm, much to the suprise of the Visitors dugout (WHY???). The penalty was HAMMERED into the roof of the net by BROWN Anyway a much better performance by the Blues, who showed spirit, fight, adventure and bottle against a team who really shouldnt have been troubled. It's now time to take this form into the league fixtures. FULL TIME Boythorpe...3 British Rail..4
