Chet’s last visit to Shire Oak (five weeks ago) saw them held to an inexplicable 2 – 2 draw, a result that severely damaged their title aspirations. This being so no stone was left unturned as the journey for cup glory commenced.
Fielding the strongest available team Chet dominated from the start. Andy Thomas (goalkeeper) was almost redundant for the entire game with only harmless crosses and weak long range efforts to deal with; nevertheless he gave another accomplished performance as the team secured its first clean sheet of the season.
Steve Bailey (defence) and Stuart Talbot (midfield) controlled the game whilst man of the match Craig Black was a constant threat down the right wing.
Ryan Tait almost scored three times in the opening ten minutes; denied firstly by a scrambling defence, secondly by a good, but fortunate, goalkeeping save and finally shooting narrowly wide.
The consistent pressure paid off in the 28th minute when Jason Rowley linked up with Tait whose powerful swerving shot from 20 yards left the goalkeeper stranded.
Ten minutes later Jon Mayer’s clever overhead kick struck the bar; the rebound fell to Tait who just failed from a narrow angle.
It seemed a second goal would never happen; this feeling was strengthened in the 55th minute when Dan Lowndes’ well struck shot missed the target when scoring seemed the more likely outcome.
The floodgates opened after 65 minutes when Black and Tait carved open Shire Oak’s defence to present Mayer with a tap in. Six minutes later Lowndes’ excellent delivery set up Tait’s second goal of the game.
Sam Cotter joined the game in the 73rd minute; his first touch caused chaos in the home team’s goal area before the ball was eventually thumped clear by a desperate defender.
On 75 minutes Richard Shaw’s pinpoint 40 yard pass out of defence was met perfectly by Lowndes whose early shot from 25 yards screamed into the net before the goalkeeper could move.
The scoring was wrapped up in the 81st minute when Cotter easily converted a chance manufactured by Tait.
This was an good team performance; the four players not mentioned earlier (Dean Bailey, Gavin Horsfall, Shaun Jessop and Richard Liddle) all made full contributions in what was a challenging match made more difficult by the extreme weather conditions and poor playing surface; additionally the pitch was too small to accommodate Chet’s usual expansive passing game.
