Ashford United face a 660 mile round trip to Tyneside if they are to progress beyond the FA Vase Fifth Round following a 1-1 draw against 2012 Vase winners Dunston UTS at Homelands.
Shaun Welford, a fellow Geordie, put the Nuts and Bolts ahead after 10 minutes, meeting Taser Hassan’s pinpoint cross with a powerful header. But despite dominating the first half, Ashford couldn’t extend their lead, and Dunston finally broke through on 63, when substitute Aristotle Guerin produced an accomplished finish to round off a good run by Malcolm Morien.
Extra time was a more even contest, with both sides believing they should have sealed their place in the next round at the first attempt, but the two goalkeepers ensured that a replay is required.
Ashford manager, Danny Lye, who was called into action when Matt Newman withdrew with flu, admitted he didn’t think either side had done enough to earn the win, and added “it was an end-to-end game of football, a really good game. We didn’t play as well as we can, our final ball wasn’t quite right. We were far too deep, and let too much pressure build after we scored. That said, anyone could have won it.”
“We were on top in the first half, but we didn’t create many chances after the goal. We had to swap it around a bit after Shaun (Welford) got a knock. They were pretty much what we expected, and we gave them too much time on the ball. That’s not going to happen next week.”
Following a number of flashpoints as the game went on, Lye admitted “we know it’s going to be brutal up there next week, and it will be a feisty one.”
Traditionally, teams from the Northern Premier League have been amongst the toughest opponents at Step 5 of the football pyramid, but in the first half, it looked as though Dunston UTS might be swept aside by Ashford.
Within 60 seconds, left-back Josh Wooley had strolled through the right side of the Dunston team and had a shot blocked by Adam Wilkinson. Wooley then found time and space to measure a cross towards the back post, where Shaun Welford leapt higher than Dan Halliday, but steered his header over.
Ashford hit the front on 10 minutes, with Welford being given the freedom of the area. Taser Hassan had teased Halliday down the right wing, then drilled a cross into the middle, where Welford timed his approach to perfection, powering a header past Liam Connell into the bottom right corner.
It took Dunston UTS until the half hour mark to create their first chance. They had been probing, moving the ball quickly in the Ashford half, but the home defence was too disciplined to be drawn out; happy to hit Dunston on the counter attack. Dan Smith had a header fly over, and even when Stephen Harrison met a well-worked Alex Francis corner, he was unable to test the handling of George Kamurasi.
Luke Cuthbert threw himself in the way of another shot from Harrison, while when they attacked, Paul Booth delivered a gem of a cross for Ashford, that Wilkinson diverted almost off the toe of Welford to stop the lead being doubled.
Despite not being drawn into action during the rest of the first half, Kamurasi was responsible for Ashford keeping their lead into the interval. First he had to save full-length to his right to deny an angled shot from Francis. Then, after a straight ball broke the offside trap, allowing Steven Richardson to run unchallenged into the area, Kamurasi was out quickly to smother Richardson’s shot, then recovered smartly to pounce at the feet of Malcolm Morien.
It looked as though Ashford with continue to dominate at the start of the second period as they had two chances within 19 seconds of the kick-off. Ryan Palmer nipped in ahead of Michael Pearson to collect the kick-off, brushed off the challenge of Wilkinson, before forcing Connell to parry a low shot. The rebound ran into the path of Welford, whose effort was blocked by Harrison.
One of Dunston UTS’s management said that it had taken time for them to adjust to the Homelands 3G surface, and this seemed to give them the wake-up call they needed. Almost immediately, Burrell fired over from distance and Francis tested Kamurasi’s handling, also from long-range. However, it was a crisp 8-pass move that really opened up the Nuts & Bolts defence, although Richardson couldn’t hit the target.
Just as at the end of the first half, one long ball broke the Ashford defence on 63, leading to the equaliser. Morien looked close to being offside making a curved run to meet the throughball, and as Kamurasi came out, he skipped past the Ashford keeper, before knocking a pass to Aristotle Guerin. The substitute took a moment to compose himself, and measured a shot into the top corner of the unguarded net.
From then on, Ashford struggled to gain a foothold in the game and were forced to defend deeper and deeper, although Dunston UTS failed to really test Kamurasi. Burrell fired over again from distance and even though Richardson put a curling shot on target, the Ashford keeper was able to push the effort over.
Richardson had a shot graze the right post, having turned smartly away from Pat Kingwell, who had been outstanding in shackling Morien, Dunston’s leading scorer, and in the closing minutes, Richardson directed a shot into the side netting.
Extra time, with players tiring, saw chances at both ends. Ryan Palmer ran onto a Mickey Phillips throughball, but shot wide, and Phillips himself stretched every sinew to get a touch on an Ellis Green cross, but couldn’t get enough of a touch to find the target. At the other end, Morien both had a shot blocked by Kingwell and then sliced wide after Ashford had been caught with players upfield.
With 6 minutes to go, the evergreen Paul Booth danced his way past three challenges on the edge of the area, and tried to curl a deft shot over Cornell, but the keeper managed to get a hand up and catch the ball at the second attempt.
Morien and Michael Pearson couldn’t find the target as Dunston UTS pressed for a winner, and were almost made to paying with seconds remaining. Palmer picked up a clearance, put his head down and ran at the Dunston defence, going deep into the penalty area. His pull back was met by a sliding Seb Schobergh, whose flick flew across the face of goal and wide.
Although Danny Lye may not yet be thinking of Wembley Way, he knows his team will have to be at their best when battle is renewed (weather permitting) on Tyneside in seven days’ time.
ASHFORD UNITED: George Kamurasi, Adam Cuthbert, Josh Wooley, Mickey Dalton (Ellis Green 93), Luke Cuthbert, Pat Kingwell, Ryan Palmer, Michael Phillips, Shaun Welford (Seb Schobergh 68), Paul Booth, Tasar Hassan (Danny Lye 79).
Subs not used: George Savage, Nick Luen.
Goal: Shaun Welford 10.
Cautions: Michael Phillips 60, George Kamurasi 101, Danny Lye 120.
DUNSTON UTS: Liam Connell, Michael Pearson, Dan Halliday (Aristotle Guerin 55), Dale Burrell, Adam Wilkinson, Luke Gilhespy, Stephen Harrison, Alex Francis, Steven Richardson, Malcolm Morien, Dan Smith.
Subs not used: Joshua Clark, Michael Steinmetz, Liam Tuear, Andrew Clark.
Goals: Aristotle Guerin 63.
Cautions: Stephen Harrison 90+2, Dale Burrell 90+4, Alex Francis 91, Malcolm Morien 101.
Attendance: 636
Referee: Mr Carl Brook
Assistants: Mr Leigh Crowhurst and Mr Matthew Goldsmith
Fourth Official: Mr Richard Joss