A late goal from Harrison Carnegie helped Phoenix Sports to salvage a draw and force a replay against Deal Town in the FA Cup.
A game of this level was uncharted territory for the visitors as the club had never entered the FA Cup in their 75 year history and on paper it looked as though they would continue in their journey, Deal’s young, unexperienced team had lost both of their previous league matches, conceding six goals and scoring one in the process; in comparison, Phoenix had one both of their last two games and sat in 5th position in the Southern Counties East League table.
Phoenix go the game underway and their positivity was shown in their opening attack, after a promising run down the right resulted in a blocked cross for a corner, Rikki Cable’s corner towards the far post fell to the feet of Jon Main but the striker was only able to fire his shot over after controlling the ball at his feet perfectly.
Deal’s young team had a shaky start to the game, after leaving Main unmarked another cross brought panic to Deal’s back four, a headed clearance from Ricky Tompkins hit Gio Fullone before the two centre backs were able to regain their composure and get the ball back to Jack Rankin.
As the game progressed Deal began to push forward and create chances. Yacine Gnohore’s long throw in found Andy Miller who was able to turn past his marker before hitting a powerful left footed shot towards Rob French, the goalkeeper was able to throw a leg at the shot to slow it down before grabbing it as the ball trickled towards the goal line.
In the 23rd minute of the game another piece of Phoenix Sport’s club history was written as Cable’s corner found Russell Bedford and the unmarked defender hit a powerful header past Jack Rankin to give the visitors the lead which began heavy celebrations and ironic chants of ‘Wembley’ from the away fans as the first half continued.
Just a minute after Deal restarted the game Phoenix had a chance to double their lead but Jon Main was unable to score after being put through on goal and after a quickly taken free kick Jake McIntyre had a shot from the left wing but his strong effort hit the side netting to the disbelief of the visiting fans.
Despite the one sided period of the game, the hosts were able to get an equalizer before half time, another long throw from Gnohore made it’s way past two failed clearances before coming to the feet of Warren Smith, despite thee wingers best efforts to get further into the penalty area his run was ended after he was tripped and Gnohore confidently converted the resulting penalty to make the game level going into half time.
Early in the second half Deal were able to surprisingly go 2-1 up as a result of some brilliant play from Andy Miller; the midfielder confidently carried the ball down the left wing before seeing Ryan Moore charging towards the far post from the opposite wing, despite the goalkeeper’s best efforts Miller’s cross resulted in a headed goal from Moore giving Deal the lead.
After a scrappy period of play in which there were more fouls than successful passes Pheonix were nearly able to produce an equalizing goal after a delicate through ball found Rikki cable but the wide midfielder’s weak effort rolled past his target.
Eventually Phoenix were able to find their way through the Deal defence and score a vital goal, after a low cross from the right was unsuccessfully cleared the ball came to Harrison Carnegie who scored with ten minutes remaining.
Despite the equalizing goal, the visitors continued to attack and they should have scored when Steadman Callender’s unnecessarily weak shot was easily saved by Jack Rankin to force a Replay in Greater London.
The replay between the two teams will be played on Wednesday at Phoenix Sport’s ground in Bexleyheath with the winner advancing to the next round of the competition as well as receiving £1,500 from the FA’s prize fund.
Deal Town: Rankin, North, Matthews, Fullone, Blunden, Tompkins, Miller (Ngogba), Moore, Hickey (Gregory), Gnohore, W Smith (Nuttall)
Subs not used: D Smith, Simms
Booked: Miller
Phoenix Sports: French, Brown,McIntyre, Bedford, Whibley, Hill, Valencia, Richards (Ince), Main (Callender), Adeji (Carnegie), Cable
Subs not used: Andrews, Rowson