A little bit of FA Vase history was made this weekend as at the fourth time of asking, Lydd Town won their very first tie in the competition with a pulsating, dramatic penalty shootout win over Broadbridge Heath at Lindsey Field.
The visitors, who are based in Horsham and play in in the Premier Division of the Southern Combination Football League, effectively a League above the home side, scored first through Louis Croul, but the home side, despite kicking into a strong breeze, levelled just past the half hour through the excellent Olinto Santo.
The fact that such an entertaining contest only had the two goals was down to both keepers with Liam Matthews making a string of fine saves to keep out the home side.
Not that home keeper Tom Barnes was going to be left out as he made a stunning penalty save to deny Jake Hull and somehow blocked the follow up from Tom Colbran before pulling off two terrific saves in the shootout, ironically from the same two players, to secure the home sides win.
Naturally, enough manager Micky Doyle was a happy man when he spoke to KSN. “We play entertaining football and like to get the ball down, and I thought we did that very well,” he said. “The first ten minutes I thought we stood off them a bit too much, but after that we controlled it pretty well and could have killed the game off before we did and easier!”
“As soon as we went a goal down, they dug deep and switched a gear up and started to hit them very quickly. We didn’t have our shooting boots on despite netting eight goals in our first two games, but their keeper really played a blinder – we should have been out of sight when we really turned it on.”
“We targeted having a Vase run as its the only Cup that we’re in this season – which is my first at the club – and the Club deserved the win. It’s such a friendly club – the Chairman is such a lovely bloke and everyone involved deserve so much credit and the lads just managed to make it for them and I’m sure that they’re just as delighted as the rest of us at the win!”
The game itself was a terrific advert for the competition with SCEFL League One side Lydd taking the game to their higher ranked opponents with Croul not only netting the opener but also combining with Hull to cause the home defence many problems.
After Santo levelled the scores Dale Horton thought he’d put the home side ahead, but the ball bounced wide after beating the keeper. But as the game wore on, Matthews produced a number of remarkable saves – superbly turning aside Ryan Smith’s low drive; blocking Smith’s late free kick and recovering to block Declan Wale’s late chance; the best however saw the Heath keeper somehow tipping over Connor Weatherall’s point blank header from George Grosvenor’s flick on!
With the scores level at 90 minutes, there was no extra time and the tie went straight to penalties. Horton and Reece Mortimer netted the home sides first two, before Owen Kessack smacked his effort against the underside of the bar. With the shoot out level at 2-2, Wale put Lydd 3-2 in front, but Barnes then saved from Colbran only for Matthews match it with an excellent save from Smith. So, it was all down then to Barnes against Hull again and for the second time it was the Lydd keeper who came out on top and the home side were through 3-2 after the shoot-out!
So, this particular Road to Wembley continues as Doyle and his side will now head for Tooting Bec in the next round next month.
LYDD TOWN – Barnes, Wirt, Kessack, Smith (Wale), Coyne, Grosvenor, Santo (Oladipupo), Weatherall, Horton, Mamadouba, Krasniqi (MacLeod)
Subs – Mortimer, Byrne, Benstead, Tomsett
BROADBRIDGE HEATH – Matthews, Fawsett, Robinson, Law, Webster, Zydonik, Cook (Jobbins), Colbran, Croal, Taylor (Watts), Hull
Subs – Goddard, Eastin
REFEREE – Mr Rowland