FA Cup 2013/14: Hartley Wintney Through in Dramatic Replay

Saturday (12th October) meant a trip to the Memorial Ground to see Hartley Wintney take on Clevedon Town in a 3rd qualifying round FA Cup tie. A team from the Combined Counties League hosting a team from the Southern League Division 1. Clearly Clevedon were the favourites. 410 spectators present, a lot more than normally turn up for a Hartley Wintney game. This was the furthest that the village team of Hartley Wintney had progressed in this competition. 

The game on Saturday was fairly even. But Harley Wintney showed no signs of inferiority. On 35 minutes Clevedon should have taken the lead. Defender Tom Walsh handled on the line and was sent off. But keeper Atkinson saved the resulting penalty and the Hartley Wintney despite being down to 10 men upped their game. Half time came with the score nil nil.

The home side took the lead in the 57th minute, in somewhat comical fashion. From a corner the headed ball appeared to be caught by the Clevedon keeper Barton, but under pressure he turned and then dropped the ball which to his horror rolled in to the net.

 

Clevedon increased their tempo looking for an equaliser. The ball on a couple of occasions pinging around in the penalty area but the Clevedon strike force unable to capitalise. But the equaliser did come, in the 82nd minute. A shot by Conor McCormack was deflected in by Joe Flurry.

The game finished 1-1, and the replay was last night (Monday).

A dramatic game, with Clevedon racing to a 2-0 lead by 38 minutes, and all looked lost for Hartley Wintney. However the 2nd half swung Hartley Wintney’s way. Having pulled it back to 2-1 on 55 minutes, Clevedon re-established the their 2 goal lead 3 minutes later.  Hartley Wintney kept on fighting making it 3-2 on 59 minutes and a penalty meant 3-3 at 70 minutes. With extra-time looming Hartley Wintney struck the winner 5 minutes in to added time!

Hartley Wintney will host either Grays Athletic or Daventry (their replay is Wednesday night) in the next round. That game is due to take place on 26th October.