Team news: Witton make six changes to the starting line-up thrashed at Matlock Town on Tuesday night. Greg Hall, Isaac Baldwin, Nick Ryan, Steve McNulty, Tom Owens & Cesaire Lingouba all return. Jawad Jebrin, James Hooper, Callum Leigh, George Nugent & Raajan Gill all drop to the bench. Will Jones returns to the squad after injury but starts on the bench. Nathan Woodthorpe has again been refused permission to play by Crewe Alexandra.
Greg Hall, Isaac Baldwin, Danny McKenna, Nick Ryan, Steve McNulty, Will Sutton, Tom Owens, Cesaire Lingouba, Rob Hopley, Callum Saunders, James Foley.
Subs: Jawad Jebrin, Will Jones, James Hooper, Callum Leigh, George Nugent, Joshua Paterson, Raajan Gill.
Ben Conway books Colls place in the next round on 90+3 minutes after Albion had thrown everybody including keeper Greg Hall forward for a corner. Appeals for a foul on the Albion custodian are waved away as he lies injured in the Colls penalty area.
Bizarre final goal for the Colls deep into second half time added on. Albion keeper Greg Hall has gone up for another late corner with the scoreline still at 2-1 and gets injured. But was it a penalty?
The referee thinks otherwise and the ball is quickly cleared downhill towards the unguarded Witton goal and Colls’ Ben Conway is able to roll the ball over the line for 3-1 with Greg Hall still crumpled in a heap on the edge of the Atherton six yard box.
So near to a Tuesday night replay, and yet so far!
It was right in front of us and looked a clear penalty ie when greg turned in possesion and beat his man he had his leg kicked by the defender the Atherton fans by us also agreed it was a pen ! That said Atherton deserved to win, had more chances, created more, were fitter and stronger on the day We huffed and puffed second half yes but not enough in midfield and poor at the back was the main difference between us plus they looked a lot fitter overall, badly missing Josh and We need a tough midfielder to replace Smart.a lot of work still to do.
100% a penalty at the end but even if the referee can’t see it, what does the linesman duties entail now? He was stood 10 yards away with a clear view and just ignored the foul. We deserved a second chance on Tuesday but incompetent officials have cost us. I was talking to Billy Smart and he is having an operation next week which he is paying for himself, it would be good if instead of having a bucket collection every week for the pitch (which I never understand anyway). Maybe between now and Christmas all the bucket collections go towards helping Billy pay a rather large medical bill.
The pitch bucket collection is very important to the groundstaff who maintain the pitch. It pays for regular maintenance needs and for the large off season bills we have, when treating the pitch. A collection for Billy would be good but it would have to be in addition to the pitch collections. UTA