Maine Road 2-2 Bootle (Maine Road win 5-3 on penalties)
In the modern-day footballing era where tense and boring cup finals seem to be de rigeur, it was refreshing to witness one that refused to conform.
Maine Road and Bootle treated those who turned up to The Tameside Stadium - although nobody would have got back home until 11.00pm - to a cup final that would have made the onlooking NWCFL officials proud.
The initial 90 minutes' goals panned out as thus: the light blues of Maine Road took the lead after just 7 minutes when Danny Self tapped home a cross from a couple of yards out; Bootle equalised on the stroke of half-time when Jamie Hay headed home from a corner; Maine Road regained the advantage six minutes in to the second period when Mason seized on a cross from the right and drilled home, and with 75 minutes gone, 'Road's 'keeper made a great stop only to see the rebound nodded over his prostrate body by Kevin Black.
Extra-time produced nothing thus forcing the rather uncomfortable conclusion that is penalties. Maine Road's keeper made a crucial save when the tally was at 3-2 in their favour which meant that his outfield colleagues just had to keep netting their spot kicks. They did.
Bootle will feel hard done by. Despite the fact that - up until their equaliser for 1-1 - they didn't look like scoring, they worked their socks off during the second half and were, for my money, arguably the better side during that second 45 minutes of play.
Not that anything should be taken away from Maine Road; their football is a joy to watch at times and their final 4th place in Div 1 tells no lies. As a Cheadle Town fan I'll take some comfort from the fact that we were eliminated from the competition by the eventual winners!
Pictures from the evening can be seen by clicking here
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2 comments:
Great to see you there tonight. Excellent photos. My son (Alex) has taken a few good ones and some video footage, but computer problems means we can't get it on here yet. Maybe we could eventually combine these resources to provide a more comprehensive review of the game. Alex certainly caught 'Mini' Mason's goal and most of the penalties.
Although Maine Road have certainly played better football this season, it was a good final as you said, with plenty of incident. Bootle can feel proud of themselves and slightly hard done by, but our guys have given everything this season and it is a great reward for Derek, Ian and all who put so much into making Maine Road a great little club. What a shame that team that use to play at Maine road can'tconduct themselves in a similar exemplary way.
Up the Blues ..Maine Road, City and Cheadle Town...although I appreciate you'd prefer Town to revert to Black & White !
Dave M
Excellent game and well worth staying up late to watch the extra time. It was actually number 8 Chris Smith who scored Maine Road's second goal - the commentator at the ground mixed the names up.
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