With the hosts sitting eighth and the visitors well clear at the top you would of put the Peterborough outfit down as favourites for this tie. However this is cup football so anything is possible. So without further ado here is a report courtesy of the visitors:-
Newport Pagnell Town 3 Peterborough Sports 2, Buildbase FA Vase Fourth Round Proper, Saturday 7th January 2016
Sports dreams of Wembley were left in tatters as Newport Pagnell came back from 2-1 down with 6 minutes left to play to snatch a 3-2 win in front of an impressive 429 crowd.
The game was strangely low key in the first half, with both sides showing their nervous side. Josh Moreman was the one Sports player who played close to his potential and he clearly had the better of his marker Ollie Wilkinson in the early exchanges, but with no-one on the end of his balls across the 6 yard box.
On 25 minutes a 20 yard effort from Mark Jones clipped the top of the crossbar, before Dom Lawless missed a glorious chance for Pagnell screwing horribly wide from 8 yards shortly after. A cross come shot from a very subdued Avelino Vieira also clipped the top of the bar, and Sports appeared to be getting on top as half time approached. Their best chance came when Vieira went around home keeper Mark Osborn after he slipped and his pull back was hit true by Moreman but by now Pagnell had 2 or 3 men on the line to clear the danger.
Conversely it was the home side that started the 2nd half the stronger. Darryl Smith stung Lewis Moats hands with a long range effort and Sports reacted slowly to a quick Pagnell free kick that saw the Turbines finally clear after a scramble in their own box. Sports grew slowly into the 2nd period with Dan Lawlor, Dave Cobb and Vieira all going close.
The game exploded into life in the final 20 minutes in what was becoming a stretched game. With both sides adopting attacking 4-4-2 formations it unusually left big holes in the middle of the park, with neither defence able to squeeze the space. The opening goal came on 71 minutes when a cross field ball from Lawlor inadvertently hit Lewis Webb on the back and fell for Lawless who drove forward and shot past Moat at his near post from the edge of the area.
Parity was quickly restored when Mark Jones was felled in the box for a clear penalty from an excellent referee and got up to just about drive the ball under Osborn on 74 minutes. The game continued to swing from end to end before Sports took the lead with a goal fit to win any game from Moreman. He picked the ball up on halfway, drove past the substitute left back and then back across the centre half’s before firing low into the net to spark wild celebrations with the large travelling support with 10 minutes left to play.
On 82 minutes Sports nearly sealed the win when Macleod got to the ball ahead of Osborn but his shot from a tight angle came back off the post. Sports then switched off again at a Pagnell free kick as they made a substitution and the ball was won by the Swans at the far post with Smith applying the finishing touch. Incredibly the scoring was not done as Richard Jones made something of a hash of a clearance 2 minutes later that presented new signing Elliott Sandy with the chance to grab a winner.
The Turbines threw everyone into attack for what remained of the contest and a low curling effort from Josh Sanders went agonisingly wide. The final whistle was naturally greeted with wild celebrations from the home contingent this time and in a game that could have gone either way they prevailed against a visiting side where too many players had left their A game at home.
Full Time Newport Pagnell Town 3 Peterborough Sports 2 (some pictures below courtesy of Peterborough Sports)
So a remarkable final twenty minutes saw the game swing one way and then another and it is the underdogs Newport Pagnell Town who are through to the Last 16 of the Vase and one step closer to that Wembley dream. They have knocked out arguably one of the better sides who were left in the competition so they can take great heart from that.
Here are the Fourth Round Proper results in full:-
Saturday 7th January
Shildon 1 Atherton Colleries 4
Billingham Town 1 Cleethorpes Town 2
AFC Mansfield 0 Sunderland RCA 1
South Shields A-A Morpeth Town (tie abandoned after 81 mins due to floodlight failure, 2-4)
Gorleston 0 Coleshill Town 3
Sun Sports 0 Bromsgrove Sporting 4
Newport Pagnell Town 3 Peterborough Sports 2
Sporting Khalsa 1 Tring Athletic 0
Ely City 3 Shepshed Dynamo 0
Hinckley AFC 5 Berkhamsted 0
Bradford Town 2 Southall 4 (AET)
Bristol Manor Farm 1 Melksham Town 1 (AET)
Chichester City 1 Buckland Athletic 3
Team Solent 3 Croydon 0
Exmouth Town 4 Corinthian 0
Crowborough Athletic 6 Eastbourne Town 0
Monday 9th January
Replay
Melksham Town P-P Bristol Manor Farm
Wednesday 11th January
South Shields 4 Morpeth Town 0
Saturday 14th January
Replay
Melksham Town 3 Bristol Manor Farm 5
So that concludes Round Four of the FA Vase. Biggest story arguably was the exit of the current Vase holders Morpeth Town, who ended up on the end of a thrashing at South Shields. This was after the tie was ordered to be replayed following the abandonment of the original tie where Morpeth Town led 4-2 when the floodlights failed with only nine minutes to go. No doubt the Northumberland side feel very hard done by.
Anyway here is the draw for the Last 16 of the competition:-
Saturday 28th January
Cleethorpes Town VS Atherton Collieries
Bromsgrove Sporting VS Bristol Manor Farm
Crowborough Athletic VS Coleshill Town
Hinckley AFC VS Buckland Athletic
Newport Pagnell Town VS Sunderland RCA
Ely City VS Sporting Khalsa
Team Solent VS South Shields
Sunday 29 January
Southall VS Exmouth Town
I'll be at the Newport Pagnell Town VS Sunderland RCA tie and this will be my first look at either club and also my first visit to Willen Road too so I look forward to the experience!!! Game on as they say!!
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