Saturday 14th September
Emirates FA Cup Second Round Qualifying
Newton Aycliffe 1 Warrington Rylands 1
Newton Aycliffe recorded their fifth consecutive draw, finishing 1-1 against Warrington Rylands in the FA Cup. This also meant Aycliffe remain unbeaten this season. A splendid season high 349 crowd enjoyed FA Cup action on this sunny September afternoon at the Ashcourt Group Stadium. The result earned Brian Atkinson’s side a replay on Tuesday 17th September with the winners hosting either Dunston or Scarborough Athletic on 28th September.
It didn’t start off plain sailing for Aycliffe. Alex Nelson was controversially judged to have fouled Rylands forward Ntumba Massanka in the 9th minute and Ben Hardcastle stepped up to convert the resulting penalty.
Aycliffe struggled to take possession off Rylands within the first half. Their first big chance came when a Joe Ferguson corner was whipped in, whilst Rylands’ keeper, Luke Pilling, dealt with the corner, he fell awkwardly, almost falling into his own net. In the other goal, Jim Pollard was at his usual best. His brilliant goalkeeping performances have become par for the course since joining Aycliffe. He did well to deny Liam Morris’ curling shot from out the box in the first half. Jack Clarkson had Aycliffe’s next big chance when he outpaced and outsmarted veteran Rylands midfielder Dean Furman to be through on goal, but his shot went high.
Massanka had the second half’s first chance, but Pollard made a splendid one handed save to stop the volleyed shot. In the 76th minute, Pollard once again denied Massanka, and the resulting corner to Warrington was expertly countered by Aycliffe. Ferguson crossed to substitute Cole Kiernan who went on an incredible run gifting a perfect pass to Dean Thexton who fired it home to complete a brilliant counter-attacking goal.
The latter part of the game had further controversy when it appeared Liam Morris had brought down Jake Petitjean, the referee waved away penalty calls however. The score remained 1-1 setting up another FA Cup replay. Following which Aycliffe’s attention turns to the Isuzu FA Trophy with an away tie at Emley on Saturday 21st September.
Aycliffe finally return to league action, after a month of cup games, on Wednesday 25th September with a trip to newly promoted Heaton Stannington.
Match report by Ryan Livingston. Photo by Yvonne Wood – Dean Thexton celebrates his goal against Warrington Rylands.
