The Non-League Reds secured their place in the next round of the Isuzu FA Vase, thanks to a determined 3-1 victory at the Marine Travel Arena on Friday night.
Changes were made from the previous match at Bury, with Jack Flight and Ben Lightfoot starting and Matty Brown in the striker role. On just 8 minutes, it was Matty Brown who rose unmarked to head home a Caleb Jones corner, to give The Reds a great start. Northwich regrouped and started to create chances of their own, having lots of good possession and forcing Jack McGovern to make some decent saves.
Strangely the game turned on 36 minutes when AFC captain on the night Owen Fisher-Jones was harshly sinbinned, after contesting the ref's decision. Northwich now had the chance to press home their numerical advantage, however, it was The Reds that stepped up and took advantage of two defensive errors by Northwich Victoria. Firstly, in the 42nd minute, a long looping ball from Ben Lightfoot was left by defenders, as they thought it was running out for a goal kick. Caleb Jones didn't give it up and crossed it for Jack Flight to slot home. A couple of minutes later it was Caleb Jones who got onto a short back pass and rounded the keeper to make the halftime score 3-0.
A well struck shot from Dylan Switters after a minute of the 2nd half, gave the visitors hope and The Reds had to soak up pressure for the next 15 minutes or so, but did well. As the game drifted to it's conclusion there was only a handful of half chances for either side. Northwich had a penalty appeal turned down and whilst they were unlucky not to get one in the 1st half, this was clearly the correct decision. Bobby Murphy, who had come on earlier in the half to help shore up The Reds defence, thought he had scored in the 88th minute when his effort clearly appeared to have crossed the line, however, none of the officials managed to notice this and the goal wasn't given. It didn't impact the final outcome though, as The Reds moved through to the next round of the Isuzu FA Vase, with a long trip to Selby Town to look forward to!
Final Score - AFC Liverpool 3 v 1 Northwich Victoria
Team - 1. McGovern 2. Cunningham 3. Lightfoot 4. Lancaster 5. Sudworth 6. Fisher-Jones (c) 7. C. Jones 8. Byron 9. Brown 10. Flight 11. Bavelock
Subs Used - Murphy, Skillen, Giblin, Cummins, Butterworth
Match Sponsor - @ProjectFour_CDM
(Pics courtesy of Billy Stirrup)
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