Sunday 4 November 2007

Second Qualifying Round: Leamington Vs Margate

November 3rd 2007

Another home draw for Leamington meant yet another trip to the NWG. As much as I had enjoyed my previous visits, I was starting to want to go somewhere else. After all, we started this adventure with the intention of travelling the country. Even the home support voiced there concern that we were starting to get sick of the half time sausage and chips special. A nice trip to the seaside town of Margate would have been a lovely way to spend a Saturday. Never mind. I thought that it wouldn’t matter all that much. The law of averages stated an away tie next round, or a Margate victory on the day would lead to a long drive to somewhere or other in a fortnight’s time. Jake and I joked that it would be perfect as long as we didn’t have to travel to the coast on Tuesday night, as would be the case if the match finished a draw. Oh how very funny that turned out to be.

By all rights, Leamington should have sealed the victory long before the 90 minutes was up, but they were left to rue several missed opportunities, and were left contemplating that aforementioned long trip to Margate on Tuesday night.

The game started brightly, with Margate looking far more worthy opponents than both Marlow and Banbury put together. It was Leamington however, who took a third minute lead through Ben Mackey. A chipped ball forward saw Russell Dunkley find Josh Blake on the edge of the area. The ball was knocked back to Mackey who composed himself before firing past the helpless Scott Chalmers-Stevens in the Margate goal.

The rest of the first half was a very entertaining, well matched affair, which was threatened to be spoilt by a whistle happy referee. The man in black gave some strange decisions on both sides, but the Leamington crowd and team seemed to take it badly. Captain Arron Parkinson nearly talked himself into a red card after being given a soft booking, and there was generally a lot of huffing and sighing from the Brakes all over the pitch.

In between all of the freekicks, both sides had chances to score. Notably an excellent freekick from Margate’s Jimmy Jackson (I think!) was clawed away from the top corner by Richard Morris. At the other end Dunkley went close on two occasions. Once beating the ‘keeper to the ball in the air, but he had to watch as his header dribbled agonisingly wide. A better chance came his way from a well worked corner. The cross found him unmarked in the centre of goal, but again his header went wide.

The first 12 minutes of the second half have been erased from the history books. I was too busy eating to take notes unfortunately, and my feeble memory has failed to recall anything that occurred. The rest of the half however, should have belonged to Leamington. A generally solid (give or take a few moments of panic) defensive performance gave the forwards a great base to built their attacks. The on loan Jamie Towers was a handful down the Margate left hand side, and nearly set up Mackey for a second after an hour, but his turn and shot was pushed around the post for a corner. The game should have been sealed just before the 70 minute mark. A dubious penalty was awarded as Marcus Jackson was brought down, when it looked like the ball was running out of play. Mackey stepped up to the spot, only to see his weak shot saved well and cleared to safety.

Mackey’s poor second half continued when, after finding himself one-on-one following a defensive error, he hit his shot straight at Chalmers-Stevens, and Towers saw his follow up shot fly narrowly wide. At this point I was starting to sweat a little. Too often in football when a side misses chances like Leamington had done in the second half, they are punished by an equalising goal. Margate got a chance from a freekick on 80 minutes. I took a deep breath, but the shot went straight into the wall, and then fired well wide. Then disaster struck. A scramble in the Leamington area led to another very dubious penalty decision, which seemed to have the whole crowd confused. James Pinnock placed the ball on the spot. I took another deep breath, but Pinnock sent Morris the wrong way, and made it 1 – 1.

The final few minutes saw neither team able to create any real chances, and my worst fears of a replay became a definite reality. Leamington’s inability to seal the tie had cost them, their fans, and me dear. The long trip south on Tuesday night will be a thoroughly different proposition to facing the Isthmian League side in the Midlands.

Although I’m not looking forward to the journey, I am definitely looking forward to the match on Tuesday night. The prospect of Margate winning and spending a day at the seaside in couple of weeks is almost giving me a Margate bias for the match, but I’m sure the Brakes faithful will convince me otherwise on the day!

Final Score: Leamington 1 Margate 1
Attendance: 790

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