FA Cup First Round Qualifying Replay

Cirencester Town 0

Shortwood United 1

SHORTWOOD UNITED can dream of another lucrative FA Cup run after dumping Cirencester Town out of the competition after extra-time at the First Qualifying Round stage on Tuesday night.

Saturday’s original tie at Meadowbank was a tepid affair but the replay at the Corinium Stadium was a passionate encounter between two totally committed sides.

Sadly, two refereeing decisions from Devon’s Mark Greenwood had a major influence on the result.

With 20 minutes to go Shortwood started to show signs of fatigue having chased and harried Ciren throughout. It coincided with the hosts’ best spell of the game as their excellent fitness levels allowed them to exert control for the first time.

A neat incisive move in the 85th minute saw Ed Williams slipped through on the edge of the D.

Shortwood centre back Jake Lee, outstanding again as he had been in Saturday’s original tie, made his first mistake, clipping the winger's heels and bringing him down when he was the last line of defence.

Mr Greenwood produced a yellow card when it could so easily have been red.

But seven minutes into extra time, Mark Pritchett hauled down a Shortwood player fully 40 yards from goal and was sent for an early bath.

The momentum somehow stayed with the 10 men of Ciren and former Centurion Tom King was required to make two splendid back-to-back saves.

In the 101st minute Ciren split the Shortwood defence apart with some lovely one-touch passing and King parried away a Matt Liddiard drive for a corner at full stretch.

For the resulting set piece, Gethin Jones powered a header towards the top corner and yet somehow King kept that one out as well.

The intensity of the game understandably dipped in the second period of extra- time but 10 minutes from the end of the game Wood summoned the strength to break from the back in numbers and the classy Langworthy, whose equaliser on Saturday had kept his side in the tie, again showed great composure to finish past the advancing Garner.

The 10 men of Ciren were unable to summon another rally and it is Shortwood who go through to face a home tie with Oxford City on Saturday week.

Ciren will be justifiably aggrieved by the Jake Lee incident but Shortwood, from a division lower, had played a full and equal part in a full-blooded tie.

Ciren may have had the clearer chances in the first half and hit the woodwork twice but Wood caused them plenty of problems and it was Garner who twice rescued Ciren in the early stages of the second period with fine stops from Lewis Sommers and Langworthy.

What this result will accelerate is boss Brian Hughes’ search for a new target man. His side have scored just one goal of their own in five games since Nat Jarvis last played for the club.
Cirencester Town: Garner, Anson (capt), Prictor (Bumphrey, 63), Pritchett, Jones, Henry, Reid (Wells, 78), Mortimer-Jones, Bennett (Elliott, 100), Liddiard, Williams.

Unused subs: Hooper, Edge.