Mariners make history with stunning cup win
(MARINE WIN 5-3 ON PENALTIES)
IT MAY not have been the draw Marine were quite hoping for but you won’t find many folk round Crosby way complaining right now.
Marine’s reward for an incredible journey through to the second round of the FA Cup is a home tie with Conference South side Havant & Waterlooville – a very winnable tie at that.
Whilst a draw against the likes of Tranmere Rovers or Blackpool may have had greater national appeal, the Mariners, fresh from their stunning victory on penalties at Colchester United on Saturday, will now be fancying their chances of taking another giant leap for Marine kind and being paired with one of the Premier League big boys in the third round.
And if the Mariners can get past a league club in Colchester on their travels (there were 89 places between the two sides), the visit of Havant may seem far more sedate in comparison.
As for the match itself,
Marine took a shock 21stminute lead when Anthony
Miley followed up to score from close range after Josh Hmami’s free-kick had rattled a post.
And although Colchester equalised in the 64th minute when Harry Pell found the net after Noah Chilvers’ long-range effort had only been parried by Marine goalkeeper Bayleigh Passant and not cleared, the visitors kept battling.
The game went to extra time and penalties and Michael Howard scored Marine’s winning spot-kick to send them through to the second round and leave boss Young and his players ecstatic.
Young said: “It’s a very proud day for myself and it’s a very proud day for Marine Football Club.
“We knew that we were going to come under a lot of pressure. “Technically, they’re very good and they’ve been strong at home.
“We knew that they were going to keep going and, after taking it to extra time, they probably thought they’d go on and win the game as obviously fitness comes in then.
“But you can see why we’ve won nine on the bounce now because they don’t give in.
“There’s seven or eight lads under the age of 20 or 21 and they stick to the task.
“We hadn’t practised penalties – we got through an earlier round on penalties.
“I’m made up for Michael Howard as he actually missed a penalty recently and he’s gone on to get the winning penalty off the bench, which will give him lots of confidence.”
Colchester boss Steve Ball could not hide his disappointment after a humiliating cup exit.
He said: “It was a really poor day for us and I don’t think we really got going at all.
“Obviously whatever level you play, if you don’t play at the level you can you’re going to get hurt and we’ve been hurt today.
“Marine were organised and worked hard and the message was very clear.
“We’d trained really well on Thursday and Friday and there was some real positivity after beating Stevenage.
“But we didn’t start or get going – we had little moments here and there but it was nowhere near good enough.
“It was a sloppy free-kick that we conceded for their goal which we didn’t really recover from and that maybe told the tale.
“We were poor – we’ve had a little bit of a debrief in there and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board a bit on Monday, regroup, work out what happened today and move on.”