DODD FIRES WILLOW POND INTO SEMI-FINAL
Willow Pond defied their lowly league position to claim a narrow 1-0 win over Red Hackle in the quarter-final of the Echo League Cup.
A tight first half saw the best efforts come from Red Hackle, mainly from Chris Roberts on umerous occasions.
The home side had seen plenty of possession, but were either caught offside or thwarted by Hackle’s Alan Dawson.
Pond did muster a shot on goal by Ronald Bulmer, but this was cleared by Roberts in his own box.
The second half had Willow take the game to Hackle, whose midfield tired as the clock ticked by, dropping deeper to give Pond more space.
This allowed Willow striker Ralph Dodd to see more of the ball, with his first shot just wide.
A good move by David Kelly earned him a goalscoring opportunity, but his selflessness to square the ball across the box to Gary Golightly, let Hackle Lee Allan clear the danger.
A long ball out of defence by Norman for Pond had Dodd beat the offside trap, he pulledtheballdownandfired a vicious volley that again went just wide of the upright.
Pond piled on the pressure and Michael Grieves had a header go just over the bar and also shot well wide.
Pond’s midfielder David Laws spurned a fantastic chance to take the lead in the box after a long throw in from Keith Peverley.
Hackle keeper Baston saved Laws’ first shot and the defence came to his rescue to clear Laws’ second attempt on target.
Pond eventually broke the deadlock when Kelly collected the ball on the right side of midfield and played it to Dodd.
Hackle were calling for offside, but the whistle never came and Dodd drew Baston, sent him to ground with a lovely dummy before chipping him into the far corner.
Ryhope Foresters proved too strong for Hartlepool Workies after clinching a 3-1 victory in the Kenny Ball Cup.
However, it was the Workies who scored first when Matty Hysen was taken down in the box and Lee Crosby despatched the spot kick.
Right on half-time, Ryhope levelled with a close range finish when Workies failed to cut out a cross.
That set Ryhope up for a good second half and they went in front early on from a direct free-kick.
Scott Finley had a shot saved and Hysen had a bullet header tipped over, but Ryhope sealed the tie late on when they broke out of defence to score.
Penshaw Catholic Club turned in a lacklustre home performance in beating Wallsend Boys Club 3-1 in the Kenny Ball Cup.
Luke Charlesworth, Brett Cummings and Chris Moody scored the winning goals for Penshaw.
Washington Sky Lounge progressed to the quarter finals of the Kenny Ball Cup with a comfortable 6-2 away win at Middlesbrough.
Lounge were helped massively with the sending off of the Middlesbrough goalkeeper Alan Wigglesworth after 20 minutes after a foul on Chip Kindon.
Kindon, Steve Burns and Chris Dawson all bagged braces in the victory.
Hartlepool Tech had a great result in Division Four when they came away from Redcar OB with a 5-1 victory.
The wheels have well and truly come off in Hartlepool Catholic Club’s promotion push from Division Two as they suffered their third loss in a row, this time at Ivy Legends, going down 3-2.
They soon found themselves two down, before rallying to level before the break.
A mix-up in defence in the last quarter of the game put the hosts back in front, and despite all their efforts, Catholic couldn’t level.
Hartlepool Stag & Monkey travelled to in-form Stanley and lost 3-1.
Houghton Cricket secured a vital three points with a 1-0 victory away at Mill View.
Alan Jones crossed for Forster to head home and take the points.