Ambler saves three penalties as Penistone reach Sheffield Cup final
PENISTONE Church reached the Sheffield Senior Cup semi-final with a dramatic penalty shoot-out win at home to Stocksbridge Park Steels on Wednesday night.
After a 0-0 draw over 90 minutes against the visitors who play a division above, NCEL Premier side Church won 5-4 in the shoot-out which saw seven spot-kicks missed. It was a disappointing return for Stocksbridge boss Ian Richards who managed his hometown club Penistone for 12 years until 2021.
Church will now face Worksop Town in the final, who play in the division above Stocksbridge in the Northern Premier League. It will be their second appearance in the final after Richards took them there in 2018 but they lost a Barnsley derby to Shaw Lane AFC who folded weeks later.
A crowd of 578 witnessed a game of little drama until penalties.
Church goalkeeper Harry Ambler saved the first but saw two of his teammates miss.
Stocksbridge blazed what would have been the winning penalty over the bar.
Ambler then saved again and, after another Church miss, made a third stop to put Penistone into the final.
Manager Steve Lenthall: “Football is made for nights like this.
“What an achievement for the club. We’re so proud of the players.
“A lot of volunteers work hard at the club and it’s for rewards like this.
“The crowd was phenomenal again. “The teams cancelled each other out in very windy conditions. Richo knows our team and we’d done quite a bit of research on them.
“We defended well and had a couple of chances. It always looked like penalties.
“I feel for Richo because it’s horrible to go out on the lottery of penalties.
“Harry Ambler was outstanding.
“It will be a great night out for the final. We know we’ll get great support.
“It will be difficult against Worksop but we have a lot of time to prepare for that.
“We still want to get to the play-offs in the league as well.”
Church were beaten 2-1 at Tadcaster Albion on Saturday in the Premier Division. The hosts scored twice quickly after the hour then Nathan Keightley pulled one back.
Church are seventh with 46 points from 28 games, seven points and two places off the play-off places.
They have ten league games to play in the league season which is due to finish in just over a month on April 6.
Coach Brett Lovell said: “We have to hold our hands up and say we weren’t at the races. We were 2-0 down and we had a mountain to climb but, to be fair to the lads, for the last 20 minutes they played something like.
“We got a goal from Nathan Keightley that got us back in the game at 2-1 with ten or 15 minutes left then Nathan’s had a couple of chances and Danny Howes has missed a header.
“On another day we would have got a point. Tadcaster have played well, they’ve done a job on us.
“The league is relentless, teams will take points off each other.
“We just need to focus on our own performance and make sure we start picking points up and moving forward.”