Yaxley bow out but with their heads held high
TWO stunning goals and one seriously impressive set of opponents saw Yaxley's FA Cup dreams dashed last night.
TWO stunning goals and one seriously impressive set of opponents saw Yaxley's FA Cup dreams dashed last night.Ridgeons League outfit Needham Market swooped for a 3-0 first qualifying round replay success at Leading Drove to end the Cuckoos' involvement in the greatest cup competition of them all.
Gary Clipston's side could not finish the job they started so impressively when drawing 2-2 at Needham when the teams met on Saturday, but the boss was fiercely proud of his players.
Clipston said: "It has taken a very, very good footballing side three hours to get the better of us and even then it took a couple of wonder goals to do it.
"We can certainly be proud of what we have achieved in the cup. No-one gave us a chance of going to Spalding in the previous round and getting a result, but we did and we very nearly knocked Needham Market out on Saturday as well.
"It wasn't to be in the replay but we go out with our heads held high."
Things could have been very different had Needham defender Rhys Barker received his marching orders for hauling down Yaxley frontman Liam Harrold when bearing down on goal after two minutes.
But Barber escaped with a yellow card and the slick Suffolk side then stamped their class on the contest, hitting the front courtesy of captain Mark Bailey's 35-yard thunderbolt 12 minutes before the break.
A second Needham goal 10 minutes into the second half from Danny Thrower had Yaxley on the rack and their fate was sealed when Paul Berry struck spectacularly 20 minutes from time.
"I thought it was a certain red card at the time," added Clipston. "You don't want to see players sent off but I felt it was a goalscoring opportunity.
"The referee felt otherwise and you can only respect his decision."
Yaxley's defeat means Stamford are the sole local FA Cup survivors at the second qualifying round stage. The Daniels are away at Boston United on September 27.
ADAM Cunnington made a dramatic return from injury as Stamford grabbed a much-needed Unibond Division One South success last night.
The 6ft 5ins frontman, who has been sidelined for the past three weeks with an ankle problem, headed a last minute winner as the Daniels sneaked past tough-tackling Brigg 2-1 at the Vic Couzens Stadium.
Recent arrival Jamie Clarke struck for the third successive game when giving Stamford an 18th minute lead, but the visitors hauled themselves level 20 minutes from time.
Brigg were then reduced to 10 men before Cunnington got on the end of a right-wing delivery from classy wideman Tyrone Kirk to earn maximum points.
Daniels boss Dougie Keast said: "I didn't really want to have to use Adam as I think he could do with a few more days of recovery time.
"But Jamie picked up a knock and that took the decision out of my hands. Thankfully Adam got his goal at the end and I certainly think we deserve a bit of the rub of the green."
Spalding slipped to a 3-1 defeat at Leicestershire side Quorn. Paul Tocco hit the Tulips' goal 10 minutes before the interval.
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Weather for Peterborough
Tuesday 16 March 2010
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