The Saints are through to the semi-final of The League Cup after drawing 5-5 at Penaprcau and then winning the penalty shoot 4-5 . It took 120 minutes of football and 10 penalties before the tie could be decided, goalkeeper Stephen Price saving the 10th penalty to put The Saints through to the delight of his team mates and supporters.
Penparcau dominated the open exchanges and were awarded a penalty in the 4th minute after Wes Evans tripped Mike Gornal in the area, Evans receiving a yellow card for his challenge, Stephen Price once again came to the rescue with yet another penalty save for The Saints.
The pressure continued and in the 9th a Mike Gornall cross to the far post was headed down and the Arky striker had a tap in from 4 yards out. Price was called into action in the 20th and 22nd minutes, the first shot he tipped around the post and the second he somehow manged to tip over the bar at full stretch.
Manager Fil Wisniewski changed the system from 3 5 2 to 4 4 2 and The Saints had their first effort in the 26th minute when midfielder Tom Weaver had a shot from the edge of the box but his effort went wide, just four minutes later a long Steve Goodwin throw found Kevin Jones on the edge of the area, he spun his marker and scored from just inside the box with a right foot effort for 1-1.
Just as The Saints were getting into the game in the 33rd minute a ball over the top was misjudged by the defence and The Arky striker ran through and scored to put them 2-1 up. More Arky pressure followed but the defence stood firm with the refereee blowing the whistle for half-time with the score 2-1 to the homeside, Arky would have gone in disappointed only leading by the one goal. ht 2-1.
The second half was dominated by The Saints and their first effort came in the 51st minute after Josh Wisniewski was played in by Sam Mayglothling, his cross finding Phil Davies whose effort just went over the bar. In the 59th minute Tom Weaver played a lovely throughball for Kevin Jones whose shot shot was saved by Dan Pritchard but Wisniewski was the first to react and buried the rebound from 7 yards out to make it 2-2.
Two minutes later The Saints should have been awarded a penalty when Tom Weaver was through on goal but was blatantly pulled back by his shirt which everyone saw bar the referee, two minutes later though it was 2-3 after striker Jones chased a back pass down and was rewarded with his efforts when the ball came to him and he blasted it in from the edge of the area past the diving Pritchard.
The Saints had several chances to put the game to bed, firstly Weaver headed into the side netting from a Jones cross with Pritchard beaten, in the 75th minute Jones outpaced The Arky defence and went through one on one but pulled his shot wide, a minute later strike partner Wisniewski also went through one on one but he too pulled his shot wide.
The misses were to prove costly as a rare Arky attack ended up with them being awarded a corner, from the resulting cross the ball was headed goalbound into the arms of Price, the linesman flagged to say the ball was over the line much to the annoyance of Price who was booked for arguing. 3-3.
The last 10 minutes were end to end with Gareth Jenkins going close for the Saints and M.Gornal nearly winning it after a mazy run for Arky. ft 3-3.
Within two minutes of the extra time period The Saints were back in front, Tom Weaver played an inch perfect throughball to Wisniewski and his right foot effort gave Pritchard no chance 3-4. In the 98th minute Captain Phil Davies played in Kevin Jones who again outpaced the home defence and scored from the edge of the box to make it 3-5 and claim his hat-trick. I’m not sure what was said to the referee after Jones scored but the home keeper was shown a straight red card.
To Arkys credit they rolled up their sleeves and battled back, a Wayne Gornal free kick took a wicked deflection and the ball fell to their winger who scored from close range for 4-5. Chris Preece in a rare break forward found himself one on one with the stand in keeper but the defender screwed his shot wide. ht et 4-5.
The last 15 minutes saw The Saints on top with Arky trying to hit them on the break, neither side really looked like scoring until according to my watch 122 minutes and 30 seconds when a Wayne Gornal corner was powerfully headed into the back of the net by an Arky player for 5-5. The refereee blew up for full-time to send the game into the lottery of penalties.
The first nine penalties were scored, The Saints scorers were Kevin Jones, Josh Davies, Josh Wisniewski, keeeper Stephen Price and Wes Evans, The Arky player was under pressure knowing if he missed they were out, he blasted hard to the left but Becksy guessed right and tipped it around the post to send Saints through to the semi-finals.
This game could have finished 12-12 on chances, I thought were very lucky to go in at the break at only 2-1 down, then very unlucky not to have won it in the 90 minutes after all the dominance and chances we had in the second half. We were the better side in extra time with Arky down to 10 men but they never gave up and to their credit they fought back to take it to penalties. Again Becksy came to our rescue during the game and in the shootout plus he took one and scored with ease, the front two looked more lively today scoring five between them, it would be unfair to pick a man of the match as the whole team played well today.
Team- Stephen Price, Wes Evans, Chris Preece, Phil Davies(c), Gareth Jenkins, Jake Atkinson(Josh Davies), Steve Goodwin(Stu Davies), Sam Mayglothling, Tom Weaver, Kevin Jones, Josh Wisniewski.