Kirton Town turned their attention to the cup today ,with a quarter final home match against Freiston fc,not too many changes to the team , Karl Louth had work commitments ,and Declan sands was away ,so income Lewis dunworth for Karl ,and Kyle bates filled in for Declan , tom Owens returned to the bench nick Kirkland and Steve skinner made up the other subs.
Well the game didn’t get off to the best of starts with Kirton conceding a penalty in the first 5 mins,a bit of a mix up and failed clearance by 2 Kirton players resulted in a rash challenge on the freiston player and the ref had no hesitation than to point to the spot, after a few minutes treatment to Richard Ford the freiston captain stepped up to take the peno ,but a brilliant save from Jamie hall in the Kirton goal, diving to his right and pushing the ball wide ,the resulting ball was cleared and danger was cleared. the first half was a half of missed opertunities,i think Freiston cleared the ball of their own line twice , their goalkeeper made some very good saves and they also had plenty of luck on their side ,Reece west went close twice , Dean fisher had a chance , who also had a nasty bang on his head that needed attention, Richard Ford the driving force for Kirton Town always caused Freiston problems , and his long throws were like corners ,landing in the 6yrd box every time, Jamie Hall didn’t have much to do in the first half apart from coming out once to smoother a shot away for a corner when a player broke through on goal , The next bit of excitement came just before half time and it was another penalty this time awarded to Kirton , Reece West broke through , and the goalkeeper came out and took Reece down in the box , but he was very very lucky because he even got away without a booking for been the last man and stopping a goal scoring opportunity, Kyle Bates was the person who stepped up to take the penalty , as usual peno taker Declan was away and Tom Owens was on the bench , he took the penalty , but placed it wide of the goal with the keeper well beaten, the score at half time was 0-0.
The second half started much the same Kirton applying all the pressure but not scoring the goals,Reece went close ,Fordy went close Kyle bates thought he had scored with the ball crossing over the line ,but a freiston player kicked the ball away and the ref waved no goal, then Kirton made a change and brought Tom Owens on for Kyle Bates,10 mins later and Kirton scored ,captain invincible Martin Durrant got the ball near his own half way line and drove deep into the away teams half, after evading 3 tackles he cut inside and running towards the middle edge of the box , unleashed a terrific shot hard and low to the keepers right,the ball just went inside the post and into the bottom corner of the net , great run and goal from Martin ,it was what Kirton deserved but took a long time coming. The Kirton defence held well with Martin and Callum stopping most things thrown at them , and with having the advantage of Lewis at left back and Kurt at right back they could easily break forward with the ball, Richard Ford was holding and orcastrating the midfield as usual and with Mark Neall at the side of him , always wanting to run at the away defence with the ball , he was a constant thorn in their side with his pace ,adding James Hardy on one flank and Dean Fisher on the other ,with Reece and Tom in the middle it looked as though Kirton would score again , this did not come until the 87 min though , as this time Richard Ford picked the ball up on the far left, and decided to have a run at their at their defence , the run took him deep in the corner though ,down near the flag , when all of a sudden he cut inside and nearly on the goal line ,hit a brilliant curling shot ,that flew into the far top corner of the net , 2 brilliant goals to win this tie, but a long while waiting for them, Freiston had one more chance when a floated ball into the box, the Kirton keeper came for it , and realised the ball wouldn’t reach him , and with him stood 8 yards from his goaline , was pleased when the away players header lifted up and dropped straight into his arms , the ref blew the final whistle just after this and Kirton are through to a semi final , now just waiting to see who they will play , Jamie Hall the Kirton keeper was named man of the match.
