Match Report by Club Secretary Matthew Eagles:
Facing Wilmslow at Congleton Town later this month will be High Lane after a remarkable turnaround in the second half of their cup tie against Mary Dendy. They had much the better of the first half but were left shaking their heads at half time after they failed to break down a disciplined Dendy defence with Nick Powell and Matt Stott in fine form. The second half proved to be a different story though. Within a minute of the start of the second half Dave Wilde burst through the visitors defence and dinked the ball over keeper Chris Shepherd as he came out to avert the danger to open the scoring and end his five game goal drought . A fine strike from the edge of the penalty area from Jonny Marshall made it 2-0 as the ball fell kindly to him following a corner and Ant Haywood made the tie safe as his goal made it 3-0 midway through the half . Four goals in the final twelve minutes gave rather a distorted view of the overall game and was cruel on Mary Dendy.
Captain Mike McCarthy began the landslide as he sidefooted home a fourth after a fine save from Chris Shepherd and then Dave Wilde converted a penalty after George Mitchell was crudely hacked down by Matt Stott and then substitute Dean Ryan scored the goal of the game with a stunning shot from the corner of the penalty area. The final goal of the game credited to a surprised Rob McMurdo came as his cross somehow found the net as keeper Chris Shepherd carried the ball over his own in an attempt to keep the ball out.
Match Report by Assistant Manager David Vickers:
HIGH LANE 7 MARY DENDY 0 league cup semi final
half time 0-0
If there ever a true word spoken it was football is a game of two half's. A depleted Dendy side battled hard in a first half in which they had to use their only sub to injury after only 3 mins to go in nil nil. The only chance of the half for Dendy was a pressured high lane goal keeper where Dan could have scored if only he had been a ...little more clinical in his shot. The hard work and great defence in the first half was soon forgotten as High lane took an early lead and after that a tired and with the aid of a few errors High lane took control and ran away easy winners.
It was a perfect example of the season for Dendy plenty of heart and hard work not helped by not having enough players.
In a semi final against a decent side we can't hope to beat them if we only have one sub and have to play Mutley to put out a side. This is not a slight on Mutley who again did great for his age but expecting him to keep up with young lads for 90 mins is unrealistic and unfair but the manager had no options.
It is a shame as over the season Dendy have had some good players and if you could pick from them Dendy have showed they can compete at this level.
Man of match was Matt Stout for filling in well at center half when cronie went of injured.
Donkey was Shep for one of the goals. To be fair he had a decent game as did most.
We did have a laugh in the pub though and i guess sometimes that makes up for the disappointment and frustration. We did have a laugh at an ex players text today explaining Dendy's short comings.
