Saturday came and Old Dons were looking forward to there county junior cup match against Crowle from Scunthorpe, there was a bit of uncertainty about the actual kick off time, 2pm we were thought to believe, but after a word with the referee it was known that it would be 2.30.so around to the kick off both teams started brightly a lot of the early play was in midfield, it was not until 15 minuet that a mix up in the old dons defence let the Crowle forwards deflected shot run beyond Andy Barnett in goal and into the empty net. The first 20 minutes saw old dons at sixes and sevens and not really getting a rhythm going, with Jonny butler getting a knock on his ankle early on, he found it hard up front, but saying that he never gave up and carried on running until the final whistle, it was the 35 minuet until old dons drew level, a foul on Chris Grimer who never stopped tormenting the Crowle back four all afternoon, just outside the corner of the penalty area, the Crowle goalkeeper arranged a four man wall, but up stepped Dave Slaughter with a lovely struck curling right foot free kick into the bottom left corner of the net, there were a few more chances for both teams in the first half noticeably for dons with some wayward finishing and lucky goalkeeping it could have been four –two at half time, the other end Lloyd Ogilvie, Ricky Mason, Wayne Foster and Dave Slaughter, kept the Crowle forwards at bay. The second half started nearly the same way as the first old dons having the best chances but some terrible finishing the scores stayed one-one, Andy Barnett was nearly a spectator for large parts of the second half apart from the occasional back pass he had to deal with, then on 58 minutes Liam Pitts won the ball in midfield took on a player and launched a superb pass high into the Crowle penalty area ,Chris Grimer ran onto the ball and as the goalkeeper advanced headed the ball over him into the back of a empty net. After the goal dons should have killed the game off but with still missing a hat full of chances paid the ultimate price in the 89 minuet, a goalmouth scramble ended with a Crowle forward pocking the ball into the dons net, with hardly time to take the centre the game headed for extra time. After a re shuffle due to some injuries Andy Stanhope went up front with a sore knee ,as no more subs were available, the only sub been Kyle Graves coming on in the 65 minuet for Dave Slaughter to try his luck down the left hand side,Jonny Butler dropping into midfield with his swollen ankle .both teams pressed for a winner both teams had chances to score, but for a good save from Andy Barnett with his legs and some luck for the other keeper the scores were the same until deep into the second half of extra time, with players from both teams struggling with cramp most noticeably the Crowle players were looking very tired as they had only brought a basic 11 players with them, it was the 28 minuet of extra time when the ever running ever working Kieran Rose again for the second week running getting the ball down the right and running towards the box, unleashed what looked like a week shot towards goal but somehow the ball run across the keeper and goal and bounced into the net off the far post ,Crowle tried to hit straight back but with Martin Fox and Liam Pitts in midfield holding strong the final whistle was blown and a captivating cup tie was won 3-2 by old Doningtonians and into the next round they go. We would just like to say commiserations’ to the whole Crowle outfit who put up a terrific fight in a hard but good spirited game.
