Stone Dominoes 10 (Cooper 8, 42, 45, 47, Roberts 51, E.Adams 73, Lindop 80, Thompson 84, 87, L.Adams 90) Wolves Sporting Community U21 1 (Tolly 15)
Staffordshire FA Challenge Cup, Saturday 3rd October
Stone Dominoes hit double figures as they overcame Wolverhampton for the second successive week to progress into the second round of the Staffs FA Challenge Cup.
Josh Tolly had cancelled out an Ash Cooper opener early on, before two quickfire goals to complete Cooper’s hat-trick just before the break gave Dominoes a 3-1 half time lead. Cooper struck at the beginning of the second half to increase the lead before Ben Roberts, Shane Lindop and Endon Adams got in on the act. A late brace from Ash Thompson and a thunderbolt from Lewis Adams completed the rout.
“That kind of result has been coming the last few weeks with the amount of chances we’ve been creating,” said joint manager Kyle Adams, “although I felt we weren’t at our best in the first half, maybe just deserving the half time lead. We spoke to the lads at the interval about getting the ball down and moving it quicker in the right areas and to their credit they were superb in the second half and we completely dominated in every department.”
Dominoes will await the draw on Tuesday to find out who their opponents in the next round will be, while they return to league action on Saturday 10th October with a visit to Redgate Clayton Reserves .
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Stone Dominoes: Marsh, E.Adams, Parkes, Roberts (c), James, Foyle (Steele 76), Kenny, Stevenson (Hughes 62), Lindop, Thompson, Cooper (L.Adams 67); Subs not used: Thorp, Myatt[/box]
Match report
Ash Cooper had already gone close before he found the net to break the deadlock on 8 minutes. Shane Lindop’s through-ball matched the clever run of Cooper, who shot across the goalkeeper into the far corner.
Cooper played a part in the vistiors’ equaliser in the 15th minute when a fifty-fifty challenge on the halfway line rebounded off him back over his defence into the path of Josh Tolly, who would normally have been standing in an offside position. The Wolverhampton forward took full advantage of his good fortune by sliding the ball past goalkeeper Dan Marsh.
Although the home side enjoyed the majority of possession in the following 25 minutes, the only notable threat to the away goal came from two long range efforts, forcing the goalkeeper into good saves low down to his right.
Looking as though the teams would go into the break level, the final few minutes of the first half proved to be a decisive period in the game, as Dominoes seized the advantage with two goals in the space of 3 minutes.
First, Lindop fed the ball into the path of the overlapping Endon Adams to drill the ball across the six yard box, Lee Foyle allowing the ball to run through his legs for Cooper to calmly finish for his second of the afternoon. Cooper then completed his hat-trick minutes later when Ash Thompson lifted the ball over the defence for him to bring down and slide underneath the oncoming goalkeeper.
Two minutes into the second period and the hosts increased their lead further, as Lindop’s inch-perfect driven cross from the right was met by Cooper to power a header into the top corner.
Dominoes were in complete control of the game now, and there was a feeling of deja vu about their fifth goal in the 51st minute. In near identical fashion to a goal scored a few weeks previously, a half cleared corner found Ash Thompson on the edge of the opposition box. His firmly struck shot found the feet of captain Ben Roberts, who brilliantly spun with his first touch before placing the ball into the far bottom corner.
With the game all but won Stone could have been forgiven for taking their foot off the gas a little, but they were clearly enjoying both their football and piling the misery on the opposition, as they made it 6-1 in the 73rd minute. Substitute Lewis Adams picked the ball up on halfway and produced an excellent run before sliding the ball into the path of overlapping fullback Endon Adams who arrowed the ball into the far corner for his first goal for the club.
Shane Lindop was next to get on the scoresheet when Thompson’s lofted pass in the 80th minute found his run in behind the visiting defence, Lindop taking the ball on his chest before finishing well.
It was Thompson himself who made it eight with a lovely individual goal. Picking the ball up 35 yards out, he took on one Wolverhampton defender before nutmegging another and driving into the box to finish well past the goalkeeper while under pressure.
The deflated away side were finding it impossible to cope with the number of bodies Dominoes were throwing forward with every attack, and eight became nine as the end of the game approached. The ball dropped to Thompson on the right side of the six yard box, and as defenders almost stood still, he curled the ball into the bottom corner to double his tally.
It seemed Lewis Adams had saved the best until last however, as he made it double figures when he picked the ball up 35 yards out and unleashed an unstoppable strike into the top corner to complete a remarkable performance from the home side.
