The Stone Old Alleynians first team didn’t play this week, so the spotlight was very much on the reserves as they drew 1-1 with Longton Area FC in a keenly contested Staffs County Senior League Division Two League Cup encounter at Wellbeing Park.
A rare Sam Smith goal gave gave Kev Warrilow’s men a first half lead but a second half free-kick drew the visitors level, meaning the Old Boys had to settle for a point owing to this cup’s group format.
“We’ve held on to the 2nd qualification spot with this point,” said Warrilow afterwards. “We will probably need another eight or nine points front the remaining four group fixtures, but that won’t be easy in a group where four out of the five teams are in the top three of their respective leagues. Longton gave us a tough game and we battled well despite not settling in to our normal passing game, so the draw was probably a fair result.”
The Old Boys were without key men Adam Tomkinson (suspension) and Nick Buckley (work commitments) but were able to field a number of first teamers against the side that currently top the Senior League Division Two North. Despite this, the Alleynians attacks looked laboured at times and they were were fortunate to come through an early storm unscathed, with a smart save from Matt Burslem in the home goal keeping the scores level.
Twenty minutes in the Old Boys finally began to settle, and Smith rose brilliantly to meet an in-swinging corner with his head and glanced the ball delicately into the far corner to put the home side in front. George Askey could have made it two shortly afterwards but fired his effort over the bar following good work from Carl Dibden, who was making his first start since suffering an injury for the first team in September.
Old Boys top-scorer Dan Farrelly then had a chance to add another to his season tally but saw a close range shot blocked by a determined Longton defender.
The second half saw the hosts struggle to impose themselves, and Longton drew level when Sam Hodgkinson gave away a free-kick on the edge of the box that was subsequently despatched despite a strong Burslem hand.
The visitors were then unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when their pacey no.10 appeared to be felled in the box, but the referee waved play on much to the relief of the Alleynians defence.
The Old Boys Reserves will continue their cup efforts away to Market Drayton Tigers next week, while the first team will once again be without a fixture.
Pictures by Phil Johnson. More photos can be seen here: https://dickiesports.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/reserves-held-by-longton
