Malpas Reserves 0 Stone Dominoes 7
Northern Cup 1st round
Saturday 24th October
Stone Dominoes enjoyed a comfortable Saturday afternoon on the road with a comprehensive victory to progress into the second round of the Northern Cup.
Goals from Joss Myatt, Matt Barlow (2) and Ash Cooper had given Dominoes a healthy half-time lead, before a second-half Ash Thompson hat-trick added to the scoring.
The away side opened the scoring on 16 minutes when a lovely Jake Hughes cross (following a short corner) was guided into the far corner by Joss Myatt’s head.
Malpas had their goalkeeper to thank three minutes later as the lead was nearly doubled. Marcus Thorp crossed from the left and Ash Cooper’s header was kept out brilliantly, along with Myatt’s effort from the resulting rebound.
Myatt was involved again in the 36th minute as Dominoes did add to their lead. The forward did well to stay on his feet just inside the box when he was clipped, somehow poking the ball to Lee Foyle on the edge of area, his well struck shot being palmed into the path of Matt Barlow to tap in to the empty net.
Five minutes later the visitors had their third goal as the home goalkeeper saw his kick only land at the feet of Barlow 25 yards out, who took one touch before superbly lifting the ball over the goalkeeper to score.
It was a flowing move just before the interval that led to the fourth and perhaps the pick of the goals for Dominoes. A passing sequence that began with goalkeeper Craig Bould and included nearly every Dominoes player on the pitch, ended with an inch perfect Ryan Parkes cross for Ash Cooper to slide under the goalkeeper to make it 4-0.
In a competition that allows all five substitutes to be used, Stone made use of the rule by making all five changes before 50 minutes.
Although their overall play seemed to suffer from the changes, one of the replacements put the game beyond doubt just before the hour mark, Ash Thompson wriggling free of his marker on the edge of the area before firing underneath the goalkeeper. Thompson doubled his tally seven minutes later when Lewis Adams fed Greg Stevenson on the right, who produced an inviting low cross for the forward to tap in to make it 6-0.
Shane Lindop came close to getting on the scoresheet as he saw his shot blocked when through one on one, before Thompson completed his hat-trick a minute before time, Jack Steele this time finding Stevenson on the right, who again produced a fantastic cross for Thompson to complete the scoring.
Dominoes will wait to find out their opponents in the next round, while they return to league action on Saturday 31st October as they welcome Cheadle Town Reserves to Wellbeing Park in Yarnfield in a 2.30pm kick-off.
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Stone Dominoes: Bould (c), Parkes, Thorp, James (Steele 45), Roberts, Foyle, Broadhurst, Myatt (L.Adams 50), Hughes (Stevenson 50), Barlow (Lindop 50), Cooper (Thompson 50)[/box]
