Stone Old Alleynians crashed out of the Staffs Vase in disappointing fashion with a thumping 5-3 defeat at home to Staffs County Senior League side Knypersley Victoria.
A combination of injuries, suspensions and work commitments left manager Matt Smith with only 11 players to choose from, but he refused to use that as an excuse for his side’s exit.
[box type=”shadow” ]He said: “It was a bad defeat for us today, we only had 11 players for various reasons therefore restricting our options, but that’s not an excuse. We had enough quality in our side to win the game. Unfortunately we had a terrible first half which set us back, in the last half an hour we could have scored five but it didn’t happen for us. There is no getting away from the result today it’s a tough one to take but we have to take it on the chin and move onto Tuesday.”[/box]
The Old Boys started slowly and were under pressure from the off, with the visitors creating several good chances early on without capitalising. Stone then took the lead against the run of play, thanks to Adam Tomkinson. The midfielder picked the ball up on the edge of the Knypersley box and his shot was too powerful for the visitor’s keeper.
Knypersley then drew level when Billy Moses finished from close range, before Tom Madden’s left-foot strike put the away side ahead. It could have been even worse for Stone but Keiran Knapper fluffed his lines when clean through on goal.
A change in shape brought about an Alleynians revival in the second half as they pressed to get themselves back on level terms, but they were caught out on the break, Tom Madden extending his side’s lead with a calm finish from inside the box.
The Old Boys gave themselves hope of a comeback when Luke Askey was fouled in the box, and Tomkinson stepped up to convert the penalty. But again Stone’s defensive frailties were exposed, as straight from the kick-off Knypersley broke down the right, and the cross was turned home by Madden at the far post.
Alex Kay, who had proved a menace to the visitors back line all afternoon then gave the hosts a lifeline, when he showed great composure to finish from close range. And he then came within inches of drawing his side level, but his shot hit the side netting.
Tomkinson also came within a whisker of an equaliser, but his free-kick went narrowly wide of the post, before Tom Roper struck the killer blow late on to restore his team’s two goal lead.
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Stone OA: Burslem, Sinclair, Askey, Heath, Taylor, Griffiths (c), Heard, Moloney, Tomkinson, Kay, Bradbury[/box]
