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Rugby Town 1-3 Chelmsford City, Saturday 14th October 2006, Butlin Road, Kick-Off 3:00pm, F.A. Cup sponsored by E.ON Third Qualifying Round.
Chelmsford's second-half display saw them sprint past Rugby Town and put themselves amongst the Conference National clubs in the draw for the Fourth Qualifying Round on Monday morning. After being a goal down, courtesy of a first half penalty, at the interval, Chris Duffy, Tony Battersby and Ricky Holmes netted after the break to seal the victory. The Clarets are now just ninety minutes away from a potentially lucrative tie against a League club, with another £5,000 in the bank following this win. Jeff King opted to select Battersby and Jason Hallett up front, with Duffy lining-up on the left of midfield. A familiar-looking defence was also selected as City aimed to progress in the famous knockout competition at a newly-refurbished Butlin Road. Proceedings started brightly for the visitors, with Jeff Minton firing a low strike from the edge of the area inches wide on 12 minutes and seven minutes later Jay Conroy went even closer as he got between defenders on the run to see his brilliant effort towards the top corner tipped over by home goalkeeper Farhad Afandiyev. But things went wrong 24 minutes in, Fiston Manuella hacking down Matt Gearing in the area to give away a spot kick. Jason Taylor stepped-up to place the penalty accurately into the bottom corner, giving Richard McKinney between the City sticks no chance. Gearing himself then tested the former Manchester City and Northern Ireland custodian shortly afterwards with a close-range header and Taylor was presented with a decent opportunity as some loose defending allowed him to surge through and slam the ball into the side netting. The game was beginning to slip away from Chelmsford though they always had Hallett to look to at the other end and when Manuella headed to the burly striker five minutes before the break, he hooked at goal to give Afandiyev another worry. Duffy was seeing a lot of the ball on the left wing with little end product and on the other flank Mario Noto went close on the whistle as he tricked past his markers and shot wide of the near post without troubling the 'keeper. After the break a Stuart Ainsley free-kick dropped onto the roof of the net for the visitors while McKinney was called into action at the other end to produce another magnificent stop before the hungry Chelmsford levelled proceedings. Duffy was played in behind the defence on 53 minutes and he rolled the ball wide of Afandiyev into the net despite the best efforts of Chris Tullin tracking back in a vain attempt to prevent it crossing the line. It was a rare goal for Duffy, who could have doubled his and City's tally within minutes but his strike from ten yards just cleared the bar following some resilient build-up play from Hallett. Chelmsford were flying at this stage yet they still had to remain on their guard as Taylor once again breached the back line to race through only to find McKinney in top form to block his advances. The rebound, in fact, landed kindly for David Stone but the best he could do was slice wide. However, City were to gain the advantage on 70 minutes with a beautifully-struck second from Battersby. After Rugby only half-cleared a corner kick from the right wing, he got his head over the ball to hammer into the top corner from inside the box past a crowd of defenders. Rather than finding themselves defending a slim advantage, City were in a position to attack and further increase the cushion, particularly after the addition of sprightly forward Ricky Holmes to the attack from the bench. With little less than ten minutes left, his cheeky back-heel when running towards the corner opened space up for Duffy who teed-up Battersby for a simple tap-in which was blocked. Though Holmes managed to complete the scoring with a scintillating goal of his own. Four minutes from time, and with the whole Rugby team occupied with finding a goal, a swift break saw Minton win the ball and feed Holmes who half-volleyed first-time into the net for a quality third which sent the large travelling contingent wild and confirmed Jeff King's men entered the Fourth Qualifying Round Draw on Monday late-morning. City: 1 Richard McKinney 12 Gavin Heeroo (On for Manuella, 90) Rugby Town: Farhad Afandiyev, Ross Harris, Chris Tullin, Craig Herbert, Delroy Gordon, Danny Hall, Matt Gearing, Willis Francis, Jason Taylor, David Stone, Aaron Stringfellow. Subs: Tom Breward, Tom Manship, Fabian Smith, Andy Commander, Simon Lynn (GK). Bookings: City: Conroy (64, simulation). Referee: Mr Nigel Day (Stoke-on-Trent). Assistant Referees: Mr Charles Collin (Loughborough) and Mr Mark Johnson (Loughborough). Attendance: 546. City Man of the Match: Richard McKinney. |
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By Chris
Evans (Picture by Matt Bradshaw)
