Recap

Westfields 4 – Plane, Peters, Greaves, Thomas
Malvern Town 4 – Turner 2, Clarke, Harris

Westfields win 8-7 on penalties

WESTFIELDS SUPER SUBS DO THE TRICK
PENALTY SHOOT-OUT IS SUPERB

Westfields and visitors Malvern Town served up a cup classic on Saturday when they met in the Bluefin Hellenic League Cup Second Round tie at allpay.park and Westfields came back on 3 occasions from being behind to force a 4-4 draw in normal time and then won a breath-taking penalty shoot-out 8-7 as the brilliantly taken penalties by both teams went to sudden death.

Earlier the game swung in Malvern’s favour on a number of occasions after the visitors had taken a 22nd minute lead when Matt Turner tapped home a left wing cross to put Malvern Town ahead and then the same player was on the spot to beat Ian Havard with a low shot into the corner of the net after the quick-thinking Malvern attack had cut through the Westfields defence and Turner dispatched the shot into the bottom corner.

With Malvern leading 2-0 at the break the Westfields management team quickly reassembled the side and brought in Sam Plane at left back in place of Sam Rawlings and within 20 minutes of the re-start Sam Plane had pulled Westfields back into the game with a left foot shot which looped over the Malvern keeper into the far corner of the net.

However, Malvern soon restored their 2 goal advantage when Harry Clark scored a fine solo goal to put Malvern back 3-1 ahead before Westfields’ new boy Cameron Peters got on the end of a left wing cross to tuck away his first goal for Westfields to cut the deficit in Malvern’s favour to 3-2.

Westfields then introduced the other 2 substitutes available, Richard Greaves and Aidan Thomas, and these 2 had an immediate impact when Greaves pulled the sides level at 3 apiece in the 80th minute.

However, 3 minutes later in this ding-dong end-to-end battle former Westfields fullback Phil Harris raced through the Westfields defence and fired in a superb long-range effort into the top corner of the net to give Malvern a 4-3 lead and what looked like a passage into the next round of the cup.

However, with the minutes ticking away Westfields drew level in the 89th minute when Greaves got free down the right flank, put over a perfect cross and Aidan Thomas raced in at the far post to slide the ball home to force a penalty shoot-out with the scores at 4-4.

Westfields and Malvern then went toe-to-toe with the penalties with both sides dispatching their allotted 5 penalties each to go into a sudden-death play-off.

The penalty taking was superb by both sides until Malvern striker George Hayes saw his shot saved low by Ian Havard which left Paul Hurrell with the task of seizing the opportunity to end the sudden death and he dispatched the ball superbly to give Westfields an 8-7 win on penalties.

This was a pulsating cup tie especially as Malvern had a number of former Westfields players in their side including James Febery, Jay Saunston, Phil Harris, Ben Miller, George Hayes, Sam Hunt and of course Dean Whittal-Williams who is the Malvern Town manager.

This was a classic cup tie and it was Westfields now that go forward to the next round on 19th October.

Next Saturday Westfields are at home again in the Hellenic League Premier Division when they host Brackley Saints at allpay.park, kick-off 3pm.  The following Tuesday Westfields travel to Ledbury Town for the First Round of the HFA County Senior Challenge Cup, kick-off 7.45pm at Ledbury, as Westfields start their defence of the County Challenge Cup which they won last year at Edgar Street.