Richmond Town (Home): North Riding Senior Cup: Tuesday 1st November 2011

Result: Marske United 1 Richmond Town 0     Scorers: Roberts

Manager Paul Burton was able to select a strong team with only Glenn Wesson, Adam Gell and Steve Cocrane unavailable. Michael Wilson returned after missing the last few games with Basher Roberts partnering Leon Carling at centre back. Rob Jones was given a start up front as Burto chose to rest Danny Brunskill who was on a strong looking bench alongside Benn Thompson, Lee Donachie, Mark Taylor, Andy Raw and Burto himself.

The game started very slowly and it wasn’t until the 10 minute mark that there was a shot on goal when Jones beat two men but shot over from the edge of the box. There was a blow for Marske three minutes later when Adam Wheatley limped off to be replaced by Donachie. This led to Wilson moving from right back to left back and Donachie playing at right back.

Richmond’s first chance fell to Stuart Murr who shot straight at Willey from the edge of the box after Anth Ormerod had lost the ball in midfield. On 26 minutes, Bradley played the ball to Donachie who delivered a quality cross that was headed behind for a corner. From the resultant Bradley corner, Chris McGill headed the ball wide. Marske continued to dominate and created further chances, firstly a Burton free kick was headed clear by the Town defence but the ball fell to Wilson who shot wide from 20 yards. Five minutes before half time, a long ball from Carling was superbly controlled by Charlton who played the ball into the path of Jones who made space but shot wide.

Two minutes before half time, Marske took the lead and it came from an unlikely source. A Charlton corner was headed away but Bradley picked up the ball and crossed to the near post where Roberts flicked the ball home with a finish a striker would have been proud of.

Marske had a further two half chances before half time with Jones shooting wide following a Wilson cross and Charlton shooting over from distance.

Half Time: Marske 1 Richmond Town 0

At the start of the second half Thompson replaced Jones, who had got another valuable 45 minutes under his belt in his quest for full fitness. There was little action in the first 15 minutes of the second half save for a couple of Marske corners that came to nothing. On 58 minutes, Richmond made their first substitution with Richard Christon replacing Ben Holmes. A minute later, a mix up in the Richmond defence led to a McGill shot being blocked. With keeper Cunningham out of his goal, Bradley’s cross was too deep and went out for a goal kick. On 63 minutes, Richmond had their best chance when a cross from the right fell to Tom Keegan about 10 yards out but his shot went way over the bar when he should have hit the target. The best move of the game came 10 minutes later when McGill played in Bradley who passed to Thompson who advanced into the box but curled his shot the wrong side of the post.

With 5 minutes remaining, Richmond had their best chance of the game when Christon failed to hit the target from 12 yards. With that, Richmond’s chance of causing a shock disappeared and Marske comfortably saw out the rest of the game.

Full Time: Marske 1 Richmond Town 0

Richmond battled hard but lacked the class to trouble Marske and despite there only being one goal in it, this was a comfortable victory for Marske. However, like the Stokesley game, it was far from a vintage performance from Marske and a significant improvement is required if they are to beat Ashington on Saturday

Teams:

Marske United: Willey, Wilson, Wheatley (Donachie), Ormerod (Raw), Roberts, Carling, Bradley, J. Burton, Jones (Thompson), McGill, Charlton.  Not used: Taylor, Brunskill, P. Burton.

Richmond Town: Cunningham, Pinkney, Radford, Newall, Atkinson, Keegan, Walker, White, Darville, Holmes (Christon), Murr.

Not used: Sweeney, Hutton, Taylor.