Darlaston almost pay the penalty following a below par performance

Darlaston Town 2 Alcester Town 2 (pens 4-2)

Darlaston progressed to the Birmingham County FA Vase thanks to keeper Aaron Morris saving two penalties in a tense penalty shoot out.

Darlaston were poor in the opening half and rarely created a threat against their Midland League opposition. The visitors played the better football but failed to pose a threat on the home goal and the first half is best forgotten.

The home side were better in the second half and substitutes Lucas Hough and Sam Melia added pace and tenacity in an effort to motivate their lack lustre colleagues. The quality of their play improved and on the hour Darlaston had the first bleat. Janice of the game when Elia attempted to lob the advancing keeper. Unfortunately for the young striker he did not strike it clearly and his 18 yard finish went well wide. The home side took the lead in bizarre circumstances in the 64th minute. Melia chased a through ball which was collected by keeper Turner. With the keeper ready to clear the ball up field, central defender Pattison kicked out at Melia on an off the ball incident. The incident was spotted by the assistant referee who called over referee Blake who pointed to the penalty spot and cautioned Pattison. Craig Ball despatched the penalty kick high into the top corner.

The incident and goal sparked the game into life and the final 25 minutes were end to end with both sides creating chances.

Visiting defender Pattison was sent off on 68 minutes for comments to the referee. Despite having a man advantage Darlaston did not assert their authority and the visitors equalised on 71 minutes when an uncharacteristic mistake by skipper Ryan McAllister was pounced on by Mumford who easily beat keeper Morris from 6 yards.

Darlaston responded immediately and just 2 minutes later they were back on front. Defender Ashley Justin turning home a Callum Wood free kick.

With five minutes left a Martin Stanton header looked to have settled the game but a superb goal line clearance by Hill denied the home side. With just seconds remaining Alcester grabbed a deserved equaliser with the best goal of the game. Substitute Robbie Davies cut inside from the left wing leaving two defenders in his wake before unleashing a superb curling drive from 20 yards which left keeper Morris groping at thin air.

The game went straight to penalties with Ball, Hough, Wood and Stanton all converting for Darlaston as Morris denied Mumford and Davies with two excellent saves from the spot.

Despite the win player/ manager was unhappy with his sides performance " We were poor today, probably our worst performance since the opening day of the season. We were sloppy in our passing and we just did not work hard enough in the opening 45 minutes. We were better in the second half but when we went in front and they were reduced to 10 men we should have kept the ball better and make them chase the game. Instead we laid off them and they gained confidence and deservedly got back into the game."