8th March 2003

Hedon United 1 v 2 Westella & Willerby

Westella & Willerby narrowly scraped through to a second round meeting with North Ferriby Res in the Grays League Cup,after a hard fought victory over a determined Hedon Utd at Drapers Lane . On a very heavy pitch, and with a strong wind & driving rain, Westella struggled to find much rhythm and had to scrap for a result from the first minute. Playing into the wind in the first half Westella coped well with any Hedon attacks and restricted them to a couple of long range efforts from Damien Cane. On the few occasions Westella did get their passing game going they were unable to cause Oliver in the Hedon goal many problems, although after 25 mins Nicky Laughton went close with a header from a Jamie Robinson cross. Eventually after 35 mins, the one flowing move of the half led to Westella taking the lead. An interchange of passes between, Gibson, Derbyshire, Owen Robinson and Jamie Robinson, led to Dareen McGrath being upended in the box by Oliver. Jamie Robinson converted the resultant penalty to leave Westella 1-0 up at the break.

Unfortunately when the game should have got easier, with the wind at their backs  somehow Westella managed to lose a grip on the game, sitting back deeper and deeper, and not keeping possession of the ball. Consequently Hedon took heart from this and pushed forward at every opportunity, without causing too many problems for Herschell-Smith in the Westella goal. Eventually though Hedon got due reward for their efforts when one of their promising youngsters Longhorne scored an excellent equaliser after 75 mins. At this point there really only looked to be one winner, but Owen Robinson was to have a final dramatic say on proceedings. With a minute left on the clock, the Westella midfielder played a one-two with Darren McGrath, ran on into the box past the last defender and rounded Oliver to score an outstanding winner, to give Westella an unlikely victory. A piece of real quality in an other wise disappointing game.