BENFIELD’S LAZARUS IMPERSONATION
I did Newcastle Benfield a massive dis-service 49 minutes into this game.
They’d just conceded another goal to go 3-0 down to a team a couple of leagues higher up the football pyramid. I thought they were dead and buried. In the margins of my notebook I scribbled “Can’t see Benfield coming back from this.”
Wrong.
Although they eventually lost 5-3 to Workington AFC in this Emirates FA Cup replay, they put the frighteners on the Cumbrians with a spirited comeback.
Ten minutes into the game we were fearing the worst. The Ebac Northern League team were 2-0 down thanks to goals by Scott Allison and Max Brown. Workington were looking dangerous every time they went forward and the Benfield defence were under the cosh for 20 minutes.
It took Benfield quite some time to get their game on an even keel, with Workington technically superior, with a better first touch, better passing and better movement on and off the ball.
Slowly the Tynesiders started to work a couple of openings: Joe Robson with a downward header which went just wide of the post and then from a long clearance by keeper Matthew Bancroft, Dennis Knight getting goal side of the Workington defence and lobbing Bancroft’s opposite number Aaron Taylor only for the ball to sail a foot over the bar.
Knight followed that up with two more efforts 15 minutes later: a free kick which got a deflection, forcing Taylor to scramble across his goal line to get his fingertips to the ball and push it out for a corner. Then the Benfield No. 9 took a ball knocked into the box from the left but he couldn’t get any power in the shot which went straight at Taylor.
Dale Pearson completed the hat-trick of chances for Benfield in quick succession, with the best of the three in the 41st minute when he beat the offside trap and tried to lob the Workington keeper, forcing Taylor to be at full stretch to gather the ball. Another foot and it would have gone in.
The Cumbrians started the second half as well as they’d started the first, with Brown bending a shot just wide after Benfield failed to clear the ball from their box and then Bancroft just getting enough on a shot by Conor Tinnion. Seconds later Benfield were 3-0 when Sam Joel poked the ball into the net from a corner.
It didn’t look good for Benfield. I wasn’t the only one who thought that the rest of the game was going to be a formality, but with half an hour to go they gave themselves just a little bit of hope when Pearson produced a quality strike from the corner of the box to make it 3-1.
Minutes later a little bit of hope had been turned into one of those “Oh, hang on a minute, this might get interesting” moments when Robson sneaked in between a couple of Workington defenders to head the ball into the net. They were back in the game.
All of a sudden the Workington defence started to wobble, with Benfield ploughing forward with renewed energy and confidence. Cumbrian No. 4 Dan Wordsworth almost put a header into his own net in the 75th minute. Three minutes later he under hit a ball back to his keeper. Benfield substitute Paul Brayson intercepted the pass and was one-on-one with Taylor but he couldn’t make the most of a golden opportunity to level the scores and his shot was too close to the Workington No. 1 who blocked it.
Going into the final five minutes, it was Benfield doing all the attacking and then they fell victim to two quick strikes. In the 88th minute Rhys Evans put the ball into his own net at a corner and then a minute or so later, Allison set Workington substitute Sheldon Mossop up and he managed to find the gap between Bancroft and the post to make it 5-2.
Unbelieavably the scoring still wasn’t over. Brayson managed to score in the 92nd minute – too late to prevent Benfield going out of the cup. It was tough on them, but it had been a cracking performance.
Workington AFC 5 Newcastle Benfield 3 – Emirates FA Cup First Round Qualifying Replay.
Mike Snowdon