The Buildbase FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round
Evesham United 3-2 Leek Town by Dean Speake
Football has a habit of throwing up coincidences, especially in cup competitions. Today’s fixture in Third Qualifying Round of The Buildbase FA Trophy was not going to be left out. Last Saturday, todays opponents played Carlton Town in a league fixture, the side we beat in the previous round of this competition. Leek Town won the fixture 2-1.
Not even a surprise debut by former Stoke City Premier League defender Ryan Shotton could stop The Robins advancing to the 1st Round Proper in this year’s FA Trophy, for the first time in over a decade. Shotton had been persuaded to pull on his boots for his local non-league club by Leek Town manager Neil Baker, due to a mini injury crisis.
Evesham started the game the strongest of the two sides, an early signal of what was to come came in the 5th minute when an excellent ball was played out by Evesham keeper Lewis Clayton, which found Harry Franklin who slipped his marker, his cross could not find a United shirt. An excellent move down the right was followed by a quality cross from Aaron Basford but, Franklin could not connect with the ball for a finishing touch.
In the 14th minute ‘The Robins’ got their reward for early pressure, Franklin and the ball evaded the defender before Harry slotted the ball past Daniel Roberts in the Leek goal.
The visitors then showed why they had won their previous five games, playing some very lively football which required some stout defending from Evesham skipper Matt Williams to keep Leek from finding an equaliser. A very noisy 271 strong crowd did not have to wait too long for another goal, in the 25th minute some excellent football in the build-up involving Adam Mace & Jack Horrell with the final ball finding Franklin, the Leek keeper could not stop his powerful strike, much to the delight of the Evesham fans.
Both sides continued to entertain by playing some good passing football but were both limited to long range shots due to some excellent defending.
A serious head/neck injury to Leek’s Rob Stevenson followed by five minutes of treatment before being stretchered off led to seven minutes of first half injury time.
The visitors started the second half the stronger side with Will Saxons 1st minute shot going straight at Clayton. A long range shot from Dan Tricket-Smith looked goalbound but, the crossbar came to Evesham’s rescue.
Despite the visitors being the better side for the opening 10 minutes of the second half, it was Evesham who would find the net again. An excellent solo run by Aaron Basford before playing the ball to Mace whose ball into the box found Franklin who calmly slotted the ball home to complete his hat trick.
Leek Town were not going to sit back and accept their fate, Will Saxon found himself unmarked in the box and his well-placed shot found the back of the net in the 62nd minute. The deficit was again reduced on 70 minutes when Evesham’s defence were unable to clear the ball, James Kirby was on hand to fire the ball home.
A very nervy final 20 minutes ensued but it was not to be for Leek, the final meaningful chance of the game came when ‘The Robins’ defence cleared the ball off the line with 80 minutes on the clock.
Franklin scored hat trick
EUFC Man of Match: Harry Franklin
Attendance: 271
Evesham United: Clayton, Lymn, Mace, Williams©, Paddock, Sheehan, Hayes (Staten 70), Dinsley (Hunt 31), Basford (Tustin 79), Franklin, Horrell. Subs Not Used: Clarke, Johnson, Rogers.
