Houghton Cup Round 1

 As this game got underway it was Venture Athletic verses Amberswood, both teams had opportunities early on. Amberswood after three heavy defeats tried to tighten up their defence, which they did of a fasion as they never looked troubled until a bread and butter take form Amberswood keeper Danny Hilton gifted Venture Athletic the lead after twenty minutes as a long over the top ball was ruuning straight through to the goalkeeper, he came out and misjudjed the bounce and it went over the top of him, into the path of the centre forward who scored into an empty net.

Amberswood soon hit back as they had a lot of pressure on the Venture Athletic back four, the ball was played out to right winger Dean Scouler who carried the ball down to the corner flagbefore cutting back and passing the ball to Antony Whitton inside the box who took one touch to control it and set himself before placing the ball into the corner of the net.

Amberswood had chances to go ahead, but were thwarted by some last ditch defending by Venture Athletic who cleared twice off the line as Steven Bannister took a lethal corner kick, which bobbled around in the box and Antony Whitton struck the ball with venom goalbound, only to see a defender clear the ball off the line, but the clearance went straight up in the air and about ten yards to give the incoming Carl Stocks a ferocious volley, that was also cleared off the line for a corner kick.

Both sides had more and more chances, but it was Venture Athletic who struck next as they passed the ball out to the wing who ran down the line and hit a diagonal shot across the face of goal and the striker came in to volley the ball home to make it two goals to one.

Just before half time Amberswood scored a second equaliser, after another Steven Bannister corner was crossed into the near post area and centreback Barry Jones flicked a near post header into the next.

Then straight from kickoff Venture scored again as they went down the right hand side and struck a shot to the near post, which seemed to squirm through the goalkeepers fingers and into the back of the net to make it three two.

In the second half Amberswood attacked time and time again and struggled to grab an equaliser. Antony Whitton had two more opportunities cleared off the line, and Antony Whitton threaded a ball through to John Warburton who was inches away from converting from three yards out.

With ten minutes to go Amberswood changed formation to 4-3-3 in search of an equaliser, but were also forced into a defensive substitution and with only minutes to go came the sucker punch as the Venture Athletic striker hit a cross shot towards the far corner and onrushing striker converted into the net, although Amberswood thought the striker was offside, the referee gave the goal to make it 4 goals to 2.

Final Score: Venture Athletic 4 Amberswood 2

Man Of The Match: Barry Jones who was comfortable at the back and scored the second equaliser.