In-form Tydd St Mary stunned higher-graded Netherton United Reserves 2-1 on Saturday to progress in the ChromaSport PDFL’s PFA Challenge Cup.
With Netherton struggling a little in Division One and Tydd on scorching form in Division Two, an upset always looked likely on paper – and so it proved.
Both sides had opportunities early on, but it was the Saints that made the breakthrough on 22 minutes.
Darren Rawthorn played a lovely defence-splitting ball through for Jordan Ainslie to run onto.
Ainslie still had a lot to do despite just having the keeper to beat, but he slammed his effort home to put the Saints ahead.
Netherton then came back into the game and David Cooper twice had to make excellent one-on-one saves to keep the score at 1-0.
On 34 minutes Cooper made another great save – and his cleared ball caught Netherton on the break.
Max Burrell controlled well and then picked out the onrushing Paul Newcombe, who found the top left-hand corner for a great goal to make it 2-0.
The second half saw Tydd have most of the play and they threatened on several occasions, but the Netherton keeper and defence stood strong.
With ten minutes to go Netherton came back into the game and made it 2-1 with a good goal from Jorge Barbosa (80), but the Saints saw out the rest of the match to progress to the next round.
Tydd co-Manager Carl Wilson said “We really have a good group of lads here now. They are listening to what we are asking of them and delivering the results. Things are looking good.”
Saturday: Ketton Res v Tydd St Mary (2pm).
