Holbeach United 2
Huntingdon Town 1
Super-sub Jordan Keeble nodded a deflected injury-time winner to earn Holbeach United a laboured 2-1 win over Huntingdon Town in the Buildbase FA Vase on Saturday.
Keeble, not for the first time this season, jumped off the bench to head an improvised effort into the net two minutes into added time at Carter’s Park to ensure the Tigers advanced to the first round proper.
In-form striker Lewis Leckie had earlier given Holbeach a 15th-minute lead, only for Steve Slack to level for ChormaSport UCL Division One side Huntingdon 12 minutes later.
It almost got worse for Seb Hayes’ side too, with keeper Ricky Drury pulling off an excellent second-half penalty save to deny Connor Clarke.
Keeble’s winner spared Holbeach’s blushes, but Hayes was far from pleased with what he saw from his side against one of his former clubs despite the scoreline.
“I’m actually feeling a little gutted,” said the Tigers chief. “We were so bad today.
“They had a way of playing and we dropped our standards and played with a lack of imagination.
“It was a sloppy performance. I’ve spoken about it and the lads have said it’s good that they’re able to win when we’re sloppy, but I can’t have that performance.
“From the first minute I worried that it was going to be ‘one of those days’. Nick Jackson couldn’t play, Joe Braithwaite played with vertigo and we lost Mitch Griffiths – currently our most creative player – to injury early on.
“We did go 1-0 up and I thought I could relax a little bit, but we just didn’t play after that. I lost count, we must have had 30 corners? There was just no consistency to our play at all.
“It was also the worst we’ve defended all season. Their goal was absolutely horrendous on our part.
“I don’t want to crucify my lads after a win. Huntingdon don’t have a lot of quality, but fair play to them, they got men behind the ball. If I’d have been in their position, I’d have done exactly the same.
“We were devoid of creativity and ideas and, although we had more of the ball, we struggled with it.
“In the end, it took young Jordan Keeble coming off the bench to make something happen for us again.
“What I love about Jordan is that he thinks on his feet. Another player might have chested that ball – be he knew he couldn’t do that, so he just headed the ball into a good area and made something happen for us.
“He keeps on doing it for us, so he’s got to get a chance to start sooner or later.
“To be honest, the only other thing we were good at today was being horrible on the sideline and pitch. We got after the officials, which I hate, but I think our gamesmanship helped us win the game.
“It’s a horrible part of the game and I don’t like it, but if you don’t do it you’ll get beat.
“The game was a typical UCL match for January. We didn’t use any of our quality to take things to the next level. But we nicked a goal in added time, which we have been doing a lot this season.
“Apart from Ricky (Drury), nobody played well for us. But, overall, I’m just very happy to be in the hat for the next round.”
Holbeach faced something of a selection dilemma ahead of the clash, with skipper Jackson unavailable and fellow defender Braithwaite starting despite suffering with vertigo.
Things didn’t get any better early on, with Griffiths pulling up with a hamstring problem. He was about to be substituted on 15 minutes before curling a fine free-kick towards the top corner.
An acrobatic save from Quincy Shorunmu denied him, but Leckie pounced on the rebound and, at the second attempt, fired the Tigers ahead with a typical finish.
Holbeach had chances to extend their lead as the ever-dangerous George Zuerner saw his back-post effort blocked and Will Bird nodded over, before Charley Sanders showed great pace and power to race through and force a low save from Shorunmu.
But you never sensed that the Tigers were totally comfortable and some poor marking in their own box allowed Huntingdon defender Slack in for a free header to level.
The equaliser knocked the hosts’ confidence a little, but they were unlucky not to go into the half-time break ahead after Zuerner’s close-range strike was superbly saved and Sanders saw a goal ruled out for offside.
Holbeach looked the better side early in the second period and almost went ahead when Stacy Cartwright’s whipped free-kick came back off the far post, before Sanders had an effort kicked off the line by Slack.
However, it was Huntingdon who had a golden opportunity to grab the third goal of the game when Dan Dougill fouled Clarke in the box. The striker picked himself up to take the penalty, but saw his low drive turned away by the excellent Drury.
The game then began to get a little niggly, with the flashpoint being a horrible tackle from Joe Brown on Holbeach youngster Lewie Harker. The Town sub was perhaps fortunate to escape with a yellow.
It felt like extra-time was going to be required as proceedings petered out, only for Keeble to pinch it for the Tigers at the death with a clever header that took a sizeable deflection.
There was barely time for the game to re-start, meaning Holbeach secured the £900 prize money and a coveted place in the first round proper.
Tigers: Drury, Medwynter, Harker, Braithwaite (Keeble 46), Cartwright, Tinkler, Zuerner (Jack Smith 86), Griffiths (Dougill 16), Bird, Sanders, Leckie.
