Longlevens into Floodlit Cup Quarter Finals after stoppage time winner against Fairford
An injury time effort saw Longlevens earn a place in the Quarter Finals of the Wiseman Lighting Floodlit Cup, beating Fairford Town 2-1 at Cinder Lane on Wednesday night.
The winner was credited to Alex Knight but could have been an own goal, as the Levens man challenged at the back post to meet an Archie Myatt cross and it came after Sol Pryce had cancelled out Ben Lodge’s opener against his former side.
Longlevens will go on to head to Cribbs in their Quarter Final, with the tie initially set for Tuesday 3 February.
Both sides hit the road this weekend, as they return to league action. Fairford head to Slimbridge, whilst Levens make their way up to Worcester Raiders – in two fixtures that could impact the promotion and play-off races.
Wednesday’s re-arranged cup tie started with settling into the wet and windy conditions. Leroy Odiero headed wide from a corner, before Knight had an effort from the edge of the box saved by Ben Mitchell as the sides exchanged early opportunities.
On 12 minutes, the visitors struck after Fin Gwillim’s blocked effort fell to Ben Lodge, who slotted home after his initial effort was saved by Mitchell.
Odiero’s long throws were proving a handy outlet for Sam Collier’s side, with a number of balls into the Longlevens box having to be met with some scrambled defending.
Fairford went close to a leveller on 22 minutes when a corner was swept towards goal by Luke Hitchman, but Drew Brei saved well with his legs.
Brei nearly created a second for his side moments later, when his long ball forward bounced all the way through and his opposite number Mitchell was forced into smart stops from first Fin Gwillim and then Lodge.
Just before half time, the tie could have been all but over as Gwillim was pulled down in the box for a penalty. But the striker’s spotkick was saved by Mitchell and tie remained in the balance at the break.
The penalty miss looked like it could be costly within four minutes of the restart, as Brei shanked a ball passed back to him, straight to Sol Pryce, who got the ball out of his feet and curled brilliantly past the recovering keeper.
Fairford enjoyed their best spell of the game after the equaliser and could have gone ahead on 52 minutes when Tino Shumba was the spare man over on the right, but his effort was saved by Brei’s legs.
After a couple more long throws into the Levens box, the game became very open, yet cagey – particularly with the amount of substitutions being made.
This meant the tie trickled into the last 10 minutes without too much action in either box, but after Myatt got on the end of a Jay Wells diagonal, his cross from the right was too high for fellow substitute Brad Martin, but a combination of Knight and a defender saw the ball deemed to have crossed the line – despite the best efforts from Mitchell.
Longlevens will move onto Saturday’s trip to Worcester full of confidence, whilst Fairford will be looking to end a poor run of form that has seen them lose four of their last five in all competitions as they adapt to the post-Jamie Reid era.
Fairford Town: Mitchell, Cook, Odiero, Ouldridge, Hitchman, Corcoran, Pryce, Hall, Grieve, Presley, Shumba
Subs: Griffin, Wood, Edwards, Hobson-McVeigh, Wallace
Longlevens: Brei, Roddis, Byard, Long, Wells, O’Connor, Williams, Beardsell, Gwillim, Knight, Lodge
Subs: Sherchan, Driscoll, Weyman, Myatt, Martin
C Martin Roofing Man of the Match – Jay Wells (Longlevens)
READ MORE: Check out the list of Saturday’s fixtures in and around Gloucestershire right here
READ MORE: Check out the list of Sunday’s Women’s fixtures in and around Gloucestershire right here
