Harefield Utd 1 – 2 Wealdstone
Harefield UnitedF
1 - 2 (AET)
Wealdstone
Wealdstone: Carter A, Duncan J*. Courtnage R* Ryan D, Butler D, Carter M, Shaw J. McKeown G, Morgan M*, Jolly R, Tilbury D. Subs Williams T, Alexander B, Burrell G
Harrow Times
Wealdstone 2 – 1 Harefield United
WALDSTONE made hard work of beating a spirited Harefield side 2-1 to lift the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup at Staines on Wednesday, in front of a crowd of of 449.
It was not the best of starts for Stones: after just 12 minutes Rob Courtnage went into a challenge and fell awkwardly breaking his wrist and was taken to Ashford Hospital by club physio Richard Crook.
Gary Burrell replaced the unfortunate defender.
Harefield, from the Spartan South Midlands League, were fielding four former Wealdstone players, Nathan Cobb, James Keen, Simon Conway and Alan Galloway.
Galloway should have opened the scoring when his good effort was blocked by captain Martin Carter. But it was the Ryman League side who went ahead, in the 23rd minute.
A Gary Burrell throw in went to Danny Tilbury whose pass found Marvin Morgan, his shot was parried by Nathan Cobb as Richard Jolly latched on to the rebound to fire home.
The lead lasted only eight minutes as poor defending allowed Barry Dunne to shoot past the helpless Andy Carter.
Early in the second-half Richard Jolly had two golden opportunities to seal the tie when he had two one-on-ones with the impressive Nathan Cobb, the first one was saved by the keeper’s legs and the second shot was smothered. A Trevor Dennison effort was finely saved by Andy Carter.
The Harefield keeper fumbled a Tommy Williams effort, only to see Marvin Morgan completely miss the rebound.
With the fourth official signalling two extra minutes before extra-time the referee awarded a generous penalty to Harefield in the 94th minute. Danny Butler was alleged to have pushed Gary Williams.
Justice was done when Andy Carter made an excellent save from Robert Urselloe’s spot-kick.
Nine minutes into the first period of extra-time, a Jason Shaw throw-in found Danny Tilbury who turned brilliantly to fire home to the far post from an acute angle.
In the second period, Stones had to thank keeper Andy Carter again when he made an excellent save from Dunne’s header.
Wealdstone, who were not at their best, held on to win the cup which they had not won outright since 1968, although they did share it with Wembley in 1981.
It was nice to see Rob Courtnage return from hospital just in time to join in the celebrations with his team mates. He was due to have an operation on his wrist the next day (Thursday).
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