Weather relents for amateur league
The poor weather conditions previously, and problems over the staging of the competition had denied the side time to practice together, and so the first stages of the match were bound to be a little disorganised, although the situation was helped by the majority of the players being drawn from two sides.
The Amateur League side received a massive fillip when taking the lead midway through the first half with a neat finish from AFC Hull's Tony Tummon, and the advantage was comfortably protected to the interval, and could have been added to by Sean Scotthorne if he had exercised a little more steadiness when shooting on goal.
Half time encouragements for the Amateur League side to step up a gear, went badly awry when a misjudgement in putting the ball out of play, where little danger existed, allowed the Humber Premier side to equalise within two minutes of the restart.
The setback did not over affect the Amateur League's composure, and around the hour mark, Swiss Cottage's Sean Scotthorne made amends for his earlier miss with a sweet right foot strike into the net.
The Amateur League remained comfortable, but when a free kick was conceded just outside their penalty area, the opportunity was given for the HPL side to strike on goal, and a well-placed free-kick brought the scores level.
With no extra periods planned, the match had to be decided by a penalty shoot out, and when the Amateur League keeper, Banks Harbour's Craig Broadley saved the first spot kick, he gave his side massive confidence boost and successively Tony Tummon, Jason Watson, Callum Harrison and Andy Pegden stepped up to convert.
The next three HPL kick takers were also successful, but their fifth nominee also failed to beat the keeper, and the Amateur League side were delighted to progress and now face the mammoth task posed by the Hull Sunday Seniors on February 2.
The awful weather conditions which had prevented the resumption of league games after the Christmas break, bar four games, relented a little over the past week.
After all the snow had gone and prospects looked better, a day of incessant rain on Friday, brought water-logging back to pitches, and only five games were able to take place.
Premier Division leaders Pinefleet Wolfreton, who had been inactive since December 12, faced a tricky looking fixture against Swiss Cottage RBL, who had actually played twice in the same period and collected four points.
Straight from the start Pinefleet showed their intent of attacking and created a chance after a minute or so when Callum Harrison was put through on goal and he made no mistake with a cool finish.
After their encouraging start, Pinefleet settled into some nice passages of play knocking the ball around on a very heavy pitch and were stopped on occasions by some heavy tackles, as Swiss struggled to contain livewire Dave Fee, and though the tackles brought reprimands from the referee, no cards were produced.
The marauding runs of Fee and his right back partner Fergal O'Hara were creating more and more trouble for Swiss, but after Pinefleet missed a hatful of chances and hit the woodwork twice, and with Swiss keeper John Scott pulling off his usual quota of stunning saves, Swiss broke out when Pinefleet's Gareth Monkman dallied on the halfway line and Sean Scotthorne was able to race away and into the area, where he was tackled from behind.
The usual arguments regarding last man on goal ensued but referee Lawrenson saw Andy Hemmings' challenge as worthy of only a yellow card and Scotthorne picked himself up to take the penalty – which was saved by keeper Dean Brown, but the ball rebounded to the penalty taker, who smashed the ball home at the second attempt, leaving the half unbelievably level at 1-1.
In the second half Pinefleet established a pretty tight grip on the game and play became one way in a blistering 25-minute spell, but keeper Scott was still proving a formidable obstacle to overcome.
It was fitting Pinefleet did achieve the breakthrough, but each goal which was scored only came after the ball rebounded from a Scott save – the first by Graham Waudby who was on hand, or more accurately on the floor, but swept the ball home for 2-1, and straight away there was another passage of play and this time Gary Marsden was able to stab the ball home from close range.
Waudby soon added his second goal, again from close in, after which he was substituted. Pinefleet's Callum Harrison rounded off their scoring, this time from around 18 yards.
To their credit Swiss never stopped working and got a late consolation goal from Rich Sullivan to make the final result a more respectable 5-2.
AFC Hull and Cavalier Wanderers were similarly returning to action after an extended break, and AFC Hull were looking to return to their good late form of 2009, while Cavalier were looking for an improved second half to the season.
AFC Hull were without the suspended Dale Carty, but welcomed new signings in Pete Miller and Simon Worthington for their debuts on a cold January Saturday afternoon.
AFC Hull started the new year firing on all cylinders, and it took just 88 seconds for Sean McFaul to thread an excellent ball through to prolific striker Nathan Nuttall, who was able to adjust his feet before placing the ball past the Wanderers keeper for the first goal of the game.
Despite this early setback, Cavalier responded by looking for an equaliser, and came close 10 minutes later when AFC Hull defender Luke Martin was caught in possession in the penalty area, but keeper Craig Lindley gathered up the resulting shot.
Play went straight up to the other end of the pitch where AFC Hull were denied a goal only by an excellent goal-line clearance from a Wanderers defender.
Full-back Jamie Gascoigne doubled the Reds' advantage half an hour into the first half when he leapt to meet a Nathan Nicol cross and powered his header home at the far post.
Despite this setback, Cavalier remained determined to get back into the match and their efforts were rewarded just before half-time, when the Referee Simon Hunt awarded a penalty after Martin was adjudged to have tripped a forward in the penalty area, but the spot kick was saved by Lindley, denying Cavalier a foothold back in the game.
AFC Hull started the second half even quicker than the first and just 26 seconds after the restart, Sam Nicholson set up Nathan Nicholl, who hammered a great shot from the edge of the box to extend the lead to three goals.
On the hour mark, the otherwise disciplined AFC Hull back four allowed the visitors to scramble a ball into the back of their net, but the possibility of Cavalier staging a fightback was removed two minutes later when an inch-perfect Nathan Nuttall cross found Nathan Nicol, who placed the ball into the back of the net with aplomb.
The scoring was wrapped up 10 minutes from time, when Nicol returned the favour by setting up Nuttall for his hat-trick.
With one pitch at Hull University surprisingly being declared playable, Willerby Holiday Homes, who have been chomping at the bit, were able to resume action, ironically against improving AFC Hull Reserves.
Willerby opened the scoring when Joe Hewitt went past four defenders before coolly slotting the ball home, but AFC Hull drew level from the penalty spot.
The scoring scenario then repeated with Willerby regaining the lead with a low drive from Dave Bryant, the equaliser this time coming from an own goal by Gary Allott!
The second half saw Carl Tozer give Willerby the lead once again, before Dave Bryant scored his second goal, described as the best goal ever seen in amateur football by club secretary Gary Neve – an acrobatic overhead Brazilian style kick executed by the 35-year- old from a superb Tozer cross, with the ball whizzing past the watching AFC Hull keeper.
AFC Hull Reserves added a further consolation goal, but the lasting memory of the game was the Samba football from Bryant!
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