Game 51 - Grimsby Borough v Pontefract Collieries Thursday 11th March 2010 NCEL League Cup Fourth Round

After Borough's win in the previous my daughter expressed the wish to go to the next round. Now as she lives in Leicester at the moment I could not see this working out but by a quirk of fate she is back home on the very night of the game, so we find ourselves heading for The Hawthorns again for the game against Pontefract. It does not take long to get there and we find a space to park the car and it does not look like the game is the hottest destination for the night.

The game is, to be honest, pretty poor and chances in the first half are few and the most interesting part is when the Borough right back gives us the evils for not returning the ball to him when it comes into the stand for a throw in. The thing was matey it was all the way down the stand, nowhere near us and the bloke down there was already getting it! So 0-0 at half time.


After 50 minutes my daughter tweets "This has penalties written all over it". How right she is, but they come a lot earlier than we were anticipating. On 55 minutes the ball is played into the Borough box and the following shot hits a defender on the arm and the referee points to the spot. I think it is a bit harsh as it was more ball to arm rather than arm to ball. Pontefract are not complaining though and top scorer Carl Fothergill scores an excellent penalty to give them the lead.

5 minutes later another penalty is awarded, this time to Borough, and a little bit more clear cut this time. Once again it is a well taken penalty, this one from Lewis Buckthorpe. So it is all level again and neither side seems able to get hold of the game and there are very few chances created. Something is starting to bug by the end of the second half though .Every two minutes you hear a player shouting "Time!", why I do not know, as not one player has bothered to take on board this advice all night. The game stumbles to full time and so its extra time. Joy unconfined.

To be honest we might as well have cut the extra time out and gone straight to the penalty shoot out. Neither side makes much effort to win the game and it seems they are just waiting for the penalties. Which is what we get. This is the best part of the game. We have 13 excellent penalties, two fantastic saves from the Borough keeper and one crossbar rattling penalty. The upshot of which means that Borough win 7-6 on penalties. The Borough faithful and playing staff are ecstatic, the semi-final is next. And guess what, she says she wants to come back for that one too!

I nearly forgot, but thank you to Helen for letting me use her photos of the game.

Grimsby Borough 1-1 Pontefract Collieries
Att: 16
Admission: £4
Programme: £1