No cup glory for Blues

The Blues exited the Notts FA Senior Cup at the first hurdle as a combination of a pacy young Eastwood side and an unfamiliar pitch proved to be their downfall. Almost inevitably there were five enforced changes to the side that played so well at Scunthorpe on Saturday with Ricky North, Alex Hales, Reece Carlisle and Rhys Stanley all added to the squad.
From the first whistle Town found themselves under pressure as Eastwood exploited their relative familiarity with the artificial pitch, Nathan Burrows having to work overtime to keep them at bay. The first goal however was down purely to poor marking as Webb’s corner was headed powerfully home by Conn with 8 minutes on the clock. Newark then had a let off as Jack Smith’s shot came back off the post, Sam Wilford hacking the ball off the line from Smith’s follow up shot. A brilliant block from Burrows then denied Smith again before he was beaten twice in as many minutes, both efforts fortunately being ruled out for offside. Tyler Martin was unlucky to overrun the ball after being played in by North, but this was a rare excursion into Eastwood’s territory as the visitors doubled their lead on 21 minutes through Webb. The goal was scored as the Blues were down to ten men as Pearce suffered a painful knee injury after catching his foot in the surface, limping off to be replaced by Carlisle. Burrows was Town’s saviour again as he came out well to force Webb’s shot over the bar. As Newark finally began to get a toehold in the game Short made a timely interception to deny Sam Betts before Jordan Cummings sent a wicked free kick across the penalty area. Good work by Reece Self on the left gave Wilford an opportunity but his shot was too high. Half time saw the Blues possibly relieved to be only two in arrears.
The second half was more even, North putting in Tyler Martin who saw his perfectly timed shot brilliantly diverted over the bar by Pearson. Town were given a lifeline after 62 minutes when out of the blue Alex Hales unleashed a 30 yard shot which flew past the keeper. It was however short lived as four minutes later Will Nelson was adjudged to have brought a forward down in the area. Jack Smith saw his shot saved by Burrows but reacted first to tuck the loose ball into the net. Rhys Stanley made his first appearance of the season and Martin had a shot well saved, but to be honest the result was never in doubt and Eastwood duly made it into round two.