loading...

Aylesbury progressed to the 2nd Round of the Challenge Trophy with an eventually comfortable 4-1 win over Tring Corinthians, and in doing so went one better than their previous season’s exploits in the competition.

Tony Joyce elected to make 6 changes to Saturday’s defeat at Royston Town, and two of the new men made their mark with Joey Acheampong scoring in his first start of the season and Lewis Hallford setting up two goals against a tiring and increasingly ragged Tring in the final twenty minutes.

Aylesbury made all the early running in a strong start, as they looked to assert their authority in the opening minutes. In just the second minute a cracking shot from Edgeworth nearly broke the crossbar having been set up by Simpson, before another shot by the United number eleven had a was easily fielded two minutes later, again having been played in by his strike partner Simpson.

King twice tried his luck, with a header from Hallford’s corner, and an ambitious drive which flew harmlessly wide, and a long ranger from Townsend also ended similarly, as United were unable to make their early flurry count.

Instead, Tring were allowed to come into the game as the Ducks grew rather complacent – wasteful in possession and generally not showing the quality needed to unpick a well organised visiting side.

They could justifiably have gone ahead, as Owen-Edwards’ shot snuck through and hit the post with the entire defence and goalkeeper motionless.

Three minutes later another decent move from the visitors ended with Owen-Edwards playing the ball square for Rolsten, but he skewed his shot badly wide.

The chances may have been the wake up call Aylesbury needed, and on 27 minutes they opened the scoring with a quality goal. A quick throw out from goalkeeper Timberlake found Hallford on the right, and he carried the ball forward before releasing King, who in turn drove to the byline and delivered a pinpoint cross which was met by Edgeworth who powered home an unstoppable header. 1-0 Aylesbury

‘Corries’ tried to hit back and had a couple of attempts when the dangerous Connor Deadman dragged a shot wide as the ball fell to him following a corner. A well placed free-kick was then fired straight into the wall by Groves moments later.

The unfortunate Justin Gordon, having another steady game following his return to the team, then had to limp out of the game allowing club captain John Mulholland to enter the fray.

Both sides had further chances before the break, with Deadman waltzing past two half-hearted challenges but getting a rush of blood to the head and hammering a shot over with the goal in his sights. Then, on the end of another counter-attack, Owen-Edwards drilled a shot just over the bar from the edge of the box.

A half where Aylesbury had done just enough to warrant their lead was then rounded off by Simpson hitting the post from all of 2-yards out from another telling Hallford corner kick delivery.

Half-time: Aylesbury 1-0 Tring Corinthians

Aylesbury made a nightmare start to the second half, when, less than a minute from the restart, the ball was worked to Deadman on the edge of the area, and hit a clever reverse shot which left Timberlake wrongfooted to (deservedly at that point) level the match. 1-1

Parity lasted just three minutes though, United re-establishing their lead with another well worked goal. Edgeworth’s clever flick around the corner released Acheampong in behind the defence, and he produced the kind of clinical finish so often missing from his game to tuck the ball into the bottom corner. 2-1 Aylesbury

With control re-established, United began to relax a bit and nearly extended their lead five minutes on when Mulholland’s goalbound corner kick header hit Edgeworth on the line.

Ben Baines entered the action and he linked up well with Jack Wood in the box, seeing his final shot stopped by the keeper. Wood netted the rebound but had been flagged offside and the goal was chalked off.

As the minutes ticked by, Hallford was having an increasing effect on the game against the tiring Tring backline, with his direct raids down the right flank a constant menace.

One such run ended with the ball being cut back where a shot hit the post, and two minutes later yet another of his corners caused problems when Mulholland’s header was directed goalwards by Baines, only for goalkeeper McIntyre to kick the ball off the line.

Out of the blue, Tring then had a great chance to equalise, as a long ball downfield released the pacy Owen-Edwards but his attempt to lob Timberlake dropped wide of the target in what was a poor finish ultimately.

The result was finally settled in the 70th minute, Edgeworth bagging his second of the night when he glanced Hallford’s accurate near post free kick delivery into the net. 3-1 Aylesbury

Six minutes later and it was four, with Hallford heavily involved again. Racing away down the right he drew the keeper out before gliding round him and teeing up Baines who gratefully accepted the invitation to smash the ball into the empty net. 4-1 Aylesbury

Aylesbury could have added to the scoring, as Baines, Mercer and Hallford all went close in the final stages. But any further goals would have been harsh on Tring, whose spirited performance belied their two-league inferiority.

It was a satisfying win for the Ducks though after a match which had threatened to go awry. The reward is a 2nd Round tie against Risborough Rangers.

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Undefined constant "text" in /var/www/vhosts/aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk/httpdocs/match.php:3002 Stack trace: #0 {main} thrown in /var/www/vhosts/aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk/httpdocs/match.php on line 3002