Aylesbury progressed to the second round of the Premier Division Cup for the first time courtesy of a 3-2 home win over Broxbourne Borough.
A barnstorming start which yielded a three-goal cushion in just over half an hour wasn’t maintained by the Ducks, who allowed their opponents back into the match and make for a rather tense end to proceedings.
Tony Joyce, able to celebrate a win in his 100th game in charge of the club, named his full strength lineup, and it took just two minutes for the deadlock to be broken. An awful back pass released Edgeworth one-on-one, but as he tried to round keeper Jason Holmes he was just clipped and amongst the stumbling the referee pointed to the spot. Perhaps surprisingly, there was no further retribution for Holmes despite what must have been ‘denial of a goalscoring opportunity’. No matter, as Mulholland stepped up to confidently dispatch the penalty and establish himself as his side’s joint top scorer with 6 goals. 1-0 Aylesbury
Mulholland was unlucky on 10 minutes when his header from Jones’ corner kick hit the bar, before a flowing move down the right ended with King’s low cross being swept out for a throw in.
Broxbourne were playing the better football, but they were unable to make anything of it by means of goalscoring opportunities.
Instead, it was all United, who somehow didn’t double their lead on the quarter hour mark. A lofted ball in from the right found Jones at the far post and his shot was clawed away with a good save by Holmes. Acheampong was first to the rebound and hammered it in hard and low but a defender got a crucial block in.
A minute later carnage in the Borough box ensued as Acheampong’s driving run resulted in his weak shot bobbling through to Edgeworth. His curling effort was well saved by Holmes, Tom Barnett’s follow up looked to be heading in but cruelly rebounded off the post, before Jones’ effort from the second rebound was also saved by Holmes.
The lead was deservedly extended in the 22nd minute. Acheampong made mincemeat of full back Joel Desai before teeing up Edgeworth who easily passed the ball into the net, for his own 6th goal of the season. 2-0 Aylesbury
Another made scramble two minutes later somehow didn’t result in number three for Aylesbury, whilst Mulholland had a couple of further headed attempts come to nothing, and Acheampong tricked his way past three defenders before shooting into the side netting on this occasion.
Two minutes later and Broxbourne must have been fearing another big defeat following on from their 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Dunstable Town when number 3 literally flew in. A telling build up ended with Barnett drilling a low ball across the box where visiting defender Lee Bradshaw stuck out a leg but could only watch in horror as the ball cannoned into the net. 3-0 Aylesbury
But instead of capitulating, Broxbourne gave themselves a life line as United conceded a sloppy goal. A cheap free-kick conceded was planted into the bottom corner by Jake Parratt to reduce the deficit with their first shot of the match. 1-3
Aylesbury had been reduced to ten-men following the loss of Paul Edgeworth to injury in the build up to the third goal, and Stacey Field came on to replace him, as Borough also took the opportunity for a change – introducing attacker Jordan Watson for full back Desai who, it’s fair to say, hadn’t enjoyed the best of debuts.
The loss of Edgeworth disrupted United’s rhythm , and where their attack had looked fluid previously it now looked disjointed.
Broxbourne, meanwhile, were boosted by their goal and suddenly looked hungry again. They had a strong penalty appeal for apparent handball turned away, before Junior Adeye found himself clean through following an inadvertent flick by an Aylesbury player. He guided his shot over Sillitoe but saw it rebound back off the crossbar.
The Ducks suffered another blow as Mulholland went down with what looked like a hamstring injury, and although he soldiered on until half time, he was to only last four second half minutes.
Half-time: Aylesbury 3-1 Broxbourne
Aylesbury’s early substitution saw Melford Simpson on for Mulholland, with striker Ben Baines dropping into defence.
It was a much less eventful second half with the sides now better matched. Simpson had the ball in the net early on but his header was ruled out for a clear offside, before Holmes had to scramble away a deflected cross with his legs having nearly been caught out and on 70 minutes Acheampong headed wide from Simpson’s flick when he should really have hit the target.
Once again, for all their intricate passing, Broxbourne were struggling to create much, and had they exhibited more cutting edge to their game then the result might have been different.
They finally found passage to the Aylesbury goal when Williams used his pace to get free of Baines and Wood, but wasted his chance and blazed well over.
Ten minutes from time the visitors should have pulled another goal back, as the Ducks were caught sleeping and Watson’s ball picked out the unattended Adeye, who planted his header wide from 8-yards.
Only one team looked like registering on the scoresheet at this point, and another Borough goal duly arrived with six minutes to go. It was another goal for Aylesbury to regret though, coming as they conceded another cheap free-kick. The ball was swung into the area, headed back across goal into the path of Parratt who couldn’t miss from close range. 2-3
It made for heightened drama in the closing stages as Broxbourne pushed hard for a leveller. There was a let off for the far sided linesman who let the three-yard offside Adeye run clean through but he could only produce a powderpuff finish when faced with Sillitoe.
In the final minute Williams struck a long range effort which moved in the air, but Sillitoe was equal to it and easily caught the ball.
It was a deserved win for the Ducks but should have been far more comfortable than the eventual scoreline was. The two injuries certainly disturbed the team, but the makeshift defence ultimately did enough in the end.
Aylesbury will now be hoping that Mulholland and Edgeworth’s injuries aren’t too serious ahead of their FA Vase curtain-raiser at Reading Town on Saturday.
