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Another apparently tricky FA Vase
tie, another comfortable victory for The Stones. Its
taken a couple of seasons but Lloyd Hume’s men
finally seemed to have got the knack of playing well
in the Vase.
In front of the biggest FA Vase crowd ever at Bourne
Park, United easily saw off a disappointing Andover
side without ever really reproducing their best form.
And Andover manager Ady Burford felt his side was unfortunate
to lose by such a margin. He said: “I’m very
disappointed. I felt we were bullied and we didn’t
think that they were four goals better than us. We don’t
play too many sides in our league that lamp the ball
forward and chase it but in the first half every thing
they hit, they hit with a bit of a quality and power
and they are a good side.”
The Stones couldn’t have wished for a better start
as they took the lead with just 12 minutes played. Simon
Austin’s exquisite ball over the top of Andover’s
defence fell at Nick Hegley’s feet and although
his shot was blocked by Colin Hopkins’ legs he
collected the rebound and crossed for Mo Takaloo to
head into the empty net.
But going a goal in front seemed to have a detrimental
effect on United’s performance and for 20 minutes
they struggled to rediscover their early rhythm. The
visitors should have equalised just moments after the
opening goal when the ball struck Ryan Royston’s
arm and fell into the path of Danny Sullivan but with
just Pat Mullin to beat, he scuffed his shot against
Mullin’s feet.
And Mullin came to the rescue again with 32 minutes
played with a stunning save to tip Phil Andrews’
equally impressive drive onto the bar. This save seemed
to jolt The Stones back into action and Jimmy Strouts
went close when he arrived late to connect with Lyndon
Rowland’s pull-back but he side footed his volley
over the bar.
But a second goal wasn’t far away and it resulted
from an Aaron Lacy throw which caused panic in the Andover
defence and Royston had the simple task of tapping the
ball over the line from just yards out.
Shortly before half time, Royston nearly grabbed a
spectacular second goal when Sam Tydeman’s free-kick
was headed across goal by Mo Takaloo and Royston, lurking
at the back post, fired his volley inches over.
Despite being 2-0 in front, Lloyd Hume wasn’t
pleased with the way his side were performing at the
break, He said: “ In the first half we created
lots of chances but we went through a spell where we
made a couple of mistakes at the back and we panicked
for 20 minutes. At half time I wasn’t happy at
2-0 and we told them what we thought of them. There
weren’t too many positives but the biggest positive
was that we hadn’t played well and we were 2-0
up.”
The half time team talk worked to good effect and United
completely dominated the second half. Jimmy Strouts
found himself one on one with Hopkins but he blasted
his shot against the keeper before The Stones extended
their lead with a superbly worked free-kick. A handball
right on the edge of the Andover penalty area presented
Takaloo with a chance to score his
18th goal of the season and he took it, sending a perfectly
curled shot over the wall and into the top left hand
corner of the net.
A good afternoon for The Stones was then rounded off
when the hard-working Nick Hegley burst into the penalty
area and hit his shot with sufficient force so that
it just trickled over the line after most of the power
was taken out of it by Hopkin’s legs.
United have now faced apparently stiff opposition in
both of the last rounds but Hume isn’t too worried
about who they will draw on Monday morning. He said:
“We’ll take what we get dealt. It will be
nice to get an easy tie at home obviously but it’s
not something I’m expecting. We will play who ever
we get dealt and hopefully we will play well and win.”
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