There was little time to celebrate after last week’s 2-1 triumph away at Fleetwood Town in the round of 32 as Grimsby Town Foundation welcomed West Bromwich Albion to home turf at Franklin Sixth Form College in the final 16 of the EFL CEFA National U19 Cup.
With a place in the final eight of the prestigious competition up for grabs, the away side started brightest, forcing Hall into a rash challenge in a dangerous position with little over five minutes on the clock.
The in-swinging free kick from the left was glanced over Lowe and gave the Baggies a dream start. Grimsby looked slightly shaken but gradually forced their way back into the game. Hall was keen to make amends at the other end and saw his effort very well saved by Albion’s keeper.
Town began to see more of the ball as the half grew on, and the Albion keeper was in the thick of the action again just before half-time. A ball through to Wootton saw the shot-stopper collect the ball just outside the area, he was given the benefit of the doubt by the official and given a yellow card.
In the opening 15’ of the second period, Grimsby forced fouls high up the pitch, and a couple of excellent deliveries somehow evaded everyone on both occasions and missed the fair post by a matter of inches. Moments later, Jackson broke in down the right, and his drive at goal was again very well repelled by West Brom’s No1. Grimsby thought they’d got their equaliser as Baldwin McGhee connected with Evison’s third free kick of the half, but his header was ruled out for offside.
Albion must have thought they’d weathered the storm as they were able to relieve some of the pressure and earned a corner on the counter on 65 minutes. Grimsby hooked the corner clear, and the ball appeared to be rolling through to the keeper harmlessly. Read chased the loose ball down more in desperation than anything else, however, the young midfielder’s sheer desire was rewarded as the keeper mishandled and Read was able to poke the ball beyond him and then went down under a clumsy-looking challenge to stop him. The referee pointed to the spot and showed no sympathy towards the keeper, giving him his second yellow card and his marching orders. There was a slight delay before the penalty as West Brom swapped jerseys around and put an outfield player in the net. This did nothing to unnerve Evison as he dispatched his third penalty in three games to put Grimsby level with over 20 minutes left!
West Brom now looked shell-shocked, and it was all one-way traffic. Evison saw his effort parried from 25 yards, and Wootton dragged his shot from just inside the box narrowly wide. Another dangerous free kick was whipped in, and Lambert’s acrobatic attempt was fired over.
The all-important second goal did arrive with just ten minutes left. Evison again curled a dangerous-looking free kick in from the left, but the stand-in goalkeeper was only able to push the ball from under the crossbar straight into the path of the onrushing centre half Allenby, who rather bundled the ball across the line to become the unlikely hero! West Brom’s ten men still had a good go for the remainder of the game, but Towns’ defence stood strong, and the team saw out the game in a professional manner.
Frustrations ran high in injury time as Grimsby wound down the clock in the corner, Albion’s number two received two yellows in a short space of time, one for a foul and one for dissent. After four minutes of stoppage time the final whistle was blown, meaning Town had reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their short history. The draw for the next round will take place next Monday.
UTM
