Milnthorpe Corinthians 1

Field FC 2

A BUMPER crowd of more than 400 watched on from the sidelines as Milnthorpe Corinthians fell at the final stage of The Association of Northern Counties Cup on Easter Saturday.

Richard Close’s outfit, representing the Westmorland FA narrowly lost out after extra time to West Yorkshire Premier League leaders Field FC, who were representing West Riding FA.

After a bright start from both teams, Field’s Mike O’Brien whipped in a harmless looking cross which was headed out by Mike Packham only as far as Andrew Hawker, who volleyed the ball from 18 yards into the left corner of the net giving keeper Adam White no chance.

Shortly after White produced a magnificent one handed save from Chris Wood to keep the score at 1-0.

Corinthians pressed forward and Peter Baxendale produced a string of chances which were not converted into goals.

On the stroke of half time Ryan Close fed Adam Garnett through the middle, Garnett produced an exquisite lob over the advancing keeper Metcalf only to see defender Nick Doherty scramble back and clear off the line.

Corinthians continued to press in the second half and on 65 minutes were rewarded when a mix up between keeper Metcalf and defender Leach allowed Baxendale to nip between the two and coolly slot the ball home in the bottom corner of the net.

With extra time beckoning Garnett, Close and Baxendale came agonisingly close to winning it only to see fine saves from Metcalf.

Eight minutes into extra time and Field went ahead when Tom Ponter found Danny Cunningham unmarked in the middle to head home his 44th goal of the season.

Four minutes later Marcus Nicholson weaved his way into the box, slipped past Leach who brought him down for a penalty to Milnthorpe.

Adam Garnett stepped up and hit the ball hard and low to the keeper's right hand corner but Metcalf pulled off a superb one handed save to thwart Garnett.