FOOTBALL: Mullets suffer Vase heartbreak

ARUNDEL Football Club were left with nothing to show for their 400-mile round trip to Plymouth Parkway in the FA Vase on Saturday except a 4-2 extra-time defeat and plenty of disappointment.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Dec 2009, 13:42 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 00:59 BST

South-West Peninsula League Premier Division Parkway advanced to the last 32 and collected the 1,300 prize money, which left Mullets assistant manager Simon Butler wondering what might have been.

He said: "They were beatable, and on another day we would have won.

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"The guys gave their all and we were very unlucky. If we'd taken them to a replay back at ours, we'd have won, no question about it.

"It's very disappointing and I couldn't see us losing at 2-2. But that's football and there were definite positives to take it from it.

Russell Hardwell was our man of the match, he was outstanding and I can't fault the effort and commitment the lads put in."

Arundel started better and Hardwell went close before he put Mullets ahead on 11 minutes. Dave Walker's long ball was flicked on by Scott Tipper and Hardwell ran through and fired in.

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They held their advantage until five minutes before half-time when Matt Cusack rifled in. Soon afterwards, Parkway took the lead from Andy Sargent's free kick, after Walker was adjudged to have fouled Paul Baker.

Mullets rallied again, and could have equalised through Hardwell, who fired over, and Phil Archibald, whose long-range drive rattled the bar.

In the 75th minute, they did level when Tipper's pass picked out the influential Hardwell, who outpaced the defence and finished coolly.

That took the tie to extra-time, in which Jonathan Morris put Parkway back in front with his wind-assisted 102nd-minute strike.

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Mullets' Howard Neighbour struck the post and had another effort kept out, before Ryan Honey sealed the game for Plymouth three minutes into the second period of extra-time.

Tipper went close to pulling a goal back but Parkway held on.

ARUNDEL: O'Connor; Sneller, Walker, Pickford, Carragher; Hardwell, Grove, Archibald, Axell; Tipper, Neighbour. Subs: R.Biggs (Grove 65), Hall (Sneller 77), Huckett (Neighbour 110), Griffiths.

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