St Helens based Pilkington FC sail through to the third round of the Liverpool Senior Cup after beating Marine.
A pretty underwhelming performance from The Mariners and it’s the North West Counties First Division who progress following a 3-2 away win. Goals from Luke Sephton, Phil Marsh and Callum Laird saw the Pilks gain their win.
The game didn’t come alive until the last fifteen minutes of the first half when two Marine chances were totally squandered from close range.
Firstly, a mishandling error from the Pilkington goalkeeper Bobby Jones, saw the ball fall to Brett Mbalanda who could only find the Rossett Park crowd.
Then moments later it was Craig Pritchard who shot for goal. Unfortunately, the same result as Mbalanda for the number nine.
Going against the run of play at that point, Marine’s Anthony Miley gave away a foul for a lunge at Marsh. He took the free kick, that deflected straight to Luke Sephton, who neatly slotted.
Straight down the other end and it was midfielder Steve Irwin stung the Pilks making it one a-piece.
But before half-time the greens took the lead for a second time through a penalty. Scored by Marsh, after he was brought down by goalkeeper Germano Mendes.
The underdogs third goal scored when Laird side-footed it in to the bottom left corner. After a great cross from left midfielder Ben Maddocks.
Not long after the third goal for Pilkington, they had a fourth one disallowed for a foul on Mendes in the goal area.
Another five minutes later, some great football from the home side saw Josh Woods grab a consolation from an equally good cross by Craig Lindfield.
Only one worthy chance for Marine was when James Barigan cut inside onto his weaker foot. He could only shoot powerfully over the crossbar however.
After the game, Marine boss Neil Young said: “We weren’t mentally right to go and win the football match.
“If we take our chances then we are three or four goals up before they score.”
Young went on to say: “We don’t want to go out of the Liverpool Senior Cup because it’s a great competition, but the league is where we need to concentrate.”
Marine entertain Kendal Town at home on Saturday and Pilkington travel to Daisy Hill for their league game.
