| Long Wittenham moved into the 3rd round of the North Berks Cup with a 2-0 win over fellow Division Two side Harwell International.
Wittenham had the first chance of note when Andy Cooper struck a quickly taken free-kick just over the bar on 10 minutes.
Ryan Scott then hit the bar 5 minutes later with another Wittenham free-kick from 30 yards, the Harwell keeper was then forced into a smart save diving to his left after a header back from one of his own players.
Harwell's first real attempt on goal came on the half hour when their forward beat Simon Key to the ball on the edge of the box, he was unable to get any real pace on the ball and Chris Bowler was able to take a touch and clear off the line while under pressure from another Harwell player.
Scott then had another shot on 35 minutes that clipped the Harwell bar as Wittenham ramped up the pressure going into the break. International struggled throughtout the 1st half to deal with Cooper's long throw and another of these bombs saw the Harwell bar come to their rescue for the 3rd time with the keeper well beaten.
Spurred on by this escape Harwell then had a good chance of their own after the Wittenham defence failed to clear on the edge of their box but the resultant shot after the scramble didn't trouble Key.
Just before the completion of the opening 45 minutes Wittenham finally broke the deadlock. Harwell again failed to clear a Cooper long throw and as the ball was played back into the box Steve Molloy made a clever run along the line to flick the ball beyond the Harwell keeper.
The goal seemed to stun Harwell and Wittenham, keen to consolidate their position, struck again in injury time. Another long-throw was only cleared back to Cooper and his cross from the right was headed into the far corner by Mark Ingram to make it 2-0.
As expected Harwell started the 2nd half brightly and forced the Wittenham defence to retreat deeper and deeper but were unable to create many clear chances.
Simon Key was finally forced into a good reaction save diving to his left on the hour mark after the Harwell forward found himself with a free header on edge of the 6 yard box.
Wittenham were still causing Harwell some problems on the break and at the Half-way point of the 2nd half Molloy closed down a Harwell defender yet again, the ball broke to Scott who raced clear but Wittenham were unable to stretch their lead further. Molloy then chased down another through ball soon after and despite beating the keeper to the ball the faintest of touches took the ball over for a corner.
International came close following a series of blocked shots as Wittenham failed to clear the danger but the closest they came to getting back into the game was a header that went wide following a free-kick from the half-way line with 10 minutes left.
Wittenham held firm to record their first clean sheet of 2010 and book their place in another cup quarter-final. |
