Cheltenham Town 1-0 Southport

Port Online, 17th May 1998

A fantastic performance by both players and fans which was very unfortunate not to bring back the silverware. Southport were clearly the better side over the 90 minutes, a fact which can not be argued and and a fact that was confirmed by Sky’s two commentators Alan Brazil and Alan Parry.The 29th F.A. Trophy final started well for the Sandgrounders with a chance for Gamble who chased down goalkeeper book after a good pass by Andy Farley, in just the 2nd minute. Kevin Formby got the first shot on target with a palm-stinger in the 8th minute after Ged Kielty had found him in space and a chance for official man of the match Brian butler minutes later which rose over the bar. Farley’s best chance came with a left foot curling shot which Book had to watch very carefully, going just over the bar by a matter of centimetres – Gamble supplying the through ball. Having all the play in the first 20 minutes Southport had four attempts at goal, three of them on target with 42% of the play inside the Cheltenham goalmouth.Three minutes before half time after a long midfield battle another chance fell for Southport, Thompson raced at Jamie Victory and won the ball with a well timed sliding tackle. He then beat the defender and squared to Brain Butler in space. Butler unfortunately was not aware of the man behind him and took too long to get in his shot, being tackled but winning a corner. Joining the attack, one was surprised to see Futcher, and he could have put his side 1-0 up if his right foot 25 yard volley from the corner hadn’t screwed well wide.To their credit Cheltenham fought back in the second half but were still no match for Southport who still appeared to dominate the game. On the hour Phil Horner poked the ball wide with his left foot after Ross’s flick on had bounced at his feet. With eight attempts on goal to Cheltenham’s three Southport were still on top and three minutes later the best chance of the game fell to Brian Ross. He took an age to shoot, and was left to regret after an excellent through ball by Farley had left him with a one-on-one from a wide angle. Book smothered after he showed too much of the ball to the confident keeper. Kevin Formby was in a similar situation with 1/4 hr to go but again chose to have an extra touch and the ball was cleared. End to end action in the last 15 minutes and Cheltenham managed to grab a winner. 79 minutes and 23 seconds had passed when Jason Eaton headed the ball in from perhaps an offside position (judge for yourself) when a dubious free kick had been awarded to the robins. Futcher’s job of marking the back post was not completed and Eaton headed in from close range.In desperate attempts to get a goal ‘Port threw on Andy Whittaker and Phil Bolland for the last few minutes and two clearcut headed chances were squandered. Horner and Bolland both headed wide in two minutes.Southport were superb but as the saying goes, “it only takes 20 seconds to score a goal.” The 8 – 10,000 Southport fans that made the trip were there left gutted at the final whistle, after just 30 seconds of injury time, but thoroughly impressed.