Willenhall became the last team to make it through to the first qualifying round of the FA Cup after a less than convincing display against Midland Combination side Barnt Green Spartak.
After a scrappy opening from both sides the visitors created the first opportunity when Sean Burrell’s shot was cleared off the line. Willenhall responed as Tyrone Barnett’s cross found Justin Nisbett, but his shot rifled back off the bar.
The home side made there higher league status pay in the 28th minute.
Nisbett used his pace to break away from the Barnt Green defence and kept his composure well to coolly slot home.
Willenhall could have added a second after visiting goalkeeper Lee Ross decided to come off his line, but Craig Milligan nearly slotted the ball wide of the unguarded net.
Barnt Green equalised on 38 minutes when Django Farrell fired home despite Steve Jackson’s efforts to close the angle.
Cain nearly made up for his error less than 60 seconds later, skipping past three challenges before seeing a curling effort just clear the bar.
Barnt Green began to sense they could take something from the game and it took several blocks from the superb Liam Newell to keep the scoreline level.
With the game looking destined for extra-time Willenhall regained the lead eight minutes from time, Nisbett outpacing the defence before again coolly slotting past Ross to send the home fans delirious.
There was even time for Willenhall to add a third when Mark Briggs made no mistake from six yards.
3 Comments
Felt sorry for the little club actually. The played some smashing, vary fast, football.
To be honest I thought Reds were lucky - Barnt Green seemed to be getting on top when their big defender made his only error of the match and it was all over in a couple of minutes.
One question though, where did they get that flourescent orange and green kit from ????? It gave me a headache !!!!!
Pete
PS I noticed they had a defender called Quentin Townsend, I presume this is the one that played for Wolves reserves for a couple of seasons ?
Yes, it is the same Quentin Townsend. He’s had spells at Cinderford and Studley amongst others, and does a bit of coaching these days, too.
Thats him. After Wolves he played in the Football League with Hereford, then played for a number of Southern League clubs like Worcester, Bromsgrove, Evesham, Redditch (where he was part of the squad that won that historic “double promotion” into the Conference North.
Steve Daley took him to Bilston for a season as well.