Penalty curse strikes Shirebrook Town again

Shirebrook took a break from their league struggles as they entered the FA Vase second qualifying round a home tie against Thurlo Nunn East League side Holbeach United.

As the game got underway Shirebrook couldn’t have made a worse start as Holbeach were awarded a penalty for handball in the first minute of the game Sam Carter stepped up to take the penalty for Holbeach and he sent Rio Alberry the wrong way to give Holbeach the lead.

Shirebrook responded well to the early set back as Ben Southwell went close to levelling the score in the 10th minute and Jake Bradford and Antonio Monteiro both had chances for Shirebrook and in the 22nd minute Shirebrook did level the score when Trent Jules cross from the right found Ben Southwell unmarked in the box and Southwell headed into the bottom corner.

Now they were back level Shirebrook set about trying to get another goal with John Lowe and Ben Southwell having chances for Shirebrook but Shirebrook best chance of the half came just before half time when Shirebrook hit Holbeach on the counter and Ben Southwell raced away down the right and his low cross found Jake Bradford unmarked in the box and the Shirebrook winger with just the goalkeeper to beat managed to drag his shot wide of the post meaning the sides would go in level at the break.

The second half would start the same way the first finished with Shirebrook in control having plenty of possession and chances soon started to follow with Ben Southwell and Antonio Monteiro both going close in the opening 10 minutes of the half.

As the half went on Holbeach began to sit deeper and deeper and Shirebrook were starting to get more and more chances with subs Hakim Johnson, Fabio Vieira and Carlinhos Da Costa all having shots at goal and all being frustrated as they couldn’t find a way past the Holbeach keeper.

As the game went into the last 10 minutes Shirebrook were still being frustrated as again they couldn’t get that all important winning goal and as the full time whistle went the tie would be decided on penalties and Holbeach took the first penalty and scored it with the Holbeach keeper saving Shirebrook first pot kick and penalty number 2 would be the same result Holbeach scored and Shirebrook missed leaving Shirebrook with a big mountain to climb. Penalty number 3 saw both teams score and penalty number 4 would see Holbeach book their place in the next round as Shirebrook lost a tie they should have won at a canter in 90 minutes.

After the game Shirebrook manager Rudy Funk said: “I’m a bit lost for words today I don’t know how we have lost that game today Holbeach were not a good side and apart from the penalty I can’t remember another real chance they had during the 90 minutes.

"We also need to look at ourselves and we know our finishing needs to be better it was a brilliant goal from Ben to get us level but he could and probably should have been walking off the pitch with 2 or 3 goals today.”