Cup delight for Yarm & Eaglescliffe as they beat Billingham Town 4-3 on penalties. Y&E goalkeeper Callum Roberts came up with two excellent penalty saves to help his team progress and walked away with a well-deserved man of the match.

Match report from Jospeh McCue

Very little happened in the first half with Y&E playing the better football for the majority of the half and having the first major chance in the 20th minute when Ste Roberts connected perfectly with a half volley towards the bottom right corner only to be stopped by an even better save from Billingham Towns Keeper. A couple of rough challenges from Billingham players led to Leo Myers and John Stephenson going into the book in the first half. 

As the second half started Billingham came out swinging getting a couple of early chances but couldn’t find that killer instinct. A lovely floated cross saw Billingham with the chance of the game but ended up only finding the post. After being under some intense pressure Yarm started working back into the game and in the 67th minute Harry Williamson fired just wide of the post and narrowly missing out on the opening goal of the game.

A break away from Billingham town saw a chance opening up for them until skipper Jack Dalton brought his man down on the edge of the box and received Yarm’s first booking of the night. The resulting free kick was fired narrowly wide as they looked to catch Callum Roberts out. Late on in the game in the 84th minute Issac Coppinger got on the end of a lovely through ball and tried a cheeky lob over the keeper, but the keeper made another amazing save to keep it all level. Then after a debatable challenge Billingham Towns John Stephenson was deemed to of committed a second bookable offence and he was sent off late in the second half giving Y&E a chance at nicking a late winner.

With the pressure now mounting on the away side they had to dig deep and defend every effort from Yarm. Joe Dalton came up with a thunder strike in the 87th minute but another amazing save from the keeper denied his effort. From the resulting corner Dalton again gets to the ball first but a block by the defender lets the keeper come to collect. This was the last major effort in the game which led to penalties.

Billingham won the toss and were up first where they slotted it away nicely. Next up was Cam Thomson who buried his effort making it 1-1. After some mind games by Callum Roberts the next Billingham town player missed with Callum making an amazing save to give his team the advantage. Harry Williams would score the next penalty for the Y&E to give them a 2-1 lead going into the 3rd penalty which saw Cal make another unbelievable save. Despite having a chance to go further ahead Yarm Leo missed the Y&E’s next penalty keeping it at 2-1. Billingham Town scored their next two, but were matched by Josh Marshall and Sam COnway who boh slotted home to seal the victory 4-3 on peans and a place in the semi final.