Cumbria’s last two representatives in the national FA Vase competition were beaten after much anticipated second round ties.
Carlisle City went down 1-0 at Fillford Park, beaten by a late Abbey Hey goal while a strong second-half performance gave Wythenshawe Town a 3-0 win at Holker Old Boys.
A healthy crowd gathered at Gillford Park to watch two sides in fine form in their respective leagues, both with five wins in their last six games.
For Carlisle City there was an early sign of the danger posed by the visitors’ attack as Lazenbury’s 4th-minute shot beat Murray before hitting the inside of the post and being cleared.
City responded quickly and Irving ran clear only to be foiled by a fine save from Heywood.
Irving managed to round Heywood in the 11th minute but he was sent wide and unable to capitalise on the chance.
Both teams were being thwarted by frequent offside decisions but a foul on Simpson in the 15th minute saw City’s free-kick headed wide at the back post by Kirkup, who then did incredibly well to get his head in the way of a seemingly goal-bound effort from Abbey Hey.
City’s keeper Murray was the busier of the two stoppers and he did well to foil Clooney on 22 minutes before he bettered this on 23 minutes with an astounding stop from Halfacre’s free-kick.
The resulting corner was headed wide by Fleming and at the other end Heywood did well to tip over Simpson’s 30th-minute shot. Kirkup again latched onto the corner but his header was wide.
City missed probably their best chance of the game on 37 minutes when Kerr could not convert from very close range.
Murray was in action again on 39 minutes as he saved from Halfacre, and Simpson fired wide from 25 yards at the other end.
A chance for City in the early stages of the second period was fired over by Holt. An Abbey corner was cleared before Holt was involved once again as his shot was blocked.
An excellent cross from Clooney threatened the City goal and a spell of three successive corners for Abbey on 53 minutes put the City defence under serious pressure.
City’s goal led a charmed life on 54 minutes as Lazenbury’s shot rebounded off the far post, and Murray did well to save the next effort from Halfacre.
It was all Abbey Hey at this stage as Halfacre came close again on the hour, and Lazenbury saw another shot saved by Murray.
A 67th-minute corner for City was headed over by Kirkup, and then keeper Heywood raced well from his box to clear ahead of Irving.
Abbey seemed to have gone ahead on 72 minutes as Fitzgerald’s shot nestled in the bottom corner, but a consultation between the referee and his assistant deemed it to be offside and so the game remained at stalemate amidst increasing tension.
In the 77th minute, the game boiled over with all three officials joining the field and this resulted in red cards for both Kirkup and Halfacre, spoiling what had been a fair and well-contested game.
City seemed to suffer most from the dismissals, losing their talismanic centre-half, and it was only moments later when Fitzgerald scored the only goal of the game, slotting in at the back post.
The visitors had chances to make the game safe but Murray continued to repel them on two further occasions, and there was great drama deep into stoppage time as Atkinson’s well-hit free kick sailed over the wall but was brilliantly pushed out by the diving Heywood.
Holker Old Boys’ great run in the League had put them in good heart for the visit of Wythenshawe Town, one of the leading sides in the North West Counties Premier Division.
They were very much in the contest for much of an even first-half in which Morgan Bacon, the former Carlisle United and Kendal Town goalkeeper had as much to do for Wythenshawe as the Holker keeper.
But the breakthrough went to Town five minutes before half-time when Darius Palma fed a fine ball through the home defence for Brad Byrne to fire in the opener.
Wythenshawe dominated the second-half with Palma running the show and they pulled clear with the help of an own goal and a second for Byrne in added time.
