Chasetown FC are heading back to Bescot Stadium after a gutsy win in the Walsall Senior Cup semi-final at Tividale.
The Scholars, who won the competition last season, reached this year’s final with a victory which was not as comfortable as the scoreline suggests and also at a cost with Danny Griffiths, Cameron Stuart and Josh Smith all hobbling off injured and Danny Edwards receiving treatment late on.
The visitors took the lead in the 26th minute when Tividale were unable to clear their lines and Chris Slater helped the ball into the path of leading scorer Nathan Waite who tapped through keeper Charles Price’s legs.
Tividale were very much in the tie though and had several opportunities to level the score – a combination of wayward finishing and solid defending from the Scholars keeping the clean sheet intact.
On a difficult playing surface that had to pass a pitch inspection, Chasetown needed to repel a lot of Tividale pressure at the start of the second half, with Josh Smith and Grant Beckett both denying the hosts with late blocks.
Eventually, Marcus Law’s men counter attacked the home side and Paul Sullivan was put clean through on goal and almost effortlessly lobbed Price with an inch perfect finish beneath the crossbar – scoring in his fifth consecutive game.
If that was a top class finish, Chasetown’s match-killing third was every bit a contender for a goal of the month competition as substitute Montell Brown netted his first goal for the club with the sweetest left foot drive that flew inside Price’s near post.
Chasetown: Bateman, Beckett, Stuart (Haynes, 27 mins), Slater, Francis, Grayson, Griffiths (Smith, 9 mins (M Brown, 83 mins)), S Brown, Waite, Sullivan, Edwards. Subs not used: Antonio, Pond.