Lichfield City FC’s Walsall Senior Cup campaign came to an end after they were beaten 2-0 by last season’s league champions Walsall Wood.
The Brownsfield Park side were left to rue poor discipline as they played an hour with just nine men after Liam Holt and Kyle Minto were sent off.
The visitors came steaming out of the blocks as they poured the pressure on Lichfield in a frantic opening ten minutes, but the home defence held firm and they eventually began to get a grip on the game.
Leon Morgan thought he’d opened the scoring after a quarter-of-an-hour but the City man’s strike was chalked off for offside.
A sucker punch came just five minutes later when Walsall Wood’s Jamie Hawkins found the bottom corner after sending a shot through a crowd of players.
But it was to be a crazy five minute spell which really defined this fixture. Holt was given his marching orders for something he said to the referee and Lichfield had barely had time to reshuffle the pack before striker Minto followed him to the dressing room for a similar offence.
Salt was rubbed into the Lichfield wounds when Walsall Wood doubled their lead as Steven Haynes rifled home.
But to City’s credit they emerged for the second half determined to fight for pride if nothing else. And so it proved as the visitors struggled to break down a determined home side.
And Lichfield almost found an unlikely way back into the game when Todd Perry headed Benn Minshull’s corner goalwards, but the assistant referee didn’t signal that the ball had crossed the line.
City will need to regroup quickly as they return to league action on Saturday (December 7) with a home clash against Bromsgrove Sporting, kick-off 3pm.
