Following the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday evening, for all the plans that were naturally in place, the country has found itself in a bit of a strange position – not least the wider world of football.
On Tuesday evening, Warrington Town were celebrating a good and solid home soil FA Cup first qualifying round victory replay over Morpeth Town to secure their second qualifying round trip to Hyde United. But by Friday, some tiers of football had been paused, whereas other sports were honouring Her Majesty’s life by continuing to take place but rightly observing a minutes silence in her memory. Warrington were one of those to show their respect by postponing what would have been this weekend’s away clash with Whitby Town.
Whilst many Yellows fans will more than know that following on from the original 2-2 draw the prior Saturday, when welcoming them back to Cantilever Park for the second time in less than a month with the sides meeting on the opening day of the season, Warrington took the lead late on in the first half following a delivery from Man of the Match Sean Williams which caused absolute chaos in the box, and most believe Morpeth’s Dale Pearson eventually bundled the ball over the line.
Following the half time restart, the visitors were back on terms just after the hour mark, but their joy was short lived as Josh Seary and Stefan Mols linked up well, to provide Evan Gumbs the opportunity to curl in a nice effort to restore the lead, and ultimately take the win to book their place in the next round of the potentially very lucrative competition and for anyone who picked 2-1 as the final scoreline on BetStation sports betting sites, it would have proven a lucrative result for them, as well.
Fans further afield and unable to follow the game live, may well know the score but could have possibly missed gaffer Mark Beesley’s</a> words following the game given how the week then unfortunately turned.
“We said before the first game that we had a tough draw. They’re a really good team with really good players. They’ve been two close games, but from our point of view we’ve played really well. At times today, some of our football was excellent. The second goal, what a goal that is! If that was in the Premier League, we’d be talking for weeks and weeks about it. We’re really pleased with some of the stuff that we’ve done today.”
Beesley had significant praise for the role Seary and Mols played down the right hand side.
“Young Josh has got better and better. We knew he would, he’s a young boy. And Stef, he’s a good player who can play in a variety of positions, and that’s what we like about him. He’s energetic and makes chances for other people. It was great interplay, a great ball and a good header as well.”
With Morpeth now fully dealt with, football returns this week properly and Warrington can look forward to a trip to Stafford Rangers, before then seeing if they can progress further in the FA Cup in the trip to Ewen Fields – but again, that match is under some doubt owing to Her Majesty’s State Funeral on Monday.
Any fans who had planned to make the trip would be well advised to watch for announcements.
