Warrington Rylands into last 16 of FA Vase after another thrilling penalty shoot-out

By Garry Clarke

WARRINGTON Rylands are through to the last 16 of the FA Vase after another thrilling penalty shoot-out following a goalless 90 minutes away at Shildon with keeper McCall once again the hero.

No one should be surprised anymore – Graeme McCall was once afain the hero of a penalty shoot-out, saving two spot-kicks to send the Blues into the last 16 of the Buildbase FA Vase.

For the third time this season Rylands have faced the torture of a penalty shoot-out at the end of a cup tie away from home and as at Whitby and Jarrow they once again emerged victorious. With the score locked at 4-4 after 5 penalties each Conor Ready fired Rylands in front at the start of sudden death setting the stage for McCall’s heroics. Star of the two previous penalty shootouts, McCall, having already saved Daniel Moore’s attempt, was once again the hero keeping out Aiden Haywood spot-kick.
The previous ninety minutes of entertaining football had failed to separate two very evenly matched teams, although the home side was given a golden opportunity to break the deadlock in the 8th minute. Joe Denman’s clumsy challenge on Joe Posthill was deemed worthy of a penalty. As the Northern League side found out later in the afternoon, McCall is quite good at saving penalties and he diverted Dean Thexton’s spot-kick wide.
Rylands thought they should have had a penalty themselves in the 64th minute when Ste Milne was brought down from behind as he was about to shoot. To everyone’s surprise referee Glenn Hart said no penalty and booked the Rylands man for diving.
The home side enjoyed slightly the better of the first half and had the ball in the Ryland’s net in the 20th minute but Thexton’s effort from the edge of the area was ruled out due to a foul in the buildup. Heywood, Shildon’s right back, rattled the Rylands woodwork with a fierce drive from outside the area, while his full back colleague Matty Robson drew a fine save from McCall with another strike from distance.
Rylands were creating plenty of problems for their hosts playing balls in behind their backline. Milne fired a shot just wide of the target, while Andy Scarisbrick flicked a glancing header from a Milne cross across the face of the goal.
After the break play continued to switch from end to end, but neither side could make the breakthrough being denied by desperate defending at either end of the Dean Street pitch as no one wanted to make the fatal mistake and hand victory to their opponent.
And so to penalties….
RYLANDS TEAM – McCall, Lees (Lees), Tinning, Smith, Denman (Kenny), Gerrard, Doyle, Scarisbrick, Milne, Ready, Morris (Shanley). Subs not used – Emery, Freeman, Coveney, Potter.

Warrington Rylands 1906’s reward for winning at Shildon is a home tie in the 5th Round next Saturday when they will play North Ferriby behind closed doors.
North Ferriby, who play in the Northern Counties East Division One, beat West Auckland Town 4-0 in the 4th round at home.