Ledbury Town Football Club

Match report

Ledbury Town stormed through to the second round of the Herefordshire FA Charity Bowl cup competition in confident style, comfortably dispatching Holme Lacy with a 4-0 victory. 

There was relatively less drama and suspense compared to the last time the two sides faced each other in the final of the same competition back in April 2019, when Ledbury clinched a 3-2 win, with this latest meeting witnessing Ian Merrick’s side going 3-0 up before forty minutes had been played.

Prolific striker Tom Boyle struck first in the thirteenth minute, with Ben Miller and joint Town man of the match Nathan Ince going on to bag a goal each within the space of seven minutes before the first period was out.

Josh Burns found a fourth twelve minutes into the latter half of play, with the black and white shirts retaining their clean sheet having scored nearly twenty goals in their four games this season.

The visiting outfit’s misery was compounded as a squandered penalty opportunity after home captain Matt Rooke was judged to have committed a foul by the touchline.

The first of many Ledbury chances that night began with a tenth minute free kick from Scott Roberts rolling wide of the target after Ben Febery was brought down on the near wing, before Boyle’s opener was followed shortly by Ince nearly getting himself on the scoresheet there and then if not for his downwards header in the box resulting in the ball bouncing just shy of the near post.

The opposing goalkeeper pulled off a terrific save in order to stop a threatening strike from Boyle as the ensuing corner ball was nodded narrowly wide of the woodwork by Miller.

A free kick from Miller was nodded away from Febery by the defender in front of him at the far post as Burns raced in to fire the ball well over the bar on the rebound, with the same result occurring soon afterwards after a second free kick from Miller was met with a superb header from other Town star player that night Dwayne Tyndale being deflected away by the keeper.

Miller continued to feed the set pieces in as a corner ball led to a scramble in the box, before a high foot from Tyndale volleying the ball made brief contact with a Holme Lacy keeper who was just about able to make the capture.

Miller toe-poked the ball wide on the half-hour mark, even if the ubiquitous striker made a much more definitive impression minutes later, wasting no time in putting away the rebound following an exemplary close range save performed by a busy visiting goaltender which denied the initial shot, after Miller had received the ball from Ince making a great run down the near wing towards the touchline.

A further good run from Ince saw him feed another ball into the box which was blasted well over the bar by Febery charging forward, with Merrick’s men maintaining the pressure on the opposing goal right up until the half-time whistle as Miller slotted the ball narrowly wide, before a triumphant Ince celebrated after his superb cross-shot flew in off the near post. The hosts entered the interval at an extremely comfortable three-goal advantage.

The second period began with a strong challenge from Tyndale in front of the Ledbury dugout as a further sliding tackle from Pete Jeynes in an effort to stop an opposing attacker from receiving a cross in the box went unpunished despite protests from the blue and yellow shirts, before a bad retaliatory challenge against Ince back upfield on the near wing saw him having to be substituted for Asten Griffiths in an earlier-than-expected first substitution for Merrick’s side.

Town continued to trouble the visiting goaltender by nearly lobbing him as Febery missed an opportunity for a fifth mark on the scoresheet, kicking the ball on to be saved by the keeper rather than finishing with a header which may have been the better option.

Holme Lacy’s penalty struck the near post to squander their best chance of clawing at least a consolatory goal that night and the hosts celebrated a clean and clinical entry through to the next round of the cup.