ASSISTANT manager Ryan Young was delighted to see Feckenham end a three-week wait for action with a convincing 4-1 win at Worcester City Reserves to book a place in the final of the Worcestershire Junior Cup.
The Millers will face either Welland or Kidderminster Harriers U21s at Malvern Town’s HDanywhere Community Stadium on a date to be confirmed after a hat-trick from man of the match Connor Perry-Holmes and a Danny Murphy goal sealed victory.
Fourth-placed Feckenham will first, though, attempt to boost their Midland League Division Two promotion bid when they host Earlswood Town on Saturday before visiting Coventry Alvis on Tuesday.
Young said: ”We didn’t know much about Worcester but, as anticipated, they were a talented young side who tried to play some nice football on the artificial surface (South Bromsgrove High School).
“Overall we performed very well and delivered a good, solid performance to see off a young, hungry team in very challenging conditions. We looked solid from front to back and it was a good opportunity to get some valuable minutes before we hopefully get back into league action.
“As a group we were really pleased to get into the final. Feckenham haven’t been in one for a couple of years so it’s a day out we will look forward to.
“Whilst hopefully bringing back some silverware, it also enables us to extend our season and ensure there are still important fixtures to play for alongside our league campaign come the back end of the season.”
On Saturday, Feckenham were without the injured Billy Garvey, Jack Cole, Max Tibbins and Liam Fullerton, whilst Kev Ingram was cup-tied, but Feckenham were able to welcome back talented youngster Daniel Sutton and influential Umit Eminoglu.
The Millers started the better of the two sides but in truth neither created many openings during the first half an hour. A trademark Jake Donnelly throw-in caused mayhem in the hosts’ area but there was no Feckenham shirt at the back post to head home.
Feckenham continued to dominate for large parts, but were largely kept at bay by Worcester, who were organised and dogged in approach.
Murphy, Eminoglu and Cox all tried their luck from distance but could only force the home custodian into a couple of routine saves, whilst Young was somewhat a bystander in the Feckenham goal for much of the first half, but had to be alert to sweep up a neat through ball by City’s Jack Farr.
The breakthrough came on 42 minutes when a free kick on the edge of the box was expertly dispatched low by Perry-Holmes.
The second half was played in a similar manner to the first as Feckenham continued to have much of the ball but seemed to lack any real ideas in the final third.
However, on 52 minutes the Millers doubled their advantage when a marauding run by Murphy led to neat build-up play down the right-hand channel. The Millers’ top goalscorer consequently received the ball back and dribbled past his marker with ease before firing low past the Worcester goalkeeper.
Worcester’s youngsters did not give up without a fight and a loose pass by Daniel Williams was picked up by the hosts who broke in numbers and at pace. The wide midfielder reached the byline before pulling the ball back to Matt Ennis who fired home.
On 77 minutes the Millers restored their two-goal advantage following a neat ball by Ben Welsh as Perry-Holmes controlled well before netting.
The introduction of George Tolley, Sutton and Ben Ellicott seemed to revitalise the Millers during the closing stages and they scored again when Perry-Holmes bagged his eighth goal of the season with a close-range finish from Sutton’s assist.
Report compiled with the help of Phil Tattersall.
