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Pinchbeck United are beaten by Fakenham Town in the Thurlow Nunn League Cup




Manager Lewis Thorogood felt his players showed the potential within the Pinchbeck United ranks as they took higher level Fakenham Town to the wire in the Thurlow Nunn League Cup on Tuesday night.

The Knights had taken a two-goal lead through Flynn Slater's brace in their fourth round clash with the Premier Division high-flyers at Wisbech Town's Fountain Fresh Park ground.

However, the Ghosts battled back to level the contest and take the tie to penalties where they ran out 5-4 winners to earn a trip to Ely City in the next round.

Flynn Slater.
Flynn Slater.

Thorogood said: "We raised our game against higher level opposition like we always do.

"Fakenham showed their qualities in terms of the movement of the ball and that cutting final pass.

"But we were tenacious, worked hard and grafted for each other. We stuck to the plan.

"I came away quite buoyant from it despite being disappointed at not winning the game.

"There are lots of positives to take from the game and we just showed what this group can deliver."

Pinchbeck had taken a 12th minute lead when the hard work of Slater was rewarded as he pressured Fakenham goalkeeper Ben Andrews into a hurried clearance before staying composed to hold off two defenders and slot home the opening goal.

It gave Pinchbeck the initiative at the break and a superb save from Ben Martin preserved their lead after the break as he clawed away a Joe Henman header from Lewis Bonner's delivery.

The Knights then doubled their lead after being awarded a penalty with 18 minutes remaining when Slater was brought down by Andrews and picked himself up to slot home the resultant spot kick.

This sparked a strong response from Fakenham who launched an onslaught of attacks on Pinchbeck before Henman put the deficit in the 75th minute.

They then levelled with seven minutes remaining when Mitch Rasberry's superb through ball released Luke Middleton to score the equaliser.

Martin produced another terrific stop to thwart Middleton who then hit the post late on with a curling shot while Pinchbeck also had a couple of chances right at the end as the game became stretched.

The tie then went to penalties where JJ Ward, Andre Williams, Harry Cranfield and Nathan Stevens all scored for Pinchbeck.

Fakenham were also successful with their first four penalties before Daniel Abayomi missed for the Knights with Middleton converting the final spot kick to send the Ghosts through.

Thorogood added: "Penalties are a lottery and you can't be critical because people have the bottle to put their hand up to take one.

"The key element for me was that we worked our hearts out.

"It didn't look like there was a gulf in the league positions.

"It shows that we can raise our game and we can compete with bigger and better teams."

Pinchbeck are without a league game on Saturday with their next match being at home to Whitton on February 1.



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