Brady Hickey’s stoppage-time winner completed a famous comeback from two goals down at home to Worksop Town, keeping the magic of the FA Cup well and truly alive.
HARBOROUGH TOWN 3 Riley O’ Sullivan (45+1’ pen), Ben Stephens (83’), Brady Hickey (90+3’)
WORKSOP TOWN 2 Dylan Cogill (9’), Aleksandrs Starcenko (14’)
The Tigers flew out of the blocks, winning every ball, pressing high and pinning the hosts into their own half with sustained pressure, shell-shocking the Bees. Craig Parry’s men asserted their early superiority with Vaughan Redford sliding in Aleksandrs Starcenko, who fizzed a ball across goal, narrowly missing the onrushing forwards. It took just nine minutes for the visitors to reap their rewards, as Dylan Cogill guided the ball into the back of the net after Harborough’s defence failed to react quickly enough to George Carline’s attempted clearance. Worksop turned the screw and doubled their lead shortly after, with the unmarked Aaron Martin nodding down for Starcenko to coolly tuck home, following more shaky defending from the Bees.
Moments later, Starcenko’s quality again showed as he was brought down in the box after a lovely one-two with Martin. The Tigers looked set to kill the tie, but Elliott Taylor produced a strong save from Liam Hughes’s penalty to keep Harborough alive, much to the delight of Harborough manager Mitch Austin who quoted after the game; “At 2-0 we were finished. At 3-0, we were dead and buried.”
The combination of Redford and Joe Leesley in the centre of the park for the visitors dictated the midfield, denying Harborough any chance of building rhythm, however against the run of play Harborough were awarded a penalty of their own in first-half stoppage time after Paul Malone was crudely tackled with a late challenge. Riley O’Sullivan stepped up and slotted home, lifting the crowd and offering a small glimmer of hope going into the break.
In a match that can only be described as a tale of two halves, manager Mitch Austin saw his half-time team talk galvanise the hosts, who came out full of energy. “The goal before half-time was massive, we love half-times, and we didn’t want to die lying down.”
A succession of Paul Malone headers almost levelled it, one hitting the bar, another cleared off the line. The target man put in a man-of-the-match performance, instrumental to every Harborough attack, even testing Tommy Taylor with a rocket from 30 yards. As time seemed to be escaping the home team, the Harborough bench made tactical changes in personnel, indicating they would be throwing the kitchen sink at it, going into the final stages. Liam Dolman saw his header finger-tipped away, and the Bees’ forward line narrowly failed to get on the end of Dempsey Arlott-John’s incisive cutback. It was substitute Ben Stephens, on his 50th appearance, who rifled in the equaliser from James Taylor’s hook back, before Malone turned provider, setting up summer signing Brady Hickey to poke home and blow the roof off the Beehive. Austin congratulated his side, “Ben is the real deal; however, I am delighted with everyone. I am proud of the lads and the character of Harborough.”
After a run of home fixtures the Bees hit the road for back-to-back away league games, starting with Leiston next Saturday before Redditch on Monday evening, aiming to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions.
MOTM: Paul Malone
REPORT: Ben Monti
PHOTO: RB Media
MATCH: FA CUP 2nd Round Qualifying
ATTENDENCE: 633