Market Drayton (01-11-2014)

Market Drayton 2 - 2 King's Lynn (FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round), Saturday 1st November 2014

Train ticket (Stockport-Stoke) = £12-70
Bus (Stoke-Market Drayton) = £6-20
Entrance = £7
Programme = £2
Tea = £1
Total = £28-90

Around 18 months ago, I very nearly came to see King's Lynn against Market Drayton, but instead managed to get away tickets for Newcastle-Liverpool (where the away side won 6-0 in a precursor to the 2013-14 season). By complete coincidence, today's game also coincided with the repeat fixture at St James Park. Today I'd opted for the long trip to Shropshire instead to see my first King's Lynn away of the season. I absolutely love these away games in the FA competitions, and have happy memories of early qualifying rounds when we used to be drawn away - Maldon (2004/05), Banbury (2005/06), Tring Athletic (2006/07) and Lincoln United (2007/08). This was another tricky ground to do, so I was delighted to be able to double this one up with a King's Lynn away.

Market Drayton sits in an awkward location from a public transport point of view, nestled between Stoke, Shrewsbury, Stoke and Telford. From the East of the Pennines, this is probably best-reached via Stockport. Again maximising my season ticket, I changed trains at Stockport and arrived at Stoke just after 12, in time for the 12.20 bus out to the town. The ride was along winding country lanes, and its a good thing I'm not a queasy traveller as it was quite a bumpy ride at times! I arrived at Market Drayton just after 1pm, and went for a wander round the town. This was obviously a quiet market town, with not much going on, though I did find an impressive church when walking down a back street. After deciding there wasn't much worth seeing in the town I headed for the ground - Greenfields. This was buried at the back of a lane which led to a rugby ground, tennis club and finally the football ground on the right. This was a curious ground, with the turnstile/entrance, an entire stand and the dug-outs made from wood. This was well-crafted and must be designed to be long-lasting, so I have to take my hat off to the carpenter who put it all together.

Today's game should be a straightforward win for King's Lynn, who are a league higher - on paper that is. King's Lynn definitely started more strongly, with Jackson Ramm cutting inside before having his shot smothered by the home keeper. Thomson then missed a sitter, while Dan Quigley combined with Spriggs in a smart move. Market Drayton's tactic was clearly to counter-attack, and they did this effectively on several occasions. It was to the delight of the home crowd that they took the lead when Askey made it 1-0 on 18 minutes. The away side continued to pour towards the home goal, and shots rained in from Bridges and Thomson, who rattled the post with one effort. Market Drayton's best chance came when O'Reilly hit a volley wide. We then had an offside goal disallowed, and Thomson missed when clean through. Maybe this wasn't going to be our day? This feeling was reinforced when we won a penalty at the end of the first half, only for Thomson to have hits shot well-saved by the home keeper.

King's Lynn started the second half again full of aggressive attacking. Spriggs, then Jones, had shots saved early on, and it seemed as though the match might turn shortly. Again, against the run of play, the home side doubled their lead after some nifty footwork from Joe Wolley allowed him to slot in. King's Lynn looked fired up for it now, but Market Drayton were clearly determined to hold the lead and pull off a shock. King's Lynn's 10 again hit over from close range, Frew hit another shot straight at the keeper, while Smith had a header over. Both defences looked completely ragged at this point, and the game was clearly there for the taking. But we just couldn't score! Frew, who had worked hard and been effective for much of the game, rattled the cross-bar, with the follow-up effort swept up by the Shaun Rowley. Then the substitute Sam Mulready poked home from close range to make it 2-1. The light was closing in, and we now had a nervous final few minutes. The teams continued to fight for the game, but King's Lynn looked buoyed by the goal. On 87 minutes, George Thomson popped up in the box to smash a superb first-time volley into the top left-hand corner of the goal. This was definitely deserving of an equaliser at such a late stage. The game as a whole had been the most absorbing I'd seen all year, and I was pleased to be able to go to another obscure ground with 'The Linnets' once again!