WITH the score standing at 3-0 to Lord Raglan at half time and Guide seemingly devoid of any serious fire-power around their opponents penalty box, this Blue and White Rosebowl tie seemed all over bar the shouting.

Despite Lord Raglan being bottom of the First Division and Guide riding high at the top of Division Three, the gap between the two sides in the first 45 minutes seemed immense.

While Guide displayed a willingness for hard work, they were short on imagination and could do little to open up a Lord Raglan defence who stubbornly refused access beyond the edge of their 18 yard box.

There were no such problems at the other end of the field.

It took Lord Raglan just 10 minutes to take the lead.

A Neil Tolley corner was headed across the face of the goal by Tony Pugh and Paul Mashiter had the simple task of directing his header past Andy Hatch. A second goal was added two minutes later when Fred O'Toole hit a great crossfield ball to Mashiter. From Mashiter's cross Martin Eagen pulled the ball down and crisply deposited it past Hatch from 10 yards.

Guide did try to make some headway against a resilient Lord Raglan defence and Tony Alcock finished a spirited run with a shot that brought out a good save from Lee Wright.

But for sheer power and accuracy, no one was going to match Neil Tolley.

From time to time brilliant goals are scored at local league level and this was one of them.

A 40-yard crossfield ball from Pugh split the Guide defence and fell perfectly in the path of Tolley on the edge and to the right of the Guide penalty box.

Tolley allowed the ball to bounce once and hit a tremendous shot into the top left hand corner from 20 yards, denying Hatch time to even consider a save.

The nearest Guide came to an attempt on goal was when Lee Reed made a good run from his sweeper's position and got in a cross that was headed clear by Tolley under pressure from Neil Hayhurst.

After the break it was more of the same as Lord Raglan pushed forward and Mashiter beat Ian Almond, forcing a good save from Andy Hatch.

But it seemed Guide had been underestimated and, even at 3-0 down ,they hadn't given up.

From a Shaun Kennedy corner, Graham Corrin rose majestically and totally unchallenged, headed a delightful goal past Lee Wright.

And, while the goal failed to inspire the Guide forward line, another defender turned predator in the 75th minute when sweeper Lee Reed ran 40 yards to collect a pass on the edge of the Lord Raglan penalty area and tuck the ball past the advancing Wright to put Guide back into the game.

With Lord Raglan now looking somewhat pensive and for the first time in the game beatable, Guide hit an equaliser when substitute Adam Whalley reacted to a quick free kick from Shaun Kennedy and hit a shot into the far corner. In the last minute Martin Eagen had a golden opportunity to win the game, but squandered the chance when he shot wide of an open goal from five yards.

Extra time proved to be something of an anti-climax as Mark Gray shot Lord Raglan back in the lead after nine minutes.

This time they seemed determined to stay in front.

And Gray scored his second from an Eagen pass with 10 minutes left on the clock.

Lord Raglan were reduced to 10 men when Eagen committed a second bookable offence and received a red card for deliberately using his hands to force the ball over the goal line.

It wasn't until the last minute that Guide created a real scoring chance and from Reed's corner, Steve Almond headed home to make it 5-4.

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