YORK CITY 3 HINCKLEY UNITED 1

Attendance: 853

FA TROPHY FIRST ROUND REPLAY

A HAT-TRICK from Richard Brodie ended Hinckley United’s FA Trophy journey after a battling performance against York City.

Already missing a trio of injured players, United were further hampered by the absence of their midfield engine room, both Richard Lavery and Andy Gooding sitting out one game bans, which meant a debut for Jack Roberts, whilst the home side enjoyed the luxury of restoring leading scorer Brodie to their starting line-up and his inclusion, along with a missed penalty for Hinckley, proved crucial.

Brodie was a threat all night. Twice inside the opening half hour he was sent through on goal but Chris MacKenzie raced off his line to block the first effort and later when the keeper was beaten, Neil Cartwright read the situation well to clear off the line. The Knitters didn’t learn though and with ten minutes of the first half remaining, Brodie again beat the offside trap and again appeared to have lost his chance when a poor touch saw him lose control of the ball, but he went to ground under challenge from a combination of Paul Lister and MacKenzie and referee Russell Fletcher awarded what looked like a generous penalty which BRODIE converted.

The game was a much more open affair than the goalless bore draw at the Greene King Stadium on Saturday and United responded well to going behind, Andy Hall’s free kick was pushed over by Michael Ingham who then parried Sam Smith’s shot but Alex Taylor couldn’t force the rebound home and just before the break, City almost doubled their lead when Neil Barrett headed wide after good work by Alex Lawless.

Hinckley levelled within a couple of minutes of the re-start, Taylor delivered a cross from the left that Matt WEST did well to guide over Ingham and into the net from 15 yards out, but BRODIE restored his side’s lead on the hour, a clinical piece of finishing as he drove a left footed shot home from an acute angle.

Hinckley were far from beaten and enjoyed their best spell of the game. Smith played a clever 1-2 with West before driving over from the edge of the area and Hall’s right wing corner reached the unmarked James Mace who headed straight at Ingham.

United’s pressure earned them a gilt-edged opportunity to level again with 20 minutes remaining, a neat build-up found Roberts’ burst into the box that was ended by Ben Purkiss’ foul – penalty – but West crashed his effort against the bar.

The Knitters had blown their best chance of getting back into it, Hall stung Ingham’s fingers with a long range effort, but they’d missed the boat and City sealed their win with another opportunist strike from BRODIE who completed his hat-trick to send York into the 2^nd Round and a trip to Newport County leaving Dean Thomas to ponder on what might have been. 

York City: Ingham, Meredith, McGurk, Parslow (Purkiss 60), Lawless, Barrett, Rankine, Brodie, Mackin, Carruthers, Graham.

Subs: Purkiss, Ferrell, Gash, Mimms, Gall.

Hinckley Utd: MacKenzie, Cartwright (Mace 64), Franklin, Roberts, Lister, Collins, Hall, Dillon, Smith, West, Taylor.

Subs: Newton, Mace, Hamilton, Young, Lancaster.