Coton Green successfully progressed to the 3rd Round of the Birmingham FA Saturday Vase following a 3-1 penalty shoot-out victory away at Earlswood Town. After an exciting 90 minutes which finished at 2-2, the Green Army held their nerve to replicate last years result here where they also won on penalties.

Earlswood came flying out of the blocks to take the lead in the 2nd minute as Jon Huckfield and Bobbie Grayson challenged for the same ball which left Chris Gumery free to lob the ball over the head of Shane Maydew and into the back of the Coton net. This shock to the system saw Coton come back into the game instantly with Liam Rowley the key player for the visitors. Some good link up play between Rowley and debutant Lewis Gorle saw several good chances created from the wings. Earlswood continued to push Coton but the back line remained resolute after a shaky couple of opening minutes.
Coton finally got themselves a deserved equaliser after a fantastic cross by Gorle was met at the back post by Michael Hicks, who unselfishly squared the ball to Liam Rowley for the midfielder to open up his Coton Green account with his first goal for the club. In fact, Rowley nearly doubled Coton's lead only minutes later after it opened up for him in the box but his rifled effort was saved well by the Earlswood keeper to leave the scores level. At the other end, Maydew pulled out a couple of key saves to keep Coton level, and this seemed to urge Coton on to attack to try and take the lead.
The breakthrough for the second goal came just 6 minutes before the interval, after Josh Sherrington picked the ball up on the corner of the 18 yard box and fizzed a cross come shot across the 6 yard box which was deflected into the bottom corner. The Green Army took a deserved 1-2 lead into the half time break.

H/T Earlswood Town 1 v 2 Coton Green

Just as they had done the first period, Earlswood came out in the second half flying, and in the 51st minute, they levelled the scores after the ever dangerous Gumery created a yard of space for himself in the box to fire home into the bottom corner. Coton remained calm and played themselves into the game, retaining the ball well on a heavy pitch at Malthouse Lane. In terms of chances, there wasn't much to shout about for either team, with substitutions for both the only hope of sparking something up. The Green Army were to have a couple more chances late on but they just didn't have enough to get the goal to outright win the cup tie. Another debutant Marian Iotu was denied what seemed to be a stonewall penalty, but the referee could clearly not see the contact as he waved on the play to the frustrations of the Coton players and management.

Onto the lottery that is penalties and it was Earlswood who took first and scored low to the right hand side of Maydew. Up stepped Rowley for Coton Green and the usually reliable midfielder dragged his penalty agonisingly wide to give the home team the advantage. Earlswood stepped up to try and double their advantage, but Maydew was more than equal to the effort as he saved to his right. Nathan Boyce came forward for the 2nd Coton penalty and his effort nestled into the side netting to level the scores. Earlswood chose again to go to Maydews right and the Coton keeper again saved well to give Coton the chance to take a lead. Richard Hopkins was the next to take for Coton, and the defender buried his penalty to make it 2-1 to the Green Army. What proved to be Earlswoods final penalty was a poor effort slightly off centre which Maydew comfortably saved, and this left Bobbie Grayson to spark the elation for Coton as he tucked home his penalty to make it 3-1 to the visitors.

Overall it was a tough fixture for the Green Army which they will look to build on in the next 2 weeks as they host Boldmere Sports and Social Falcons in the league cup before travelling to Old Wulfrunians in the 3rd round of the Birmingham Saturday Vase.