Hallam FC

Hallam moved into the third round of the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior Cup last night after a late penalty put paid to the resistance of Step 7 side Houghton Main .The Countrymen were pegged back to 1-1 by the battling Barnsley outfit with just ten minutes to go, but substitute Jordan Turner converted the spot kick with just four minutes left to clinch the win, write Ian Jones and Glenn Poulton for the Hallam FC Website. 

Countrymen Manager Stephen Whitehead had promised to give game time to the other members of his first team squad , but there was still plenty of talent on show at the start.However, it was Houghton Main who tested young goalkeeper Oliver Barnes early on before the NCEL side grew into the game , Lawrence going close with a header from a corner, and Danny Booth and debutant Belgian front man Arne Donne threatening the visitors goal.

"I thought the senior players stood out on the night" Steve Whitehead

Six minutes before the break , Booth sent over a lovely cross for Will Wraith to give Hallam the lead with a downward header.

The tie had been switched to Sandygate from Barnsley, a decision rewarded by a fine crowd of 113, who watched Hallam go into the second half chasing a second goal; but with just ten minutes to go, Hallam failed to clear their lines from a corner and Andrew Wright capitalised with a close-range finish to level up the contest.

Stephen Whitehead threw on the prolific Turner in search of a winner and saw his call get its reward when the striker was fouled in the box , and got up to despatch the resulting penalty to clinch a 2-1 win on the night.

After the game, Ian and Glenn fielded the Hallam Manager's post-match assessment.

Stephen, safely through to the third round of the S and H Senior Cup. First , though a word about Houghton Main from the County Senior League who deserve credit for a battling performance.

It was a battling performance from Houghton Main who made it hard for us without ever really threatening our goal. A few times they did threaten but our young keeper Barnesy and the defence stood to the challenge. It took a corner in the 80th minute- where we lacked concentration with us having a lot of young lads playing -for them to score. I suppose it was a good job we had JT in reserve to come off the bench to rescue the game and get us in the hat for the next round.

True to your word , you rang the changes last night. We know you don't like to pick out individuals, so what did you make of the performance: and just a quick comment on young Arne Donne , making his first start in the blue and white.

I thought the senior players on the night stood out for me. Boothy and Julian were leaders for us ; young Ben had a good game and we just did enough on the night to get through. I thought Arne looked a mile off. I think we need to try and get him some game time somewhere to get him up to speed as there are five or six players in our regular squad that play in the positions he wants to play in who are in front of him at the minute.

A trip to North Yorkshire on Non-League Saturday coming up and a Division One rematch with Harrogate Railway Athletic.Are you expecting to face a different Rail this weekend?

I do expect a sterner test with it being their home fixture; they haven’t managed to win since they last played us and are coming off the back of a couple of heavy defeats so I expect they will want to shore up at the back and get a first win in 4 games. We will have to keep our standards that have put us on this okayrun for us to come back to Sandygate with the all-important three points on Saturday.

Stephen Whitehead was talking to the Hallam FC Website