This will be a game that will not live long in the memory. At the end of the day AFC survived and live to fight another day. The replay is on Tuesday at the MEL Group Stadium.

There was change in the AFC line up with James Baker missing suffering from a virus, Chris Sullivan came in up front. On the bench recent signing Barri Twinn was named as a substitute goalkeeper. The home side did not include ex AFC man Ozie Foster.

The pitch was extremely bobbly and this certainly did not help AFC’s game but the home side seemed able to play reasonably well on it.

The first ten minutes were very scrappy with both sides testing each other out. There was an injury scare for AFC after fifteen minutes, when goalkeeper Danny Gay went down to collect the ball and Fielding appeared to knee him as he went for the ball. The Sudbury man stayed down and received extensive treatment from physio Tony Brightwell after which he was able to continue.

Danny Gay Received Nasty Facial Injury

The referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge but spoke to Michael Shinn who remonstrated with the home forward. A few minutes later Gay had to be alert to tip over a ball that Last hit forward and the bounce nearly caught him out.

The AFC keeper, was soon in action diving full length to his right to deny Cobb.  A few minutes later he had to stop the game to take some pain killing tablets and then was forced to save low down another Cobb shot.

The best effort from the visitors came on twenty nine minutes when a Richard Howell cross come shot hit the top of the goal net. In the final ten minutes of the half AFC were probably the better side but failed to trouble Conroy in the home goal. There was a let off with three minutes left when Fielding put the ball in the back of the net, but it was ruled offside.

Half time; St Ives Town 0 AFC Sudbury 0

The sun continued to shine as the teams came out for the second period, both showing no changes. St Ives should have gone ahead within a minute of the re-start when Swain slipped and the ball went Cobb alone with only Gay to beat. The AFC keeper showed his worth with fine save coming off his line to save one handed to keep AFC in the tie.

There was almost a carbon copy a few minutes later when Robbie Martin went down clutching his face, and the ball went free and found Cobb again but Gay was equal to it and saved well. Martin received attention and had a blooded nose.

On the hour mark one of AFC rare shots, this time by Richard Howell went well over the bar. Cobb when closely marked by Danny Swain went down in the Sudbury box, but the referee gave nothing.

With sixty-five minutes gone Ryan Henshaw came on to replace the ineffective Danny Emmanuel. In fairness to him it was not his type of pitch. There was a booking for Ellison as he took down Henshaw as the game seemed to be continually stopped for petty fouls.

Fielding went off and Hall took his place on seventy-three minutes and three minutes later Danny Swain went down after a heavy tackle clutching his already bandaged right hand. He received treatment but had to go off with debutant Ashley Sloots replacing him. He went on to have a solid fifteen minutes.

Ashley Sloots Made Debut

Chris Sullivan was withdrawn with seven minutes left and David Lorimer took over and chased an harried for the remainder of the game. Richard Howell was fouled and as he went down handled to ball, it was deemed a bookable offence.

Cobb and Ellison were taken off by the home side and Robins and Last took there place, as the game clock ran down and the game ended scoreless.

St Ives will think that they should have won the game, they certainly had the better chances. AFC know that they can play much better and will hope to do so in the replay.

The second game will take place on Tuesday at the MEL Group Stadium with the winning side picking up £1500.