REPORT | Quorn 4-2 Leek Town
Tyrell Shannon-Lewis celebrates a thrilling win at Farley Way. (C) MW Photography.
Quorn progressed to the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy with an enthralling 4-2 win at home to Leek Town. A Courey Grantham brace highlighted a scintillating thriller as Charlie Marzano and Tyrell Shannon-Lewis goals cancelled out a brace from Leek’s Julius Ndene.
Leek Town dominated the early exchanges, earning a penalty in the 13th minute when Pat Zito handled in the area. Charlie Woods made a superb save from Daniel Trickett-Smith’s penalty, but Leek had the ball straight back in the area as Ndene headed them in front.
It could have been much worse for Quorn as Thomas Carr went down under a challenge but was denied a second penalty in as many minutes. The Reds were denied a penalty shout of their own a couple of minutes later when Grantham took a blow to the head.
Quorn levelled in the 24th minute as Tyree Wilson ran at the heart of the Leek defence, picking out Marzano on the right, who shot hard and low past Joe O’Shaughnessy. Woods was busy again immediately after, turning away a solid strike from Saul Milovanovic.
The second half was equally entertaining, as Paddy Webb, Cain Noble and Wilson had efforts saved or blocked in a sequence of desperate defending as the Reds pushed to go ahead. The pressure continued, and paid off in the 51st minute when Grantham scored for the second time in two games.
A goalmouth scramble was forced in by Ndene to level the scores just four minutes later as the end-to-end contest continued to flow back and forth. Both keepers were kept busy as Noble was denied at one end before Woods palmed an effort over moments later.
Grantham added his second as the ball fell to him on the edge of the six yard box, following a another spell of relentless pressure. It was then the turn of the visitors to apply the pressure, hitting the post from deep, with the rebound dropping kindly for Quorn. Leek did bundle the ball in to the net, but Woods was heavily fouled in the process and the goal didn’t stand.
O’Shaughnessy made a smart stop with his feet to deny Grantham a hat-trick, but persistence from Josh Steele saw him win the ball in the area, lay it off to substitute Shannon-Lewis, who had time to pick his spot and put the match beyond the visitors.
Leek had a couple of chances in stoppage time as Oliver Harrison headed over and Jake Avery’s attempted lob sailed millimetres over the bar. Wilson forced one more excellent save from O’Shaughnessy in the dying seconds as the Reds were good value for their 4-2 win. The draw for the next round takes place on Monday afternoon.