AFC Ludlow bowed out of the TJ Vickers Senior Cup at the semi-final stage at Shrewsbury Sports Village last night when they were cruelly beaten 6-3 after extra time against red hot favourites Market Drayton Town.

AFC raced into a 2 nil lead through Kieran Dovey before Drayton reduced the score line before halftime.
AFC made it 3 when Dovey completed his hat trick and it looked like the shock of all shocks was on but AFC cruelly conceded 2 own goals in the last 20 minutes to take the game into extra time.

AFC conceded an early 2 goals in extra time which took the game away from them & conceded in the very last minute having been reduced to 10 men to give a real unfair score line on reflection of the game.

Boss Dave Cooper who recently got himself in hot water with the Shropshire FA in regards to a match official refused to comment on the performance of the referee but did say that he was immensely proud of his team tonight and over the 90 minutes thought that his team played the better football and got it down and tried to play which they did in long spells & defended superb throughout against Drayton's long ball tactics which they used through out.

Assistant Tim Moriarty gave us his thoughts on the game.

“Let’s be honest no one expected us to get anything out of the game tonight except for the boys that put that shirt on for AFC who all believed we could & we showed tonight that we are a match for any team and we were never behind in normal time & got ourselves into a 2nil & 3-1 lead & we should really have seen the game out but for 2 real bad strokes of luck & a terrible official I think we would.
The 1st deflection that allowed them to make it 2 was saved by our keeper Ian Havard but hit Aaron Hodge in the mid rib who could do nothing about it to roll in to the net & too then concede with just over 6 minutes left when a free kick which should never of been awarded as there wasn't even a foul there for one was hit and going straight into the hands of Havard but hit the underside of Dale Hodges boot to creep into the corner...
Extra time we switched off in the 1st minute of allowing a free header but the one we conceded 2 minutes after that Gavin Podmore was clearly pulled to the ground for a blatant foul which his marker couldn't believe wasn't given as he had a free header & the 6th goal was conceded as we had been robbed of the services of Podmore.
In reality the story of the game is we were the better side over the 90 minutes & should be the side going to the final but football is cruel sometimes and we certainly have felt that tonight but I have to be honest and say that the referee tonight was one of the worst if not the worst official I have ever witnessed officiate a game since I have been involved with football which is over 30 years!!
He was being called by his 1st name all night by Drayton players & gave them everything they shouted for fouls / free kicks / corners which clearly in a lot of cases were not it was blatantly obvious.
The one for the equaliser was a foul by the Drayton player if at all & to send off Podmore was a shocker of a decision as everyone in the stadium & both sets of players know he won the ball & he deemed it a foul & I don't blame Pod for his frustration as he was at fault for yet another terrible decision but they can’t be approached to their wrong doings (as Coop found out recently .... the men in black are perfect & untouchable .... Nothing short of a disgrace and that's for both sides and if id of had a performance as bad as his id for sure knock it on the head!!)
But all the ranting wont achieve nothing so we have to move on now and we wish Drayton all the best in the final but more importantly we’ve shown tonight we’ve out played a side 5-6 leagues above us over 90 minutes so we need to take that performance in to the rest of the league campaign and hope we can achieve promotion which is what our sole aim was at the start of the season starting this Saturday away at FC Stafford