Heaton Park Rovers hold a slender advantage heading into the Tony Cohen Cup quarter-final second-leg following this bad-tempered win over AFC Flixton.
March 25, 2014 15:21TONY COHEN CUP QUARTER-FINAL FIRST LEG
HEATON PARK ROVERS 3 AFC FLIXTON 2
Heaton Park Rovers hold a slender advantage heading into the Tony Cohen Cup quarter-final second-leg following this bad-tempered win over AFC Flixton.
Both sides were reduced to 10 men with HPR striker Jonathan Franks and AFC Flixton’s Simon Kaye handed their marching orders for violent conduct.
The potential loss of Franks to a three -ame ban is a big blow to HPR with the frontman going from hero to zero here.
Franks had earlier bagged a brace before Daniel Seligman had the hosts cruising after cancelling out Flixton’s opener via Andrew Schaffer.
But moments after Kaye saw red, Franks followed him in as this cup tie turned ugly.
And with AFC Flixton reducing the deficit at the death through Alex Glassman, this tie is now in the balance.
HPR boss David Seligman said: "We felt the referee (Sam Bernstein) lost control.
"We were not happy. Their player apologised at the end for losing his head.
"I’m also not best pleased with Jonathan. You can’t retaliate or raise your arms, even if it is the heat of the moment.
"We could lose him for one or three games now. Whatever the outcome, he will be missed and will be hard to replace.
"That, and their late goal, took a bit of gloss off. We played some great stuff and Daniel was a class act as he capped a brilliant display with a goal."
Stand-in AFC Flixton boss Stuart Delmonte added: “We have a good chance of going through.
"It was a difficult game for the referee, but I thought he handled the game well given the circumstances."
Report by Darren Witcoop
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