It was a pleasure for Marine FC to be competing in the FA Cup first round against Colchester United, but they were not going to be there to just take part.
After five games in the qualifying rounds Marine would have been stupid to waste this opportunity to get themselves in the hat for the second round.
They took it with both hands, every single one of them.
In the first half the side from Crosby took the lead thanks to great anticipation from Anthony Miley following up a rebound after a great save from a free kick in the 22nd minute.
Dreamland. They were in the lead in the FA Cup. Eight tier team against a fourth-tier professional team who are allowed to play on throughout lockdown.
The magic of the cup as they say.
Neil Kengni then nearly doubled their lead but his left footed effort was denied via another fantastic save by Colchester United’s goalkeeper Dean Gerken.
Colchester must have had a rollocking at half time as they came out and heaped the pressure on the Merseysiders who kept them out for as long as possible.
In the 64th minute Colchester United got that dreaded equaliser through Harry Pell.
Marine’s goalkeeper Bayleigh Passant spilled a long-range effort then saved the rebound but then it came out to Pell who made no mistake finding the back of the net.
It was back to the walls stuff from there on in as Colchester pushed for the winner.
But Marine done enough to take it to extra time.
Goalkeeper Passant was the hero in the first half of extra time making up for his mistake in normal time denying substitute Josh Bohui.
In the second half of extra time Colchester had the best chance of the game with Jevani Brown through and lashing it over.
Then in the last minuet a header was cleared off the line by Marine taking the game to penalties, it epitomised their desire, effort and willingness to do the most they possibly could during the 120 minutes.
Hearts where in mouths.
After three perfect penalties each Josh Bohui stepped up and put his effort wide for Colchester.
So it was all down to Mikey Howard.
He slotted the ball home putting himself in Marine folklore until the end of time.
The celebrations were great to watch on the pitch and they carried on in the dressing room with Sweet Caroline getting blasted about, is right lads.
Marine will be ball number 29 in the draw on Monday as they wait to see who they come up against in the second round of the cup so manager Neil Young can perform another tactical masterclass.
Yes, you read that right the second round.
Bloody big congratulations to everyone at Marine, Well done!
Written by Elliot Thompson
