Rushall Olympic 1 Guiseley 2

IT WAS a tale of two penalties as Guiseley finally shrugged off the determined challenge of their Evo-Stik Premier Division opponents in Tuesday night’s replay.

And the Lions were indebted to their spot-kick experts Gavin Rothery and goalkeeper Steve Drench for securing a first-round home tie against fellow Vanarama Conference North side Chorley a week on Saturday.

Rothery continued his impressive scoring record from 12 yards by slotting home what proved to be the decisive goal in the 65th minute after Wayne Brooksby was brought down in the area.

The drama then switched to the other end, where goalkeeper Drench kept out a spot-kick from Aaron Williams after Ryan Toulson had fouled Carl Palmer.

Williams had stunned Guiseley earlier when he seized on Shane Killock’s under-hit back pass and opened the scoring in the ninth minute.

The Lions refused to panic, however, and were back on terms just before the half-hour when midfieldman Jake Lawlor got on the end of a Rothery cross to head home.

The second-half drama was centred on the two penalty incidents, with Guiseley relieved to come through what had proved to be a tough tie.

Guiseley manager Mark Bower said: “I haven’t taken a senior penalty, although I did take some at youth-team level, but you feel confident when Gavin steps up to take one.

“The keeper guessed the right way but Gavin’s shot was too powerful and into the corner. If he scores nine out of ten of them that will do me.

“It is the first one that he has taken this season – he was missing earlier in the season when Nicky Boshell took a couple – but he did score eight for us in league matches last season.”

Chorley set up their first-round visit to Nethermoor by winning 2-1 in their replay at Stalybridge Celtic, where former Guiseley striker Kevin Holsgrove netted in the last minute for the losers.

Guiseley 0, Rushall Olympic 0 GUISELEY boss Mark Bower admitted his side were ‘going to have to do it the hard way’ after they failed to finish off a side 33 places lower down the football pyramid at Nethermoor.

Rushall Olympic earned their FA Trophy third qualifying round replay with some solid defending and a man-of-the-match display from keeper Cameron Belford.

The Pics had a lot of defending to do as Guiseley dominated the first-half chance count, with Alex Johnson making the most of a rare start as he comes back from a long injury absence.

The visitors’ centre-back pairing of Aaron Brown and Michael Tolley were commanding and, when the Lions did force openings, Belford proved unbeatable on the day.

The longer the game went on the more the Pics began to believe in themselves and they looked for an unlikely winner on the counter-attack.

They came close to snatching one, with Steve Drench denying Aaron Williams and Carl Palmer.

Guiseley should have put the tie to bed in the final stages but they had a very strong penalty shout turned down when Johnson appeared to be tugged back by Brown. When substitute Nicky Boshell had the ball in the net late on the strike was ruled out for a handball offence.

Bower said: “It was very frustrating. In the first half we moved the ball about well but they sat deep and it was difficult to create chances, but we did and we should have been in front.

“We had more than enough chances – good ones – to score and if you take one of them I think we go on to win the game comfortably. But we didn’t and that’s credit to Rushall.

“They sat even deeper in the second half and looked to hit us on the break. Two or three could have ended in the back of our net.

“But AJ got in behind them and was hauled back when he was clean through. I thought that should have been a penalty and a red card but the ref waved play on.”

“We are going to have to do it the hard way now and go there to get through. We need to put our chances away to win the replay.”