1874 Northwich skipper Matt Woolley hailed the commitment of both sides to playing good football during his side’s penalty shoot-out win at Rylands on Saturday.

Following a last-gasp equaliser for the Warrington outfit, the Macron Cup tie went to spot kicks and 1874 triumphed 3-2 to advance.

Taylor Kennerley had put the Greens ahead with just 10 minutes to go, only for Lewis Buckley to equalise at the death for Rylands.

“Both teams went at it the right way,” Woolley said.

“We both tried to play football and unfortunately, we had to decide it on penalties which let’s face it, nobody enjoys.

“We came out to press from the front which is normal for us.

“We know Rylands like to get the ball down and play football so we knew we needed to press aggressively and force Rylands to play a little longer than they wanted to.

“Scoring on 80 minutes, we had a right to think we had strong enough characters to see that game out.

“Rylands never gave up, kept pressing for the equaliser and in the end, a long ball forward has been flicked on and the lad has chested and volleyed superbly.

“It felt a bit of a sucker punch for us but a good finish for him.

“We’re a strong side at the moment but there are some great sides also in this division.

“Rylands have given us a tough afternoon, Bootle are a great side, Ashton are strong.

“There is a high level of quality in this division.”

Co-manager Wayne Goodison was pleased to see Kennerley, who came off the bench on his return from injury, get the goal that looked like winning 1874 the game in normal time.

“It was good to get Taylor back in. Fortunately, he’s come back a bit quicker than we thought he would,” he said.

“The ball he put in was great, it always had a chance of going in the net.

“He’s a big part of our plans so it was good to have him back.

“We thought it was a good performance for us.

“We were happy enough at half time – we thought we controlled big parts of the first half, pressed really well and played with a good tempo.

“We could have been a bit better in the final third but overall, we’re happy.

“We said at half time that we weren’t going to be completely in control.

“We expected them to come at us but I thought we defended really well other than the last crazy minute where they got the goal back.”