Match reports
Witton Albion 1–1 Buxton (Buxton won 6–5 on penalties)
Adam Warlow's goal four minutes into stoppage time took the 2008 play-off semi-final to extra time, but Buxton won the penalty shoot-out 6–5 and Witton's promotion challenge ended three days after the league title had slipped away.
Match facts
Witton Albion1–1Buxton
After extra time. Buxton won 6–5 on penalties.
- Date
- 29 April 2008
- Competition
- Northern Premier League Premier Division promotion play-off semi-final
- Venue
- Wincham Park
- Attendance
- 586
- Scorers
- Neil Ross 45+2 (Buxton); Adam Warlow 90+4 (Witton Albion)
- Witton Albion
- Kennedy; Kearney, Barras, Pritchard, Brownhill, Peers, Lloyd (Woolley 86), MacPherson, Junior Brown, Thornley (Rapley 74), Warlow
- Buxton
- Hartley; Black, Anderson, Bowker, Maxfield, Lees, Foster (Turley 91), Towey, Agus, Ross (Walker 69), Bradley (Lennon 81)
Three days after losing the league title on the final afternoon, Witton Albion had a second chance of promotion. As runners-up they were at home in the play-off semi-final to Buxton, who had finished fifth in their first season back in the Premier Division. The tie was a single match at Wincham Park on Tuesday 29 April 2008.
Background
Witton had beaten Buxton twice in the league, 2–0 away in September and 3–0 at home in December, and had finished 21 points above them. But they had just been beaten 3–0 by Worksop Town, and the report on the club's website described a side that no longer looked like the one that had led the table for five months.
The match
There were few chances. Adam Warlow was brought down by the Buxton goalkeeper Scott Hartley on the edge of the area in the opening minutes, an incident for which the home side felt Hartley should have been sent off. A Mark Peers run set up Warlow after a quarter of an hour, and Michael Towey got a foot in as he was about to shoot.
Buxton scored in first-half stoppage time. Scott Maxfield's free kick cleared the wall, Jon Kennedy could not hold it and Neil Ross put in the loose ball.
The second half followed the same pattern. Buxton's substitute Scott Walker missed from close range on 72 minutes with Kennedy beaten. Witton sent on Kevin Rapley and then Matt Woolley, and four minutes into stoppage time Warlow hooked in a loose ball to make it 1–1.
Extra time produced one real opening, a goal-line clearance to deny Buxton's Gregg Anderson after Kennedy had spilled a free kick, and a Witton appeal for a penalty when Junior Brown went down in the area.
The shoot-out
The match went to penalties and then to sudden death. Hartley saved from Ian Kearney, one of two stops he made in the shoot-out, and Anderson scored the kick that won it. The Football Club History Database records the shoot-out as 6–5 to Buxton. The club's own fixtures page listed the result of this match as "5–6", which is the shoot-out score rather than the match score.
Mark Peers was named the club's man of the match. Rob Lloyd and Peers were booked for Witton; Maxfield, Anton Foster and Towey for Buxton. The referee was Ian Edwards.
Aftermath
Buxton lost the play-off final 2–0 to Gateshead, who were promoted with the champions, Fleetwood Town.
For Witton it was the end of an era as well as a season. Jim Vince and his assistant Nigel Deeley resigned after a disagreement with the chairman, Mike Worthington, were reappointed by the acting chairman, Mark Harris, and then Vince stepped down again on health grounds. Deeley was appointed manager on 28 May 2008, and Vince became manager of FC Halifax Town on 2 July. Most of the squad that had finished second left that summer, and the side that began 2008–09 was almost entirely new; its first win came at Prescot Cables in August.
The play-off is shown with the rest of the season's results in the 2007–08 fixtures and results.