After a magnificent campaign, which has yet to finish, this season's undisputed top performers, Woolavington, duly confirmed their status as Uxella League champions on Wednesday evening after a narrow 2-1 away win at Squib Madrid thanks to two goals from Ian Bellinger. The win extended Woolavington's proud record to twenty-one victories from twenty-two league games during the campaign with the prospect of further points to be added from their two remaining games.
The other top flight game contested during the midweek saw Clearwater win 4-3 at home to Red Tile. The victory represented a superb second-half comeback for Clearwater after they had trailed 3-0 at the interval. Goals from Carl Gyner, Wayne Spencer, Danny Palfrey and a Tile own goal completed a perfect turnaround and duly sealed the three points for the hosts.
There was a third fixture scheduled for Wednesday evening but Tiger Old Boys were unable to fulfil their away game at Cross Rifles. As such, the Tigers will forfeit three points as per the league rules.
Wednesday evening also saw the first semi-final of the Danny Markall Cup, pitching together Second Division runners-up Maltshovel at home to the division's winners Puriton United. With the title only having been decided on goal difference a few days earlier this cup tie presented Maltshovel with the perfect opportunity for swift revenge and this they did in some style as they proved to be that much hungrier on the night, eventually running out 4-0 victors after an Andrew Barnett penalty and further strikes from brothers Andrew Skidmore(2) and Mike Skidmore.
The second Danny Markall semi-final was contested on Sunday morning and it saw Woolavington Reserves win 2-1 at home to Countryman after goals from Olly Weston and Steve Harris. They will now face Maltshovel in the final on Sunday 7th May.
Sunday morning also saw further games in Uxella League Division 1 and despite having the championship in the bag there was no discernible let-up from Woolavington who ran out 6-2 home winners over Clearwater after a further three goals from Ian Bellinger and one each from Matt Fursland, Jason Jones and Matt Blackmore. However, the early part of the game told a different story as Clearwater twice took the lead through a James Leader first half penalty and then a Danny Palfrey effort early in the second half but once the champions found another gear it became one way traffic and a twenty-second victory out of twenty-three games was the inevitable result.
Tiger Old Boys brushed off their midweek three point deduction with an emphatic 8-1 away win over Bunch of Grapes. Despite the long grass they managed to play a fluid brand of football and had it not been for a fine performance between the sticks by Bunch's stand-in keeper Mike Frost the scoreline could well have been a lot more. As it was a Mike Nicholson hat-trick and further strikes from Richard Onslow(2), Steve Haste, Wilf Davie and an outstanding solo effort from Rob Fearn got the Tigers back on track as they continue to chip away at their end-of-season fixture backlog with their sights still trained on a second place finish in the table.
Their cause was helped by their stable-mates Tiger Reserves who did them a big favour by beating the current second placed side Railway Club 5-3 as the Reserves continue their own strong finish to the campaign.
Flag Old Boys completed their season with a narrow 1-0 away victory at Cross Rifles with the decisive strike coming from Danny Crossley twenty minutes from the end. Flag started the game well and might have had three or four goals in the first quarter before a sleepy Rifles eventually forced themselves back into the game. Once they got their goal Flag looked reasonably comfortable and, having bagged yet another three points, can look back on the campaign with pride. Depending on how Tiger Reserves fare in their remaining catch-up fixtures Flag could yet finish up in their current fourth position in the table which would represent a fantastic achievement for a team newly promoted to the top division.
(Story First Published: 30.04.06) |
