On a day of high drama in the various Uxella League divisional cup competitions, the two biggest games of the day both went to extra time.
In the first titanic clash, in the Second Round of the Bill Brown Division 1 Cup, Woolavington and Pig & Whistle went head to head and played out a very entertaining game which eventually finished up 3-3 after extra time with Wayne Barry(2) and Matt Blackmore bagging Woolavington's goals. The match therefore needed to be decided by a penalty shoot out and it was Woolavington who kept their nerve to win that particular contest 3-2. They now progress to the semi-finals where another formidable opponent awaits them in the form of none other than champions Tiger Old Boys.
The Tigers earned their place in the semi-finals after also being taken into extra time by Railway Club. The match was a very tight affair until ten minutes from the end of normal time when the deadlock was broken by Railway Club, who must have fancied their chances of seeing out the remainder of the game and preserving their one goal advantage. However, the Tigers had other ideas as they proceeded to equalise straight from the restart through Wilf Davie. The match therefore went into a further half hour period during which Davie added a second before team mate Paul Mear sealed a 3-1 victory with a goal of his own.
Clearwater were also in action in the Bill Brown Cup and they emerged from their home tie against Red Tile with a comfortable 4-1 victory after goals from Steve Spencer(2), Wayne Spencer and Mike Stone. James Hamilton responded with Tile's consolation effort.
Clearwater will now meet Durleigh in the other semi-final following Durleigh's 5-1 away win over Cobblestones in the remaining tie of the round. Cobblestones briefly took a surprise lead in the game before Durleigh found another gear and went on to cruise home with goals from Ian Bellinger(2), Gary Stone, George Panatiotides and, with a 25-yard strike that crashed in off the crossbar, from Alistair Witts.
Meanwhile, in the Second Division's Danny Markhall Cup, there was also extra time played in the encounter between Cross Rifles and North Petherton but eventually goals from Jason Stephenson, Craig McGann and the prolific Lee Stentaford gave the Rifles a 3-1 win which means they will meet Black Horse in the semi-finals.
Black Horse progressed through to the last four after a 4-1 away victory at Cannington. Andrew Barnett and Vince Kennedy both bagged a brace for Horse while Alex Bradley struck back with the home side's solitary effort.
The most eye-catching scoreline of the day came from the tie between Tiger OB Reserves and Woolavington Reserves, which eventually finished up 10-5 to the Tiger Reserves, with Paul "Grimmy" Irvine racking up a five-goal haul while Phil Coombes also weighed in with a hat-trick. The Tigers second string will be at home to Ashcott in the semi-finals.
Ashcott earned their place in the last four after a 4-3 away win at Huntspill Crowns, despite goals from Huntspill's Paul Burrow, Richard Cattell and Damon Mogg.
There were some shock results in the Third Division's Geoff Harvey Cup as a highly-fancied, youthful Sportsman side crashed out of the competition in a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Meare-based Countryman, for whom Jon Bovington scored all three goals to help his side progress to the semi-finals where they will meet another young side in the form of Pig & Whistle Reserves.
Pig Reserves came through a tight encounter with Bridgwater Grasshoppers in their Second Round tie, eventually winning 2-1 after good opportunist goals from Jamie Evans and Aaron Huxtable. The Grasshoppers were a shadow of the side that has recently been putting together an impressive string of results and only showed flashes of what they are capable of. A powerful headed effort from Grasshoppers midfielder John Kervell, after an excellent inswinging corner from Adam Kinsey, briefly gave the visitors hope but the young Pig & Whistle side demonstrated their continued improvement over the course of this season as they worked the ball well and performed as a well-drilled unit rather than the disparate collection of individual talents that they were at the start of the campaign.
There was another shock result from the tie between high-flying Puriton United and lowly Tor Sports as home side Tor ran out as 3-2 winners after racing to a 3-0 half-time lead. Puriton struggled to find any fluency for large parts of the game and only really came to life in the final quarter, when they managed to get the score back to 3-2 but they had left it too late to prevent the end of their only remaining chance of silverware this season.
In the final tie of the round, Third Division leaders Artillery West Huntspill Boys progressed to the last four of the competition without a ball being kicked after scheduled opponents Glastonbury Backpackers failed to show up for the tie.
Based on the above results the revised semi-final line-ups are as follows:
Bill Brown Cup Semi-Finals:
Tiger Old Boys v Woolavington
Clearwater v Durleigh
Danny Markhall Cup Semi-Finals:
Tiger OB Reserves v Ashcott
Black Horse v Cross Rifles
Geoff Harvey Cup Semi-Finals:
Countryman v Pig & Whistle Reserves
Artillery WHB v Tor Sports
NB: All of the above semi-finals are scheduled to be played on 20th March 2005.
(Story First Published: 06.03.05) |
