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NEHYL ASH TROPHY CUP FINAL
Wey Valley Wildcats vs Rowledge Roofers
At Hartley Wintney F.C, 7th May, 2008, 7pm
On a lovely Wednesday evening the Wey Valley Wildcats made the 40min journey to Hartley Wintney to face Rowledge Roofers in the Ash Trophy Cup Final. With kick of at 7 o'clock both teams had had to wait all day and were eager to get started. The sides had met twice throughout the season and with a win for each team the stage was set for a really good game.
Rowledge kicked of and straight away the pace was fast with both teams making several runs into their opponents halves. It wasn't until the 8th or 9th minute that Rowledge made the break through when a high kick from their number three saw the ball bounce in front of Bowden the Wildcats goalie and over his head into the back of the net. Undeterred the Wildcats pressed on but when a similar ball was played by Rowledge the bounce beat the Wildcats defence and a Rowledge striker chipped the ball over the Wildcats goalie to make it two nil.
The wildcats kept searching for their first goal of the game and attempts by Coombes with his weaker foot and a free kick by Smith both going slightly wide of the goal it seemed this wasn't going to be the Wildcats day, but with five minutes to go till half time they got a goal back when Strudwick having not long come on as a sub found himself unmarked on the back post and when the ball came across he made sure that the Wildcats went into the break trailing by only one goal.
The Wildcats got the second half underway and with the goal just before half time to spur them on they came out the stronger of the two teams and looked most likely to score first in the second period, but disaster struck when Rowledge got a corner and their young female mid fielder found herself with acres of space to strike a fantastic shot into the Wildcat goal leaving the Wildcats again needing at least two goals to get anything out of this game. The wildcats needed some inspiration and that was to come in the form of Smith whose performance throughout the game was unmatched and when a Wildcat attack saw the ball fall to him he struck it firmly with his weaker right foot into the Rowledge net and bought the Wildcats back into the game.
Rowledge appeared to have started to adopt a long ball tactic with big kicks from both goalie and defenders hoping to use the bounce to beat the Wildcats defence as they had for their first two goals but the Wildcats had wised up to this and dealt with the aerial attacks confidently and when they managed to worked the ball out of their half a ball to Hunter saw him turn his defender beautifully to go one on one with the goalie and as the goalie came of his line Hunter coolly slotted the ball to the side left of him and the Wildcats were now level at three all. The game carried on with the same fast pace it had started, with new belief installed the Wildcats took control of the game and when a shot struck outside of the Roofers penalty area saw the ball hit the hand of a Rowledge player within the area the Referee had no hesitation in putting his whistle to his lips and pointing to the penalty spot. The Wildcats players looked to the sidelines to see who would be chosen to take the penalty and there was really only one choice, Smith put the ball on the spot and with one last look at the side lines got himself ready to take probably one of the most important shots of his season, he hit the ball low and hard and although the Roofers goalie got his hands to the ball the power of the strike was too much for him to hold and the ball hit the back of the net, the Wildcats were ahead for the first time in this match. With only five minutes to go the Roofers pushed for another goal but with the Wildcats determined not to let their precious lead slip all available players came back to help their defenders, and when the final whistle was blown all their hard work on the run up to this game and their determination throughout it had paid off.
Congratulations go to all the Wildcat team and to their Coach Andy and their Manager Jeanette.
Under 11’s