The first Plate Semi-Final saw Dark Horses meet CFC B. The Dark Horses had met the CFC A in the group stage and produced a 7-3 thriller. If this game was half as good as that one then we would be thoroughly entertained. The Dark Horses would naturally hope to reverse the result in their favour whereas CFC B would hope to emulate their compatriots in order to make it through to the Final.

We had another goalfest although not quite the 10 goals in the group game but we still had 5 goals to enjoy. The first of which was scored by Neil Randell who opened his account for the day…and what a time to get it. The goal put Dark Horses in the driving seat going into the second period.

It was the second half though when the goals game as Randell, with a taste for the goals, bagged his second of the game. The French were not to be beaten easily though and breached the Dark Horses defence twice but it was not enough as Aled Bryon scored what proved to be the winning goal and the English team would progress 3-2.

It was game over for CFC B but not for CFC as their A team were still very much in the hunt for glory in the Cup competition.

The second Plate Semi-Final would not see so many goals but proved to be just as tight and arguably just as thrilling. The two teams in action were Contejus Hurricanes and Goals Aloud. If you were looking at form as a guide to the winners of this tie then you had to put your money on Contejus Hurricanes who were on rich vein of form. They had 3 consecutive wins scoring 9 and conceding just the 1 goal (3-0, 3-1, 3-0) and some would argue this was championship winning form.

Goals Aloud were not doing too badly themselves with two wins out of 3 and would provide good opposition for the Hurricanes. Testimony to this was the fact that there was nothing to divide the two teams in the opening half.

With time running out who could claim victory and a place in the Plate Final against the Dark Horses? Cometh the hour, cometh the man is an often used phrase in football punditry and we'll give it a run out here….the man who cometh when the hour cometh was Tom Lock of Contejus Hurricanes and his team were 1-0 up.

Goals Aloud were unable to find an equalizer as Hurricanes goalkeeper Andy Day kept his 3rd clean sheet in 4 games. The clean sheet helped secure the Hurricanes fourth win on the spin and their place in the Final was booked.

We had to say goodbye to Goals Aloud but we congratulate them on a fine Algarve performance and they had beaten their Amsterdam debut. Maybe a place in the Plate Final next time out? We wouldn't bet against it.

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