Given
the convincing wins of Sporting Lesbians and Aint
Got A Clue in the previous rounds you could be
forgiven for making them favourites against CSF1
(who had a long drawn out battle against The Barry
Moores) and Shock Soc 0.5 who narrowly beat the
Hutnik Krakow Old Boys respectively.
What
we got was two very evenly matched semi-finals
which could have gone either way.
Pitch
A saw CSF1 take on the rejuvenated Sporting Lesbians.
Peter Thompson found an opportune moment to score
his first of the tournament for the Sporting Lesbians
whilst Martin Thompson kept it in the family with
a second. That goal meant Martin Thompson maintained
a highly impressive record of scoring in all 5
games with an overall tally of 5 in 5. However,
he would not have the chance to extend that record
as Sporting Lesbians were outgunned by goals from
the twin goal machines of Oz Zamora and Alex Thomas
and a third and decisive goal from Sean ‘Soph'
Jones.
The
result meant that the CSF had reached their second
successive Plate Final having reached the same
stage in Prague six months ago.
In
the other final Shock Soc 0.5 and Aint Got A Clue
were bidding to reach their first finals. The
stakes were high and the game proved to be a close
affair. Once again pitch B was to witness a penalty
shoot-out. The game ended 2-2 in normal time thanks
to goals from Shock Soc's Wood and Hinchcliffe
cancelled out by Aint Got A Clue's James March
and Stuart Clark.
Stuart
Clark, a heroic effort with 8 goals to his name
for the tournament and like the Lesbian Martin
Thompson (forgive us for saying that) scored in
every single game.
Golden
Goal extra time was a non-event as both teams
seemed scared to lose. Pitch B witnessed some
top quality penalties in the Plate Quarter-Final
shoot-out with 13 out of 14 converted and the
one that missed was well struck and saved. This
trend continued with all 6 penalties converted
as the standard penalty shoot-out finished 3-3.
Wood, Dunbar, Ellwood (all Shock Soc) and Clark,
Lane and March (all Aint Got A Clue) showing us
how it should be done. Michael Berkin and Rob
Worrell having no chance to put in a save. Steve
Bryden and James Wallace continued the goalscoring
form for 4-4. Paul Ellwood then put Shock Soc
0.5 one goal ahead as Robert Stone stepped up.
It's an old cliché but there is always
a villain and a hero. The hero on this occasion
as Michael Berkin dived low to his left to push
out the penalty before becoming swamped by his
team-mates as Shock Soc could celebrate their
first ever final.
Aint
Got A Clue's tournament was over for this year
but certainly showed they have enough about them
to compete at this level. If they do not qualify
for the Cup in their next outing then they will
be amongst the favourites to win a Plate competition. |
