We were at the 2018 Mallorca Veterans Tournament Cup Semi-Finals stage and from the various teams who signed up for the tournament we were down to the final 4.

The first Cup Semi-Final would be contested by Bure Park Seniors and Epsom Ath. Bure Park Seniors had a stand out morning in the group phase by winning Group A. They had conceded just the 1 goal and lost just the 1 game out of 6. It was the first time in our events they had won their group and were looking very tough to beat.

Their opponents would be Epsom Ath who qualified from a very tight group. They were one of three teams to finish level on 3 points but qualified for this stage on goal difference. One of these teams they edged out was Bure Park Old Boys. Could they account for both Bure Park teams by knocking out the Seniors in the Semis.

When Epsom Ath met Bure Park Old Boys they lost 1-0 earlier in the day. The opening goal of this game looked like the Seniors might repeat the dose as Chris Weedon scored his third goal of the tournament. This is how it stayed until half-time.

Epsom Ath had started the day in some topsy turvy 3-3 and 2-2 draws which had saw them come back from adversary. They were unable to repeat that here as Bure Park Seniors stellar defence was on song again. They had 5 clean sheets before this game – they took that tally to 6 clean sheets out of 7 and booked their place in the Cup Final.

Sadly it was farewell to Epsom Ath. It was great to see them make their debut in our tournaments and we hope to see them return in 2019.

So, who would take their place in the Final from the second Semi-Final? The two teams set to do battle were Villa Roca against Policia Local de Palma.

Villa Roca had won Group B with 3 wins out of 4 to qualify for the Cup. That defeat came in their final game when they had already won the group and qualified so maybe we shouldn't read too much into that.

Policia Local de Palma's qualifying record from the group phase has now seen them qualify for the Cup on 6 out of their 7 tournaments. Only in May 2013 had they failed and gone into our 2nd tier Plate competition. Their record read:

2011:     Cup SF, won 2-1 v Scoregasm

                CF, won 5-2 v Quayaquil 100%

2012:     Cup QF, lost 2-0 to Sportsman Bar

2013*:   Plate SF, lost 3-2 to Coverton Road (Fives)

2013:     Cup QF, lost 2-1 to Tommy's Tits

2015:     Cup QF, won 2-1 v Son Gual

               Cup SF, lost 5-0 v Saipan FC

2016:     Cup QF, won 5-3 v FC Radbroke

               Cup SF, lost 4-0 v Los Pibes

It was quite a task for Villa Roca to get past their illustrious opponents and it proved to be a task too far. Two goals from Jose Manuel Garrido Jimenez – one in each half was enough to see the Policia through to a second Cup Final.