22^nd Apr. 2007 GroundHoppers 3 – Caribb 2

HOPPERS THROUGH AFTER 5 GOAL THRILLER

It’s been a long while coming but Hoppers have finally made it into a cup final. The Bill Braisted Memorial Trophy is being contested between GroundHoppers and Peckham Town, but the semi final turned out to be a tough affair.

It all started off very well with Hoppers finding their feet early and carving a few half chances, Steven Wright and Andrew Huggins were getting a lot of space up front and the accurate balls from midfield were penetrating. One such pass, from Sean Hinchion, found Andrew Huggins on the right who saw the Caribb keeper of his line and with a sublime first time strike lobbed the keeper to put Hoppers in front.

Caribb hadn’t started to play yet, they got back into the game minutes later when a cross field free kick, was squeezed in at the back post, to made things level.

This inspired both teams to take the game up another gear and both teams were flying forward with real purpose. The heat wasn’t helping either teams and when a pass into the box was controlled by Andrew Huggins, who skipped past a defender, this prompted a rash challenge and a penalty was awarded and coolly slotted home by David Rose (I turned my back so I didn’t see it).

Half time couldn’t come sooner for the dehydrated players and with a slim 2-1 lead Hoppers felt they were in control of the game.

But the second half proved to be a lot harder than the first with Caribb scoring an early goal not dissimilar to their first. This raised the bar again forcing both teams to work even harder turning it into a scrap rather than an eloquent flow of passing and running. At the end of ninety minutes the score was all even, both teams took on water, before digging deep to find that little extra push to try to get to the final.

As extra time started, Hoppers were having the best of the play, as they fought for every ball and started to push Caribb backwards. The hard work paid off after a change in personal Hoppers were awarded a free kick twenty yards into the Caribb half, David Rose whipped in a dangerous free kick, which strikers Andrew Huggins and Stephen Wright battled to get to first, the ball looped up and back across goal, as the ball came down, fell to the head of Hoppers manager Paul Patten who nodded the ball in from only a few yards. The importance of the goal could be seen as fans and players celebrated together.

Hoppers held on for the victory but were worked very hard by a good Caribb side

BUT ON TO THE FINAL.

TEAM: Greig, Allen, Patten(1), Pickard, Burgess, Hinchion(Searle), Gadsdon(Kenneth), Rose(1), Brown, Wright, Huggins(1)(Takan), Subs Eames.