Sunday, 17 March 2013
Joe Holborn Memorial Cup
RCA Grangetown Florists fought out a fierce battle against Silksworth Paragon in this semi-final of the Joe Holborn Memorial Cup to come out 3-1 winners and book their final spot in May.
Paragon, kicking down the slope, started much the brighter and had at least two great chances in the first five minutes to take the lead, but these were squandered and the game became a tense affair with both sides giving their all. However the deadlock was broken after 23 minutes when a keeper's clearance was returned into the path of RCA Florists' Adam McQuillan and he shot across the Paragon keeper into the bottom left corner to give RCA Florists the lead. More was to follow five minutes later when a free kick found Richy Jordan completely unmarked around the penalty spot and he duly dispatched the ball into the top right hand corner of the net, giving Donnely no chance, to leave RCA Florists 2-0 up after 30 minutes.
Paragon were then given a lifeline by an inexplicable, and subsequently proven, incorrect decision by the combined efforts of the inexperienced officials, who awarded a penalty and despite the protestations from RCA Florists Lee Harrison drove home from the spot to give a half time score of 2-1 to RCA Florists.
The second half again saw Paragon on top early on and they wasted a glorious chance for the equaliser when Steven Bogie sliced horribly wide of an open goal on the hour mark and the game then was effectively killed off by RCA Florists when a short corner was played back to Kelly who sent in a teasing cross to the far post and Phil Hall arrived to power an unstopable header into the net from six yards after 70 minutes.
Paragon never gave up the fight, but were unable to find a way through the resolute RCA Florists' defence and the match ran its course to give RCA Florists a final appearance some time in May.
A good game played in the correct spirit by two old adversaries who both gave there all, but there could only be one winner and on this occassion that turned out to be RCA Florists.