County Cup FINAL 07/08
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Falcons FC 2-1 Barlestone St Giles
No doubt about it this was The biggest game of the season & therefore by default the biggest in the clubs history. The Leicestershire County FA Saturday Trophy was being played at Holmes Park & our opponents were Barlestone St Giles Reserves who are currently lying 3rd in the Reserve Premier Division of the Leicester & District League. A good crowd had turned out on a miserably cold night although thankfully no wind this time. Barlestone won the toss & started the game with the customary centre kick. Falcons were a little slow to start with as Barlestone had the majority of the early possession & were playing some good balls over the back of the Falcons defence. They had a great chance to take the lead after 5 minutes when the forward was 1:1 with Smithers, luckily for us he skied the ball over the bar. This chance sparked some life into Falcons who replied by playing some slick passing football. A foul on the edge of the box on McHale gave Falcons their first chance at goal. Ross Locker took full advantage of this by curling the ball up & over the wall into the top corner of the net for a Locker Special. GOAL 1-0 Falcons. Barlestone couldn’t believe what just had just happened. This seemed to make them lose focus for a few minutes. They certainly couldn’t believe it when a great run & cross from the left wing by McHale was met by Parkin who smashed the ball past the keeper GOAL 2-0 Falcons. Barrigan missed a great chance from 5 yards when he completely miss kicked the ball. The boys were playing some great football now and Barlestone were dishing out a few dodgy tackles but with the set pieces being Falcons speciality they were playing right into our hands. The first half continued at a great pace with half chances for both side but certainly the best chances were falling to Falcons. The half time whistle went after 4 minutes of injury time. Falcons kicked off the second half with Parkin running straight through the Barlestone players before unleashing a good low shot that was saved by the keeper. 5 minutes later Barlestone pulled a goal back with a header from 3 yards out following a corner. This unsettled Falcons for 5 minutes or so with Barlestone having a lot of possession and pressurising the Falcons defence at regular intervals. McHale came off & was replaced by Hickling with 20 minutes remaining. Barlestone we now dishing out some hard & at times nasty tackles which the referee ignored on several occasions. Falcons however got back into the match by playing some great football through the midfield creating several chances in the process. In fact Barlestone were bombarded for the remainder of the second half with a couple of great saves by the Barlestone goalkeeper ensuring the game remained at 2-1 until the referee blew his whistle to end the game crowning Falcons as County Champions. Man of the Match went to Deon Zollino for a great display of wingback play against arguably one of the best players on the pitch. Our thanks go to the supporters for making the match so enjoyable by out singing & out numbering the support for Barlestone by at least 4:1. We are at home in the league to Sileby Saint Reserves on Thursday night 19th April KO 18:30. Hope to see you there.
Team	J SMITHERS . M RADFORTH , .P GUNN, S HOGG, A LOCKER, M , .R LOCKER . ,M BISHOP ,D ZOLLINO , A BARRIGAN , , P McHALE , D PARKIN Sub,J Hickling
Scorers	Ross LOCKER, , Daniel PARKIN
Man of the Match	Deon ZOLLINO