FROME TECHNICAL and Glenmuir advanced to the Ben Francis Cup Knockout final, beating Lennon and Titchfield respectively in yesterday's semi-finals.
Frome won 3-0 over Lennon at Frome Sports Ground while Titchfield went down 4-3 on penalties to Glenmuir at their home, Carder Park.
Titchfield and Glenmuir had played to a 1-1 draw in regulation time. Donovan Miller gave Glenmuir a first-half lead, but Wayne Thidd equalised for Titchfield mid-way through the second half.
Glenmuir assistant coach Warren Simpson, who was in charge of the team in the absence of Jackie Walters, who is on national duty, said his team demonstrated guts.
"It was a hard-fought game. We went ahead and sort of lost it and they came at us, but we came back and fought to the end," Simpson said,
TEAM PLAYED BETTER
In comparing yesterday's game with Saturday's daCosta Cup quarter-final against Christiana, Simpson said the team played far better. "Today (yesterday) we showed we have the characteristics that championship teams are made of," he said.
Simpson said he was not worried going into the penalty shootout as the team had trained for such an eventuality. Carnell Learmond, Shauntel Mundle, Shaun Francis and James Thomas scored their penalties for Glenmuir while Miller missed. Goalkeeper Erron Brown saved two penalties.
Titchfield's coach, Andrew Edwards, blamed his team's loss on poor finishing. "We did not execute as well as we should have and the game went into penalties and we lost it there. We missed two, Glenmuir scored four and that was enough for them to take it."
Captain Denroy Dennis, last year's leading goal-scorer, and Thidd failed to score their penalties for Titchfield.
"Glenmuir were obviously better-conditioned, stronger and they endured much longer thanwe did and they were quicker to the ball. All credit to them (Glenmuir)," Edwards said.
Elsewhere, Frome's victory was due to a very good second-half performance where they got goals from Delano Ranking, Ashane Anderson and Atrio Atlan.
Coach Boysie Nicholson explained his team's performance: "We played a lacklustre first half. The guys were a bit complacent, and we played against a strong headwind which played a factor.
"In the second half we came out more aggressive and we were running a lot off the ball and we were attacking them in numbers. We were in total control of the game, and we scored three goals," Nicholson said.
The final is set for next Saturday at a venue to be announced.
