Halls Athletic (0) 0
Sutton Athletic Reserves (0) 0
Attendance: 86
Sutton Athletic Reserves won 5-4 on penalties
Entrance: Free
Programme: £1
Mileage: 54/6,751
New Ground: 323
I had no idea that any team used the pitch as their home ground within the pyramid. But Halls Athletic are that side, playing in Kent County League One West.
Tony Incenzo, TalkSPORT reporter and renowned groundhopper promoted the game through his twitter account and this exposure brought a very decent attendance of 78 through the free gate.
It has to be said that this Hospitals Charity Cup Semi-Final was not of the greatest quality but it wasn’t without incident. The kick-off time was listed as 20:05 and I was guessing this was because, as a community facility, the pitch had been booked from 20:00. But the referee got the game underway nearly 10 minutes early as rumours were that the lights were on a timer to turn off at 22:00.
Halls’ Lewis Tristram broke through after 12 minutes but shot wide and David Stevens turned a shot wide at the far post which proved to be his last action as he was carried from the field.
The referee compounded the thoughts regarding the floodlight timer as he reduced the half-time break to 10 minutes but, after 62 minutes and at 21:10, the stadium was plunged into darkness as the floodlights went out.
A 10 minute delay ensued while somebody got the lights put back on again and given the evening was a cold one it was necessary for the players to group jog to keep warm.
The game, unfortunately, had 0-0 written all over it but the penalty shoot-out could have been avoided had Halls’ Russell Allen not blasted over after being set up by Lewis Tristram.
The home side eventually paid the price for this wastefulness when they had two penalties saved and Sutton Athletic progressed to the Final when Joe Shaw converted.
The ground had a functional 65-seater Atcost stand and all credit to Halls Athletic for producing a programme.
No comments:
Post a Comment