NYL U16 Saturday Cup Final
On a chilly Tuesday night last week the NYL U16 Saturday Cup Final took place at Arnold Town’s ground and featured a local derby between Edwalton Cavaliers FC & WBFC Spiders.
The early exchanges were a tense affair with both sides playing themselves into the game and neither wanting to over commit. West Bridgford then started to play some fluid attacking football and created the best opportunity of the first-half only for Seb Gray to shoot wide.
The second half kicked off with Bridgford bringing on Dylan Shaw on the left, who 10mins later produced the goal of the match. Picking the ball up on the wide left, and just inside the Edwalton half, he carried the ball forward cutting inside three players before unleashing an unstoppable shot from just outside the box into the far right bottom corner.
All credit to Edwalton as they didn’t give up and then started to press forward themselves putting Bridgford under pressure. A substitution from them brought on Stuart Smith as an extra attacker. From a long ball forward he controlled the ball well and turned smartly in the box to get a deserved equaliser for Edwalton.
At 1-1 the game then moved into extra-time and Bridgford again made some attacking changes that produced the winning goal. After a good build up down the right the ball was played through over the top for Seb Gray to chest down and finish smartly in the bottom corner. The second period of extra-time saw Edwalton continue to battle hard, but Bridgford’s defence led by MOTM, Sam Wildgust, stood firm and saw out the win.
A great game of football played in the right manner, with robust but fair tackling, commitment from both sides and RESPECT for each other throughout the match