Halkyn Vets 3 v Northop Hall Old Boys 1
The two teams met in the semi-final of the Sealand Cup in what was billed as a 'local derby'. Both teams fielded strong squads with the reward of a medal as an incentive. Halkyn started strongly and put the opposition defence under immediate pressure with the pace of Stilly causing the alarm bells to ring. Early pressure led to an excellent individual goal by Stilly who dribbled past a couple of players and finished coolly.
Halkyns second came from a comedy of mistakes by Northop Hall and as a player tackled 'Big Neil' in the penalty area he inadvertly put the ball in his own goal. The home team then relaxed and having given away a senseless free kick on the edge of their own box Martin Gaskell went for a walk inspecting local drainage ditches which allowed the opposition to take a free kick and run into the penalty box unchallenged. Gary 'the cat' Griffiths, in goal, decided that his best tactic was to disembowel the opposition forward and he launched himself at the 'victim' resulting in a penalty kick. Mel for Northop Hall calmly put the kick away although Gary's stats for saving penalties is as bad as the Conservative debt recovery plans!!
The second half continued in the same manner with Halkyn having the majority of possession and testing the away keeper on a number of occasions. Again thanks to great interplay between the midfield and Stilly Halkyn scored and this seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the opponents.
A comprehensive victory for Halkyn who will now play Liverpool Convocation on Saturday the 12th May in the finals.
Man of the match for Halkyn was Mike Davies but all the home team played their part.
