Big guns march into semi finals (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Big guns march into semi finals

5:32pm Monday 5th February 2007 in Football By Gazette Sport Reporter

ALL four quarter-final ties in the presstoprint sponsored Eric Hughes Memorial Knockout Cup went to form, with Corsham Centre, Kingfisher FC, The Southgate Inn and Semington Rovers booking their places in the last four with fine victories over their respective opponents, Spencer Sports, Biddestone White Horse, FC Colerne and British Lion OC.

The tie of the round was undoubtedly the match at Steeple Ashton where First Division leaders Semington Rovers entertained Second Division high-flyers British Lion OC who had yet to lose a match in all competitions this term.

In a re-match of an earlier Parr Trophy game, when the Lion roared to success, Semington, who were at full strength against a reshuffled Lion side that had only 11 fully fit players Rovers' fitness told as they avenged their earlier cup loss with a 3-2 victory.

Semington dominated from the start and showed their intent within the opening 30 seconds when Bobby Mitchell headed Stuart Barber's cross wide. The opening goal came in the 15th minute when Richard Allum's cross from the left was calmly dispatched first time by Kelvin Lockwood from 15 yards.

The goal seemed to be the wake-up call for the Lion as they immediately tried to strike back. Duncan Biggins' free-kick was met by Andrew Webster but he was unable to keep his header on target.

After 18 minutes Biggins' clearance was nodded on by Danny Powell to leave Nathan West with a run on goal but he sliced his early shot wide of the target.

The Lion equalised after 24 minutes when Biggins' free kick was met by West and his glancing header crept past Tom Wysocki and in off the post.

The Lion were more than matching their Division One hosts but were struggling to break down a resolute Semington back four, marshalled by Allan Clarke. Luke Hunneyball's weaving run did create a moment of danger but Wysocki clawed the ball away before Webster could head home at the back post.

At the other end, Barber's neat twist and turn allowed him a yard to clip a wicked ball into the Lion penalty area but with Nathan Keegan stretching he could only deflect his shot wide. With 37 minutes gone, full back Allum tried his luck from 35-yards and his shot clipped the top of Mark Stonestreet's crossbar.

The Lion took the lead on the stroke of half-time. Webster's flick and Tom Evans' deft touch again allowed West a run on goal and as he was clattered by a defender and goalkeeper, the ball squirmed free to Evans, who sidefooted home to make it 2-1.

The Lion should have finished the contest in the opening four minutes of the second half with two gilt edged chances to Evans. On 47 minutes he shot straight at Wysocki with only the goalkeeper to beat and two minutes he failed to connect cleanly with a free header from eight yards out.

With an hour gone, Semington brought on Josh Mills and Nathan Walker and this immediately brought them back into the contest. On 63 minutes Lockwood's header was palmed away by Stonestreet, who then reacted brilliantly to block Walker's follow up effort.

A minute later Semington were awarded a penalty when Shane Holloway brought down Barber but Walker's spot kick was well saved by Stonestreet. Although Semington were now throwing everything at the Lion to grab an equaliser, they left themselves open to the counter-attack. Hunneyball whipped in a cross that eluded Ricky King but Webster could only clip the ball over the bar.

The miss hurt the Lion as straight away Semington equalised in bizarre fashion. Barber's header hit the top of the Lion cross-bar and with Stonestreet unable to see where the ball had gone, the Semington player followed up to nod home.

Again, the Lion had a chance to win it after 76 minutes, West's cross was met by Luke Enderby but he shot straight at Wysocki. Two minutes later Powell's corner was well met by Webster but Liam Richards cleared the header off the line.

With eight minutes left the winning goal went to Semington. With the Lion defence expecting a deep cross to go out off play, the ball clipped the top of the bar and stayed in play. Josh Mills reacted quickest and squared for Barber to drill home from six yards. Richards nearly made it four in the dying seconds but his 20 yard chip was tipped over by Stonestreet.

Third Division Biddestone White Horse, who caused a shock in the previous round when they defeated their stable-mates Cooper-Avon, were unable to rediscover the winning formula against First Division Kingfisher FC and were sent crashing out by a Fisher side who were indebted to their back four of Ryan Nicholls, Jamie Austin, Adam Smith and Alan Farnish who were in great form from start to finish as they kept Biddestone at bay.

Kingfisher's Luke Stoneham went closest to breaking the first half stalemate but he was denied by the post.

But if goals were hard to find in the first period they flowed in the second half as Kingfisher went on to win 3-0. After Alan Farnish had headed them into the lead, Marcus Young doubled Kingfisher's tally and Nick Still tapped home goal number three to book his team's place in the first of two possible semi-finals, as Kingfisher remain the only team still in both cup competitions after the day had started with three teams challenging for honours in both the Knockout Cup and WG Parr Trophy.

The Southgate Inn are the sole representatives from Division Three after the current pacesetters defeated First Division FC Colerne 4-2 to reach their first ever semi-final.

Julian Alexander opened the scoring for Southgate and Stuart Skinner fired them two ahead before Jake Jefferies replied for Colerne. Skinner added a further two goals to complete his hat-trick and Southgate's quartet before a second from Jefferies gave Colerne hopes of a late comeback which never materialised, particularly after the villagers had Ross Hall sent off.

Southgate will hope to have both David Lloyd and Jamie Gale fit for the semis after both players left the field with injuries.

For Gale it will be a day he won't forget in a hurry. After the game he should have spent the afternoon at the Bath Spa celebrating his first wedding anniversary but instead he spent it in Royal United hospital nursing a dislocated shoulder.

Cup favourites Corsham Centre made it to the final four but they were far from convincing as they overcame Premier Division rivals Spencer Sports for a third time this season.

Having already beaten them twice in the league, Corsham were tipped to make it an easy passage to their fourth semi final appearance in as many years, but although the Centre prevailed with a 3-1 win they will have to improve if they are to win the cup for a second time.

After being let down by a number of players, Spencer Sports started the game with 10 men and fell behind to a Scott Lye goal after 10 minutes.

Tim Knight, who had been to Biddestone watching his son playing, had been due to turn up at half-time for Spencer Sports to sit on the bench, but he had to be dragged back from his son's game to make up the numbers and he was rewarded for his efforts when he equalised after 40 minutes.

The second period saw Spencer Sports get bodies behind the ball in an attempt to thwart the Centre who finally broke them down with a goal apiece from James Lye and Tim Jefferies.