WATCH: St Martin's beat Sylvans 4-3 to reach Jeremie Cup final
FOOTBALL is back – and with quite a bang too.
Twists, turns and drama aplenty were the order of the day last night at Northfield as St Martin’s and Sylvans battled for a place in the Jeremie Cup final and gave the good-sized crowd their money’s worth with a seven-goal thriller that, almost inevitably, required extra-time to find a winner.
In the end, it was Saints who were left celebrating with what little breath they had left after 120 minutes, although it was a shame that the goal which settled the tie came via to a big deflection. It was an unfortunate way for the knock-out punch to be delivered on a Sylvans side who gave as good as they got on the night.
Even Danny Hale, who will be credited with the goal as his free-kick from a central position on the edge of the box ricocheted off the wall and left goalkeeper Nick Batiste totally wrong-footed, looked rather sheepish as he was congratulated by teammates on making it 4-3.
However, it says a lot for the character of Leon Meakin’s side that they managed to come through such a see-saw encounter, in which they were far from their best, to progress to the final.
With a dozen minutes or so remaining at the end of the regulation 90, it looked as though Sylvans were going to be claiming the first win since the resumption of the Covid-interrupted season.
At that point, they deservedly led 2-1 with all three of those goals coming in the first half.
Although Chris Le Noury had headed in Jake Lowe’s free-kick to equalise Tomos Ap Sion’s 17th-minute opener from Seb Smeed’s inswinging corner, Kyle Smith had restored the Westerners’ lead just before the interval with a brilliantly taken goal at the culmination of a swift counter-attack.
But with 11 minutes remaining, Louis Hunter’s snap shot brought Saints level and they took the lead for the first time seven minutes later through Frazer Maginnis.
Tiago Rodrigues turned home Smith’s cross just as the game entered injury time to force the extra half-hour, but it was super-sub Hale whose intervention proved decisive.
