Watts Junior Cup Final

By john smyth

Duck triumph for the first time since 1986-87 season

On a day of torrential rain and strong winds, two contrasting sets of supporters surrounded the pitch. A quiet and pensive Carterton
group eagerly watching their largely young and inexperienced team were at complete
opposites with the loud and excitable group following their yellow and blue army.
The Ducklington group were given cause to get louder in only the fifth minute as young
Jasper Winder found space on the edge of the Carterton box and fired high and handsome
into the top left corner to spark early celebrations. Carterton slowly grew into the game and
almost drew level after Mark Williams headed flick zipped off the slick surface and through
the Tom Shore'shands, into the net. Luckily an offside flag spared the keepers blushes
and Duck remained ahead.
It didn’t last long though, a scramble in the Duck box saw the ball flicked towards goal and
with a hint of an arm involved in the goal line block, a penalty was correctly awarded by the
match officials. Wes Christian calmly stepping up and powering home past the keeper.
Shortly after Carterton took the lead. Following a free kick, the ball floated over the Duck
defence and with one too many defenders dropping too deep, Carl Drury was able beat the
offiside trap to nonchalantly flick the ball towards goal from the back post, wrong footing the
keeper and sending Carterton into the lead.
It could have been 3-1 too, a carbon copy ball over the top found Drury again. This time the
ball found the bar and Drury found the post. Duck cleared to safety and Drury left the game,
injured in his collision with the woodwork. Ducklington stepped up a gear with five minutes to
go, earning themselves a barrage of corners. From one, Carterton were able to clear off the
line but the resulting corner found Tom Costley all alone on the 6 yard line and nothing could
be done to stop the ball finding the back of the net. All square at half-time.
With the sides switched round in the second half Ducklington found greater joy with the
slope at Milton, spending a large amount of time in the Carterton half in the second period.
The persistence payed off a quarter of the way in, a bouncing ball in the box found Charlie
Fisher who was able to roll his man and despite Greig Masson’s best efforts, the ball
squirmed underneath his flailing limbs and into the Carterton net. Carterton looked for a way
back into the game but the higher up the pitch they got the more space Duck had to exploit.
A ball down the Duck right was fired into the box by Harvey Butler and Fisher was on hand to blast home his
second of the match and give Ducklington a bit of daylight. Carterton enjoyed more territory
as the second half grew older but could only force one save of note from Shore. Ducklington saw out the last 10 minutes with relative ease and the final whistle blew
to cheers, chants and an explosion of yellow flares from the Ducklington contingent. The
quirky Ducklington Haka took place before captain Dan Stanley gratefully received the Watts
Junior Cup from Margaret Watts herself lofting high into the air to cheers from team-mates
and fans ali

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