HT Sports 2 Oyster Martyrs 3

This was a cracker of a game, packed with quality goals, good football, a sending off and a missed penalty! 
 
Oyster were the better team in the first half and had several chances to open the scoring, which they failed to take. At the forefront of the Oyster attack was Leighton McGivern and some of his play was, at times, mesmeric, as the HT defence struggled to contain him - one delightful back heel set up Thomas Rooney and his goal bound shot was well saved by the HT keeper.

Local side HT Sports opened the scoring against the run of play on the 31st minute when Chris Howarth rounded the advancing keeper to give them the lead. This lasted all of three minutes, when McGivern jinked his way through the HT defence, in almost Greaves-esq fashion to regain parity for Oyster.

The same player then gave his side the half time lead, when a free kick was awarded when HT's Wayne Hudson handled the ball outside of the penalty area. Up stepped McGivern, whose thunderbolt of a free kick in to the top left corner of the goal gave the HT keeper no chance. HT 1-2

It was 3-1 to Oyster just three minutes after the restart, when Dean Astbury's superb strike flew in. The next incident in this compelling game was a potential game changer, as Oyster keeper Jack Mano was sent off, when he was shown a second yellow card for his blatant trip on HT's Steve Palfrey. Well travelled centre half Lee Connor successfully converted two spot kick's for HT on Thursday evening, when they lost in the semi-final of the Leeds & District FA cup on penalties. However, his penalty was superbly tipped on to the bar by sub goalie, Gary Smith, to deny the Leeds side a way back in to the game.

Sam Hewitt did give HT some hope in the 74th minute, when he reduced the arrears to one goal but despite their best efforts, it was 10 man Oyster who did enough to reach their third Sunday Cup final.

After travelling up to the North East twice this year and down to Hucknall in previous rounds, I was delighted to be able to watch a game that was only being played 15 minutes drive away from my house! However, in my excitement to get there, I forgot to bring my camera with me, so unfortunately, I am unable to publish any photos to go with this report.