Following on from winning the group stage of the Mid Staffs Cup, we progressed with three teams from the original 16 league teams participating into the Semi Finals and Final which took place at Rowley Park yesterday morning, given our draw against Cannock Town Blues – progression into the Final later that morning was never going to be easy for us……
Mid Staffs Cup Semi Final
The game ebbed and flowed throughout the first half with Cannock probably having the slightly better of the possession and opportunities to open the scoring, however despite their best efforts some great defending and goal keeping ensured we ended the first half without conceding.
The second half opened up with PJFC dominating the play with some great passing moves which probably should have been converted on at least a couple of occasions, as the half progressed both teams had half further half chances but reluctantly had to settle for a draw and the dreaded penalty shoot out in order to progress into the Final………..fortunately our boys held there nerve and our keeper Todd Richardson pulled off some great spot kick saves to ensure we met Stafford Falcon Royals in the Final!!
Mid Staffs Cup Final
Having just recovered their nerves we had just 30 minutes to prepare until the Final was underway, from the start Stafford Falcons hit us like a steam train, wave after wave of attack saw some great rear guard defending and a decent slice of luck it would be fair to say, however the boys regained their composure and improved towards the later stages of the first half as we went into the break still at 0.0.
The second half saw our boys up their effort levels again and we began to see more of our passing game which certainly troubled the Falcons at times, however with both teams cancelling each others out we headed towards the final whistle with neither keeper being troubled further.
As the referee blew the whistle the nerves of another shoot out were there to see on everyone’s face, after the first spot kicks for both teams found the net up stepped our keeper Todd to save two from the next three penalties which ensured our penultimate penalty could win the trophy for PJFC.
The penalty fired against the underside of the bar the ball before bouncing out of the goal – as the referee awarded the goal was over the goal line and good our boys celebrated like you would not believe……….to summarise – Boys you made us so proud, in fact everyone of you were just fantastic yesterday.
