Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
At high noon on Thursday two rival college second teams met on the astro turf to do battle, not only against each other but also against the blustering conditions. After an hour’s play penalties were required to separate the two and see Derwent lift the Plate.
The first half was a scrappy affair with few adventurous passes being successfully made but due to the strong winds this was unsurprising. Long hoofs from the Derwent back four may not have looked pretty but they proved to be a fruitful ploy as the Alcuin defenders struggled to deal with the high ball. Several of these long balls created half-chances but Paul Guest was relatively untroubled in the Alcuin goal.
When Derwent played through midfield the commanding Alcuin centre-midfielder Delaney looked comfortable winning aerial balls and using wingers Gibby and McDermott. The Alcuin wingers and tricky striker Laird looked most likely to silence the vocal Derwent support but despite a strong wind behind them Roy Moore coped comfortably with their long-range pot shots.
The fairly even first half finished 0 – 0 but the first 15 minutes of the second half showed how the wind had been acting as a leveller. Derwent, now with the wind urging them forward and pinning Alcuin back, came out of the blocks and the class of Barnett, Smith and Slater began to shine through. Derwent’s passing and involvement of pacey full-backs Tyler and Ward-Jones eventually opened up the Alcuin rearguard.
Ten minutes into the second half a delightful outside of the foot weighted pass from Barnett split the centre-back and full-back leaving James Grey through on goal. Grey left the fancy stuff in his locker and sensibly toe-punted the ball past the ridiculously static Guest who was left standing on his line like a lonely lemming.
This goal sparked Alcuin into life and the next 10 minutes were a hotly-contested affair and the tackles were carrying a little extra spice. Come the last few minutes and Alcuin were chucking everything at Derwent. Moore was kept busy, saving numerous long-shots and headers from corners. The experience and commitment of Derwent stalwart Nick Dimond was immediately evident when he recklessly jumped into the post to stop a goal-bound header during a series of Alcuin corners.
Minutes later the recklessness continued when, with barely two minute on the clock, tempers flared in the penalty area and the routine jostling that accompanies the marking at corners boiled over into what appeared to be an attempted headbutt. Defender Shaun Hodgkinson was the apparent offender and former Derwent 2nds captain Jack Green the victim. The referee saw enough to give Hodgkinson a straight red card.
The Alcuin players were probably cursing their centre back’s actions, and the Derwent support didn’t hide their delight at the referee’s decision, but their joy was short lived as the corner came in. Delaney had won more headers than the rest of the Alcuin team combined throughout the match so the Derwent defence's efforts to stop him getting his head to the ball, plus commotion caused by the sending-off, meant the marking was slack and the diminutive Laird somehow found himself free six yards out and confidently directed his header through the crowd and past the helpless Moore.
Roy (Moore) has to get man of the match, he saved my ass by saving all those penalties!
This meant penalties for a second time in a few weeks between Alcuin and Derwent teams. Alcuin won the last one and with Derwent suffering the devastating last-minute equaliser it appeared Alcuin would be most confident. Jack Green and James Grey were both successful for Derwent, as were Henry Aylett and Adam Lister for Alcuin. Last year college cup winner Dimond opened up his body too much and saw his penalty fly high and wide, only for Alcuin’s Matt Stopforth to also miss. Derwent captain Adam Clark missed their fourth penalty giving Alcuin a great chance to take the lead in the shoot-out but a good save from Moore denied Delaney.
A truly unsaveable penalty from Chris Barnett flew into the top right-hand corner meaning there was considerable pressure on Alcuin’s Ivan Lourie who had to score to keep Alcuin's hopes alive. Lourie’s penalty was saved and Derwent won the shoot-out 3 – 2 to win the Plate. Bizarrely Derwent 2nds lost all three of their group games but they clearly quickly put those dissapointments behind them to storm through the knock-out rounds and edged it in the final.
Alcuin 2nds captain Matt Bowyer agreed it was a tight game but said: “I felt we dominated possession and played the better football in the last 20mins of the game”
As for the moment of controversy Bowyer added: “The sending off was a red in pro terms, perhaps not in college terms. Their player was pushing Sean about and getting right up in his face which riled him so he pushed him away with his head - not a proper headbutt. I have no real complaints about it though.”
Finally Bowyer paid tribute to his players “for a great year” and also congratulated opposite number Clark and his Derwent 2nds team. Clark felt his team deserved the win: “We dominated from start to finish and although there weren’t many clear cut chances James Grey took the best one well”.
Commenting on the red card Clark thought the referee only had one option – the red card – but bemoaned the fact that his team “switched off and were distracted when the corner eventually came in” denying his team what he thought would have been a deserved win in normal time.
Line-ups:
Moore; Tyler, Green, Clark (c), Ward-Jones; Smith (Dimond), Barnett, Miller, Pinkstone (Barker); Slater, Grey
Guest; Bowyer (c), Reiss, Hodgkinson, Lourie; Gibby (Lister), Delaney, Aylett, McDermott (Batula); Owundike (Stopforth), Laird
Goals: Grey (Derwent), Laird (Alcuin)
Penalties:
The Yorker’s Man of the Match: Roy Moore (Derwent GK)
Well played Derwent
comment deleted by the author Did you give him what-for Greenie???
he was jostling our keeper (which was fair enough, everyone does it) and i said "room for a little on" to squeeze between him and our keeper to mark him and give roy some space, then there was the standard shoving that occurs when you're marking (both ways), then that lad just turned round and tried to headbutt me, i didn't make a meal of it or anything. could have gone down rivaldo style, but i think the ref saw it anyway.
basically, no, i didn't give him what-for, i might talk a lot of rubbish during football matches but i'm not actually that much of a knob.
to be fair to the guy, even straight after the penalty shootout he came over and apologised to me and the ref.
i'll get him next year (that's a joke by the way).
x
You're such a trouble maker Jack Green, and by the sound of things you almost cost your beloved 2nd's the cup! Shaun is a nice guy and wouldn't have done anything like that without being severely provoked.
To be fair, at Alcuin awards/elections last night, Sean held his hands up and said he was in the wrong. It was the heat of the moment, and he's a top bloke, but the ref made the correct decision.
Good to see the old legs of Ian Barker got in on the glory.
presumably Alcuin awards were last night as there'll be no more silverware coming in this season...
#5, you quite clearly don't know what you're talking about. Nearly cost derwent the game? The only time i slipped up was when i literally slipped and oody (sorry i know that's spelt wrong) was in on goal and fortunately for me (and derwent) he was ruled to be offside. The alcuin goal, was a good header, and not that I would normally make the point but it wasn't the man I was marking that scored, in fact I took the decision to mark someone on the edge of the box so I didn't get involved in any in-the-box scuffles.
"Shaun is a nice guy and wouldn't have done anything like that without being severely provoked." I've played against him before and I would agree that in those other games there's not been any trouble and he has played the game in the spirit in which it is supposed to be played, competitively. BUT, I did not "severely provoke" him and let's not build this headbutt up to some sort of massive attack that could have killed me, it was a little nudge at best, as Bowyer says in the article "pushed him away with his head", so it's not like he was that riled he was having a proper go.
It's been said before on these sorts of comment threads on here, but if you want to have a pop at least put your name to what you're saying.
I blame Jack Green entirely for what happened. Haha only joking, corners always bring a bit of jostling and a friendly scuffle, Shaun just got a bit over-excited on this occasion.
What I forgot to tell Greg to include in the article was my thanks to Myles, Owen and Ollie for organising the tournament this year, I can't remember any problems at all this year which is an indication of how well organised it was.
Adam
P.S. Guesty was off his line for my penalty 
Cheers Clarky!
Loving comment number *8! I'm sure Goodricke's awards evening was packed with "hurrahs" over two very impressive third place finishes in the league!
Anyhow, this is a thread for the plate final - so once again, well played to Derwent and Alcuin for contesting a good final in very difficult conditions.
comment deleted by the author The rumours around Alcuin L and M blocks tell me that centre back Adam Lewis will be targeted, with our Alcuin strikers backing their pace against a strong but static Goodricke defence
Dan Cox won't even need his pace to beat Lewis, he's taller, stronger, more skilful and looks on for at least a brace. (Start Dan and Paris, Myles)
taller and stronger maybe but more skillful?You obviously haven't been attending my skill school son...
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