Leechpool A are the year 3 football cup winners, emerging as top dogs from a field of 10 at the last of this season’s cup tournaments on the Tanbridge astro. They met Heron Way in the final and triumphed 3-1 in a well played match.
The teams were divided into two groups of five for the first phase of the event. In Group A Leechpool B lost 4-0 to small school Plaistow and Kirdford and then promptly whacked one of the favourites, Heron Way, 4-0 themselves. However whilst the Heron’s fortunes picked up with three subsequent wins Leechpool’s nose-dived with two more defeats to see the two of them finish at opposite ends of the table. Teams in between enjoyed some variable results but it was Plaistow/Kirdford taking second spot courtesy of their 2-0 win over Kingslea.
Leechpool A negotiated Group B in slightly more straight-forward style, dealing with the major threat of Southwater A first off with a 2-0 win, confidently seeing off Southwater B and Castlewood, before surviving their stiffest test against St Mary’s Pulborough 2-1. Southwater A were also made to work hard, 1-0, by St Mary’s in addition to big wins in their other two matches that earned them the runners-up spot.
After the heights of their Heron Way win Leechpool B’s day continued to get worse as they lost in the ninth place play-off versus Castlewood. Shelley won by the odd goal in five against Southwater B for seventh. St Mary’s Pulborough edged out Kingslea for fifth. Plaistow and Kirdford found themselves 3-0 down to Southwater A after 60 seconds and a cricket score looked likely, but theey gathered themselves admirably to recover to a 4-1 loss by the end of the third place play-off. And in the final Leechpool A did the business over Heron Way as we already know.
Well played to everyone for putting on a great show of football.
| PITCH 1 | PITCH 2 | PITCH 3 | PITCH 4 |
| PHASE 1 – Groups | |||
| GROUP A | GROUP B | ||
4.08-4.21 | Leechpool B v Plaist/Kird 0 4 | Shelley v Kingslea 0 1 | Castlewood v St Mary’s, Pulb 0 1 | Southwater A v Leechpool A 0 2 |
4.24-4.37 | Heron Way v Leechpool B 0 4 | Plaist/Kird v Shelley 1 1 | Southwater B v Castlewood 3 0 | St Mary’s, Pulb v Southwater A 0 1 |
4.40-4.53 | Leechpool B v Shelley 0 2 | Kingslea v Heron Way 0 1 | Leechpool A v Southwater B 2 0 | Castlewood v Southwater A 0 4 |
4.56-5.09 | Plaist/Kird v Heron Way 0 2 | Leechpool B v Kingslea 0 2 | St Mary’s, Pulb v Southwater B 3 0 | Castlewood v Leechpool A 0 3 |
5.12-5.25 | Shelley v Heron Way 0 2 1st – Heron Way 16pts 2nd – Plaistow/Kirdford 14 3rd – Kingslea 12 4th – Shelley 10 5th – Leechpool B 8 | Plaist/Kird v Kingslea 2 0 | Southwater A v Southwater B 4 0 1st – Leechpool A 20pts 2nd – Southwater A 16 3rd – St Mary’s Pulboro 13 4th – Southwater B 8 5th – Castlewood 4 | St Mary’s, Pulb v Leechpool A 1 2 |
| PHASE 2 – Play-offs | |||
5.30-5.52 | Winners Groups A + B Leechpool A v Heron Way 3 1 | Runners-up Groups A + B Southwater A v Plaistow/Kirdford 4 1 | Thirds Groups A + B Pulborough v Kingslea 2 1 | 5.30-5.40pm 4ths Groups A + B Southwater B v Shelley 2 3
5.42-5.52pm 5ths Groups A + B Castlewood v Leechpool B 1 0
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