PAGET GIRLS IN TOURNAMENT DELIGHT!

One minute it was sunny, one minute wet and wild as seven schools took part in the Girls 6-a-side tournament at Yardley 5’s on Wednesday afternoon and it was Paget who emerged victorious having previously scraped through their group by a solitary goal. And it was further heart-break for Timberley, who, as in the league, had to settle for runners-up spot once again.

Group A saw Timberley in with Paget, Rosary and last season’s girls tournament winners, Lyndon Green. And the Timbers opened up with a 4-1 win over Paget, before then seeing off Rosary 4-2 and finishing with a flourish, 6-1 over Lyndon Green, to take top spot. Second place was much closer as both Rosary and Paget had a chance of taking second place and a semi-final spot as they clashed in their final group game. Prior to that , Rosary had beaten Lyndon Green 2-0 and then had that loss against Timberley. Paget also beat LG but by 4 goals to 1 allied with the aforementioned loss to Timberley meant a draw would be enough to take them through. And in a pulsating, end-to-end game, Rosary actually led 2-0 until the final stages but Paget pegged them back to draw 2-2 and that was enough to secure group runners-up by virtue of just one goal.

Group B consisted of just the three teams as Abbey were unable to attend due to traffic issues. So league champions, Short Heath were joined by Hillstone ands Guardian Angels. Heath won both of their games comfortably, 5-1 vs Hillstone and 7-0 vs Guardian Angels and they were joined in the semi-finals by Hillstone, courtesy of a 1-0 win over Angels.

The semi-finals saw old foes Paget and Short Heath drawn together and Timberley facing Hillstone. Having stuttered their way through the group, Paget suddenly found their feet as they beat the league champions 3-1; Heath had a bundle of chances but struggled to hit the target whereas Paget were far mor clinical. Meanwhile Timberley made sure of their place in the final with a 3-0 victory over a battling Hillstone.

Final

Paget 5 – 2 Timberley

Timberley entered the final as favourites having won all four games leading up to it whilst netting 17 goals along the way and conceding just the four, so it was a real shock to see them concede after just nine seconds. However, things quickly got out of control for Timberley and Paget, continuing with their clinical finishing, found themselves four nil up with barley two minutes played. It took a shell-shocked Timberley four minutes to finally register a goal and they swiftly added a second from the penalty spot. The game quickened up again from there as Timberley pushed forward but it was Paget who would avenge their earlier 4-1 group game defeat to the Timbers as they scored again to seal the trophy, 5-2.