YOUTHS GIRLS SEAL TITLE IN PENALTY DRAMA!

Having endured the cold and the wet of wintry nights, eight schools met in glorious warm spring sunshine on Wednesday evening for the Girls League Play-off Finals. Yardley 5s was the venue and prior to kick off, the trophies for the two group winners, St Thomas More and St Bernadette’s were made with runners up medals awarded to Hillstone and Abbey.

And so to the action: Group A was composed of St Bernadette’s, Abbey, Yardley and Short Heath, whilst St. Thomas More, SS Peter & Paul, Paget and Hillstone made up Group B.

In Group A Yardley breezed through to the semi-finals with three 2-0 wins but the battle for second place was much tighter. With Abbey out of the reckoning, Short Heath and St Bernadette’s met knowing that three points in their final game would send them through to the semi-finals. In a tight and competitive game, one goal was all either side could muster with Short Heath grabbing it to secure that second semi-final spot.

St Thomas More’s laid down a marker in their opening Group B game hitting 4 past Paget, whilst SSPP just edged Hillstone, 1-0. When STM and SSPP then met, they shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw. Going into the final group games, Paget were out of contention, and it was between the other three for the semi-final places. A comfortable 3-0 win against Paget, saw SSPP emerge as group winners whilst a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Hillstone was enough for STM to squeeze into the semi-finals.

Semi-Finals

Yardley vs STM
Yardley did what they had done in their group games by scoring twice, they did however concede, but only once and the Youths were into the final.

SSPP vs Short Heath
SSPP came up against an inspired Short Heath ‘keeper who made a number of excellent stops but she was eventually beaten and that solitary goal took P&P through.

The Final

Yardley vs SSPP

Though neither of these two sides finished in the top two in their respective groups in the regular season, there was no denying they were the best two teams this on show this evening and deservedly took their place in the final. The opening exchanges were cagey with chances few and far between but as the game wore on it was SSPP who carried the greater threat. Yardley ride their luck at times and that was evident when a P&P strike truck a post and rolled agonisingly along the goal-line and into the safety of Yardley’s goalkeeper. That was as close as either team game to breaking the dead-lock and after eight minutes of thunderous action, penalty kicks would decide the winner. SSPP went first in the best-of-three shoot-out and scored confidently. Yardley’s first kick went wide but so did SSPP’s second. Yardley then levelled the count and when P&P missed again, the Youths clinched the title with a second successful kick.

A dramatic end to a wonderful evening – and season – in the Girls league with congratulations going to Yardley and commiserations to SS Peter & Paul. The girls will meet again after half-term in their summer tournament with Yardley the team to beat.