Two superb penalty saves from YUSU President Kallum Taylor propelled Vanbrugh 3rds into the semi-finals of the plate, courtesy of a 4-3 victory on penalties over James 2nds. In normal time the contest had ended 1-1, as Vanbrugh centre half James Robinson struck a wonderful twenty yard freekick in the final stages to force penalties, with what was the highlight of a drab affair.
Andreas Boedt had handed James the lead early in the second half, but Robinson’s late freekick salvaged the situation to force penalties. After each team had scored their first three penalties, Taylor made the first of his saves, before Keiran Higgins was denied by Ben Raper.
James’ final penalty taker Will Goodwin though was brilliantly denied by Taylor, as he sprung to his left to claw away the spot kick, and Riddell held his nerve to slot home the winning penalty into the bottom left hand corner and send Vanbrugh through to the semi-finals.
James 2nds had been excellent in the group stages, and were unfortunate to be drawn in a challenging group, but they failed to reach their previous heights this afternoon as they were missing a host of key players. Clear chances were devoid in the first half, with Dom McKinnon-Green and Riddell both firing efforts off target. Meanwhile the closest James came was an Ameer Alhasan shot that sailed over the bar, in what was a dire opening period.
James had slightly edged the first half in terms of play, but creativity was lacking. Taylor was called into the action for the first time in the 35th minute, as he routinely gathered a 20 yard Alhasan effort from the left flank. At the other end Aaron Hooper fired a freekick woefully over the bar, whilst Marco Bassaglia could only find the side netting from a narrow angle.
In the 42 minute James made a double substitution, and the change had an instant impact as a minute later Andreas Boedt, shifted out to the left wing, handed James the lead. Boedt cut in from the left, skipped past two defenders and placed his shot past the outstretched Taylor and into the bottom corner of the Vanbrugh net.
By all account it appeared as if James would hold on to claim an uninspiring victory, with Vanbrugh rarely testing ‘keeper Raper. However in the 56th minute referee Joe Lawton awarded Vanbrugh a freekick 22 yards out slightly to the left, and Robinson stepped up and expertly curled the ball over the wall and into the top corner of the net, to force penalties.
Vanbrugh’s captain Rob Konstantelos told Vision: “Didn’t expect that, it was an excellent performance. We kept battling away and I’m over the moon with the win.”
James skipper Matija Pisk was disappointed with his side’s defeat, remarking: “Yeah we’re gutted, but we didn’t play well. We had a lot of people missing today, and we didn’t really pick ourselves up from missing out on the Cup. All about our 3s now on Tuesday.”
Vision MOTM: James Robinson