Derwent put Vanbrugh to the sword with a 1-0 victory in today’s College Cup semi-final, and will now face Alcuin in next week’s final.
A Steve Walwyn header in the first half was enough to defeat a tired-looking Vanbrugh side, although Derwent could easily have won by more in a game that reflected the team’s vast improvement as the tournament has progressed. After a comprehensive defeat by Alcuin in their opening game, and the less than impressive win over Vanbrugh Thirds in the following match, Derwent looked unlikely challengers for the Cup, despite their pre-tournament billing as joint favourites. Now though the blues have started to hit their stride, and today they built on their emphatic 3-1 quarter-final defeat of James with a composed, stylish win over Vanbrugh.
The match started with a bang, as only moments into an explosive first half Derwent came within inches of opening the scoring. Running to meet a corner, Ben Smith smacked a volley against the crossbar, rattling the woodwork and sending out a warning shot to the Vanbrugh defence. Vanbrugh replied by giving Derwent a scare themselves, with an Ali Prince free-kick causing Derwent goalkeeper Roy Moore to spill the ball in the area and only just manage to gather it up at the feet of Vanbrugh’s forwards.
Apart from this incident Vanbrugh were largely on the back foot, as Derwent’s highly impressive Chris Barnett imposed his will on the match from central midfield and forward Ben Smith caused Vanbrugh’s back four problems with his darting runs. Derwent were playing some of the best football of the competition, and despite the physical presence of Phil Taylor up front and tricky wing play from Ben Stanier on the wing, it was Derwent who looked the more dangerous team in attack. Vanbrugh were often guilty of overelaboration when going forward, with attempted flicks failing to come off and ambitious passes missing their intended targets. Vanbrugh badly needed an on-song Ali Prince, and with the half-fit striker looking only a shadow of the prolific forward who had set the early stages of this tournament alight, Vanbrugh missed the sharpness in attack that had brought them 25 goals in five games before this match.
As half-time drew near Derwent’s dominance grew. Chris Barnett almost scored one of the goals of the tournament when he plucked the ball from the sky, raced powerfully past two Vanbrugh players, and, with the ball moving away from him fast, hit a stunning drive that crashed against the post. It was an exceptional piece of skill that deserved a goal, and a few minutes later defender Steve Walwyn brought the goal that had been coming when he met a corner unchallenged and planted a header into the bottom corner, making it 1-0 to Derwent at half time.
In comparison to the first half the second was a largely uneventful affair, and this was largely down to Derwent’s ability to intelligently sit on their lead and stifle the game. Dom Henney and Steve Walwyn were composed in central defence, and were able to successfully shut out any Vanbrugh attacks. A tired-looking Ali Prince was withdrawn with fifteen minutes to go for Jamie Clarke as Vanbrugh sought to provide some fresh impetus to their play, but as the match neared its end Vanbrugh looked no more likely to equalise, with the team reduced mainly to speculative long shots. At one point Ben Stanier forced an athletic save from Moore with a mishit cross that the Derwent goalkeeper did well to tip over the crossbar, but in truth Derwent rarely looked like conceding. They almost scored a second ten minutes from time when Matt O’Connor raced onto a through-ball and managed to chip Paul Taylor, only to skew his shot wide with the goal at his mercy.
As Vanbrugh became increasingly desperate, captain Dan Hewitt let his frustration show when he saw teammates arguing with the referee over a free-kick. Vanbrugh’s last opportunity fell to Phil Taylor, who couldn’t jump quite high enough to meet a corner and sent his header high and wide. In the last play of the game Vanbrugh were awarded a free-kick and piled their players into Derwent’s penalty area, only for Hewitt to overhit the free kick and render Vanbrugh’s players a harmless presence in Derwent’s box as the final whistle blew.