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Photos: TK Rohit
On a dramatic day of football at the JLD, Wentworth 2nds surprised everyone by overcoming Langwith 1sts on penalties to seal their place in the plate final against Vanbrugh 3rds. Who would have predicted that line up before the tournament?
The game started slowly, with the majority of action in the early stages in midfield and no real chances. However out of nowhere Wentworth, who had been the stronger of the two sides in the opening stages, snatched the lead. Rich Rhodes hurled a long throw into the box, and Mutlu Cukurova rose highest to glance the ball past Kris Cheshire.
The setback seemed to ignite Langwith, who all of a sudden were inspired into life and started to move the ball around nicely. Andy Doyle was one of the main threats, and he curled a freekick on target, only to be denied by John Cook who tipped the ball behind for a corner. From the resulting corner Doyle came even closer, this time thundering a header against the post, but Wentworth survived.
Their lead didn’t last much longer though, as with twenty minutes gone, Bruce Starkey equalised when he slid the ball past Cook, after an excellent cutback by James Macdonald.
Langwith finished the half the stronger side, as Cook again stopped a header by the impressive Doyle, and the latter then flicked a Will Prescott long throw into the path of Keiran Hazell, only for the winger to fire over from five yards out, leaving the scores level at half time.
Wentworth managed to stifle the Langwith threat in the second half, reinstating their control over the game, and turning it into a very even contest. Greg Kearney forced a save from Langwith keeper Cheshire, whilst at the other end a dangerous Luke Gardener run, ended in Matt Jones fizzing a drive wide of the post.
Chances though were few and far between in a nervy second half, as gradually the game edged towards penalties. Wentworth substitute Dan Horsfall however almost secured his side a late winner. He powerfully headed a Rhodes corner, beating keeper Cheshire, but flying narrowly over the bar. Horsfall then excellently flicked a long ball into the path of the dangerous Lachlan Murray, but his shot was well blocked, by a resolute Langwith defence, as Wentworth finished the stronger side.
So the game ended 1-1, and penalties were called on to decide the winner. Both teams had previously won penalty shootouts in the quarter finals to progress to the semis, but today Langwith were to bow out of the competition.
Wentworth converted all four of their required penalties with calm precision, whilst John Cook saved one Langwith penalty, before Bruce Starkey fired his against the bar to confirm Wentworth’s victory with a kick to spare, and spark jubilant celebrations. Langwith’s disappointment was evident, and once more penalties proved decisive, and something that Wentworth excel at.
The ecstatic Wentworth manager Dan Howden commented: “It was an excellent performance again, everyone gave everything. We’ve used 17 or 18 players in the tournament and they’ve all done brilliantly. Nobody gave us a chance yet we’ve won again and are into the final.”
Vision MOTM: Andy Doyle
Langwith played well. Just couldn’t finish.
Shame
At least every other team could take the banter.
No need for some of the wentworth team telling the fans where to go
“come back when you have a first class degree” was equally as personal wenty
“Banter”? This is a term most associate with wit and humour. Your fans’ shouting of “they’re sh*t” or “he’s fat and old” were neither. Suffice it to say, you didn’t like Wenty’s first-class ripostes. At the final whistle, “banterous” retorts of “not such a sh*it second team now, eh?” didn’t go down too well – not sure how that’s telling your fans where to go. In any case, our second string of fat and old players go marching on. Doesn’t say much for your first team, does it? Unfortunate this happened, as the match itslef was played in a good spirit.
Maybe we couldn’t take the banter
But you couldn’t take the penalties
Wentworth are so old
“not such a sh*it second team now, eh?” as he ran away and hid behind the rest of his team!
and how exactly did we not take that? we responded in a very similar fashion!
you guys are the only team who ended up being aggressive, and i believe one of your team (the old fat one) told one of our players he’d break his legs if he cheated when all he did was pick a ball that was out up for throw in!
first class banter boys! shame about your age (and weight)
“we responded in a very similar fashion!” Yeah, by shouting “come on, then!” Very similar, indeed! Also, it’s acceptable to call someone fat, but not jest about someone not having a degree? Come on…
Langaroo 2, unfortunately being a little older is a consequence of having graduated a couple of times already. By its very nature as a graduate college Wentworth is indeed youthfully challenged.
Morley, you are probably correct with regards to the fact that no other team became aggressive and I’d imagine that plenty of the Wentworth boys felt a little silly afterwards. That said, you team’s inspired ‘banter’ has involved hurling abuse at a third team for being shit (having lost only 5-1 aginst your mighty first team) and a constant stream of utter bollocks from people on the sidelines who are not good enough to merit inclusion in one of the Langwith teams. The fact that the Langwith fans (and a couple of the first team players) thought it perfectly reasonable to consistently shout about how shit Wentworth 3rds were when the colleges met in the group stages was a little galling considering that Langwith were rather poor themselves on that day. Moreover, despite having sometimes up to a dozen fans at each match, all of whom were of the opinion that everyone else was shit, Langwith are incapable of fielding a third team of their own. I for one look forward to leading any one of the Langwith fans a merry dance next year when, with their increased capacity owing to the move to Hes East, Langwith thirds are being roundly humilitaed by Wentworth 1s, 2s, or probably even 3s – all 16 stone of me.
Irrespective of your fans’ displeasure at the behaviour of a couple of Wentworth players, whose cathartic release of steam after 60 minutes of constant nonsense from the Langwith fans and a couple of players was surely justified, the real issue is surely that the Langwith banter was simply shit. Apart from your chants of cannon, every word that has spilled from the lips of the Langwith fans has been noxious and pathetic. There is nothing particularly clever about calling a third team shit, a guy with a shaved head bald, or a fat man fat. We don’t mind you calling us that, because we are. But to expect this not to illicit a little schadenfreude as your first team was knocked out by these shit, old, bald, second-teamers is a little bit sad.
I’m a part of both colleges but honestly I was surprised to see the way the Wenty boys reacted. And 1st class degree already got one thankyou