Successful appeal puts UYWAFC through to cup final

The university’s women’s football team have been informed by BUCS that they will compete in the Northern Conference Cup Final.

The side lost 1-0 in a hard-fought encounter with UCLAN in last week’s semi-final, but after discovering that their opponents fielded an ineligible player, York appealed the result, and UCLAN have been disqualified from the competition.

UYWAFC were tipped off on Tuesday before the game that their opponents had been struggling to put together a full side for their trip to 22 Acres.

The game came, and ended in defeat for the girls, courtesy of a goal scored by a player identified as ‘Molly’.

After searching on social media sites, it was discovered by the club that another girl, known as Steph and jokingly referred to as ‘the new Molly’, had in fact scored the winning goal.

Steph was not registered to play for UCLAN, and did not appear on the official team sheet sent in to BUCS.

Molly, who did appear on the team sheet, had been in hospital for much of the preceding week after surgery on her appendix, and posts on social media sites suggested she was still struggling to move on Thursday, despite having ‘scored’ the winner for UCLAN the day before.

After collating the above information, UYWAFC President Meg Phillips, 1st team captain Vicky Decamp and YUSU Sports & Societies Development Coordinator Jasmine Scott launched an appeal shortly before the deadline on Thursday.

This morning, the club was informed that the appeal had been successful, after UCLAN admitted to having fielded an ineligible player. UCLAN have been eliminated from the cup, and York will progress to the final in their place.

President Meg Phillips told Vision: “Bringing up the issue with BUCS was important and goes to show how easy it is for teams to cheat. We were lucky to have been informed by a third party, and even more so to have been able to prove it to BUCS.

“It was a close game against UCLAN and now we’ve got our eyes set on bringing home the trophy. More importantly though it’s a testament to the commitment of the players and those involved with the appeal that we are able to play in the final.

“The club has had an incredible year in all aspects and bringing home the trophy would be an unbelievable finish to the season!”

Captain Vicky Decamp added: “After our performance last Wednesday I’ve no doubt that we fully deserve our spot in the final.”

The news caps off a successful week for the university’s sports clubs, with both men’s and women’s 1sts lacrosse teams, and men’s 1sts squash, having also reached conference cup finals. The futsal team have also progressed to the BUCS national semi-finals.

UYWAFC will face Manchester 1sts in the final on 13th March.