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Photos: Tom Wooldridge and Oliver Todd
Derwent 1sts stormed into the College Cup semi-finals with a sensational 4-0 victory over Alcuin 1sts.
Two years ago, these two sides faced each other in the College Cup final, which Alcuin won, but today it was Derwent’s turn to taste victory.
Their captain, David Kirk, began the rout with a poacher’s goal in the eighth minute, and second half strikes from Jake Farrell, Dan Atherton and Sam Earle completed an excellent day’s work for last year’s finalists.
Disappointingly, Alcuin never tested Seb Treasure in the Derwent goal and for large spells it was backs to the wall defending, as Derwent emphatically demonstrated their Cup credentials.
In the first of the quarter finals, Derwent were boosted by the return of Dan Atherton, who had missed the previous two games.
Derwent came out of the blocks the fastest and had their first chance after three minutes. Ollie Harrison delivered a searching corner from the right which glanced off Kirk’s head and narrowly beyond the far post.
The game was shaping into one of attack versus defence and Alcuin were at times struggling to break out of their own half, struggling to even muster a shot in the first period.
Before long, Derwent’s early siege on the Alcuin goal paid dividends. Earle fired a wayward effort which was heading wide of Marshall’s right post, only for Kirk to stick out a leg and divert the ball past the wrong-footed ‘keeper to hand his side a vital lead.
It was the striker’s fifth goal of the tournament and it could not have come at a better time as Derwent quickly settled into an ominous attacking rhythm.
Earle and Tapper were controlling the game from central midfield, while Farrell and Atherton were chalking their boots offering lots of width.
As Alcuin sent more men forward in search of an equaliser, Derwent almost doubled their lead with five minutes of the remaining first half.
Dan Atherton slipped Kirk in behind the Alcuin defence, but he was closed down well by Marshall and his shot slithered just wide of the far post.
As the half time whistle blew at 1-0, Derwent were perhaps unlucky not to be further ahead while Alcuin were fortunate to still be in the game.
The second half began scrappily but Alcuin had a golden chance to equalise straight away.
Charles Pickering received a clever pass from Josh Allen before chipping an inviting cross to Jacob Scholz, but the midfielder could not grow enough and glanced a header well wide.
The warning sign was enough to kick Derwent into gear, and they did just that in majestic style.
An attempted through ball by the ubiquitous Earle was only half cleared by Alcuin, allowing Jake Farrell to smash the sweetest of volleys beyond a fully-stretched Marshall from 25 yards.
The wondergoal came at a crucial time as Alcuin were beginning to get a foothold in the match, and their hopes of taking the game to penalties were severely dented.
Derwent had two great chances to add to their tally; first when Kirk smacked the outside of the post with a speculative shot, before Harrison’s dinked cross found Atherton who contrived to side-foot it wide with the goal gaping.
As Alcuin threw bodies forward in search of an unlikely goal; Derwent’s third eventually came with eight minutes to go.
A quick counter-attack caught Alcuin out down their left – a problematic area for the whole match – and Farrell whipped in a terrific cross which was tapped in by Atherton at the far post.
Even the Derwent Duck ran onto the pitch to join in with the celebrations and with the semis in sight, the Derwent faithful cheered every pass and blew their vuvuzelas with joy.
Derwent rounded off the afternoon with a fourth when Atherton played a quick one-two with Kirk on the left, before delivering an inch-perfect cross from the by-line which was stroked into the net by Earle.
After the match, captain Kirk told Vision: “A lot of people have doubted us recently, but after we got the early goal our quality shone through today. I don’t see why we can’t go far in the competition.”
A downcast Brad Wood said: “It’s a disappointing way to go out, but we didn’t have our strongest line-up as we were essentially missing the heart of our midfield.”
Vision MOTM: Sam Earle