Sidmouth 2, Colyton 1

Wellman Cup

On Sunday Sidmouth won their first piece of silverware of the season when they beat Colyton 2-1 aet in the final of the Wellman Cup, writes Sean Murphy.

In a repeat of last year’s final the Vikings were able to gain revenge against the team that beat them last season.With virtually a full strength squad available confidence was high but chances were, however, few and far between for either side with the defences on top. A break by Colyton was foiled by a terrific double save by keeper Tyler Hillier,who was celebrating his 13th birthday. Sidmouth slowly got a foothold in the game with midfielders Joe Miller, Freddie King and Ed Doble starting to influence the game, and had a Connor Murphy goal disallowed.

The second half saw Sidmouth’s back four of Tom Orchard, Jamie Newbery, Jonny Surtees and Alister Forsyth quell any attack but neither side could score.

With a further 20 minutes to go before the dreaded penalty shootout, Sidmouth were ahead in three minutes with a Ben Miller goal.

Two minutes later Town were awarded a penalty which Newbery slotted home coolly.

This seemed to spur Colyton on and within a couple of minutes they pulled a goal back and pressed for the equaliser.

Sidmouth held on to win as both teams tired.

In the second period of extra time both teams naturally tired and the game became stretched but neither side could find another goal. Manager Sean Murphy said "It was a terrific performance from my players especially as most of the travelled to Newquay on Wednesday morning to play in the West Country Cup in which they played 5 games in 3 days.The game was a terrific advert for junior football as it was played by 2 evenly matched sides and played in a great spirit.I would like to pay a special respect to Alex Stone who suffered a nasty looking calf injury in Newquay but still turned up to help out his team mates,and although he was unable to play as much as he probably wanted he was able to play his part.This sets us up nicely for the rest of the season as we have another cup final to look forward to,and are in the hunt to win the league also"