Tuesday 10th May 2022 ko 19:30

Witney & District League- Senior Cup Final

STONESFIELD 0

S Kemp sent off 22 (DOGSO- handball)

C Rice missed penalty 80

HAILEY 1 (Foster 23)

N Kimber penalty saved 23

Att c200

Entry £3

We’d got to that stage at the end of the season where just about every game was a final of some kind, the only decision was where? Not that needed much thought, Robyn had never visited Kilkenny Lane, and I didn’t need any excuse to visit my friends at the Witney & District League. There was no small issue with Carterton FC’s ground though.

It was as simple as this, since my last visit to Kilkenny Lane 11 years earlier an entire estate has been built round the ground, and to add another level of difficulty to it, the main approach road was closed due to water works! It was a good job the Witney & District had the entrance working efficiently, otherwise we could have been late.

Groundhoppers who deal only in Steps 1 to 6 may well miss out on Kilkenny Lane, even though various versions of Carterton Town, and Carterton FC have played in the top two divisions of the Hellenic League. These days the current iteration plays in Hellenic Division Two, but the the ground is still well-appointed enough for much higher. 

It was, of course an fitting location for the Witney & District League’s most important cup final. Now if you’d seen just the result you’d assume the game had gone by the formbook, Hailey are league champions after all. But boy did Stonesfield make them work for it, and did so playing a man short for nearly 70 minutes. They’ll also claim that a potential equaliser was over the goal line too. It didn’t look that way from where I was stood, but who could tell for certain? And on such controversies most football talk is based. Thank heaven there’s no VAR in grassroots football., 

It was the kind of game any neutral would love, not that there were many neutrals there! But if you’re the committee that’s a great advert for the league, which of course is exactly what they wanted.