It was the young Seasiders who triumphed over the young Miners, winning the Roger Stone Memorial Cup, 5–1 in extra time, at Weston-super-Mare on Wednesday, 19th April. Yet the one sided scoreline doesn’t tell the tale of a game that remained goalless for 79 minutes, with both sides cancelling each other out in normal time.
Radstock broke the deadlock through the impressive Kalem Marsh, with just over ten minutes of the match to go. However, Radstock were unable to see the game out as Clevedon threw caution to the wind; Lucas Vowles scoring the Seasiders’ equaliser with only five minutes remaining.
Buoyed by their late reprieve, Clevedon started extra time with the greater momentum and quickly raced into a 2–1 lead through Archie Ferris – within three minutes of the restart. Radstock’s efforts to get back on level terms were foiled by the impressive Will Bennett for Clevedon.
The young Seasiders strengthened their grip on the game at the start of the second period of extra time, when a rash challenge in the Radstock penalty box gifted Clevedon a penalty which Alex Camm duly dispatched.
The game effectively ended as a contest with seven minutes remaining, when Camm scored his second from the half-way line, following a Radstock corner that saw goalkeeper, Charlie Phillips, join the attack and unable to recover the Clevedon counter-attack.
Alex Crofts scored the fifth with three minutes remaining, but the 5–1 victory for Clevedon failed to tell the story of a game they were five minutes away from losing. Both sides were a credit to their clubs – in a keenly fought, sometimes fiery, Cup Final encounter that enthralled a sizeable crowd at the Woodspring Stadium.
Ian Nockolds