PDFA Intermediate Cup Final
Friends Fighting Cancer FC 1
(Jake Daniels)
Dingle Rovers 4
(Finn McGovern x3, Ben Gurman)
Attendance: 300-400 (rough guess)
The Draper Tools Community Stadium (Havant & Waterlooville FC)
As the second final of the day was coming to a close, distant chants of ‘YELLLLLLOWS, YELLLLLLOWS’ could be heard approaching the Draper Tools Community Stadium. That could only mean one thing, Dingle Rovers were in town.
Rovers have been well supported in the two previous games I have encountered this season, even torrential rain at Front Lawn didn’t scare away a solid crowd back in October and the cans of cider were in full flow on May Bank Holiday Sunday for a fixture against Whistle Stop. It was never a question of if there would be a crowd for a Dingle Rovers final, more of a question of how many!
With the players watching Southsea’s dramatic penalty shootout victory in the PDFA Sunday Trophy, the Rovers fans were making plenty of noise outside the ground in the Westleigh Pub, entering the ground just before the start of the game in their droves. The previous two finals today as been fairly sombre affairs, but this was the one I was probably most excited to see, completing what has been a fantastic day of Sunday League cup finals. The fans really did make for a brilliant atmosphere, creating plenty of off-field entertainment.
Statistics
This was my third time watching Dingle Rovers and in my previous two games, they have recorded 6-1 victories over Queens Head Raiders back in October and against Whistle Stop in May. The Meon Valley Sunday League side are fresh off the back of winning the Division One title and today they were up against Friends Fighting Cancer FC.
As the name suggests, Friends Fighting Cancer FC are a charity side and do some brilliant community work alongside playing in the City of Portsmouth Division Two. They finished bottom of their division this season but found their form in the cup run to reach today’s final. This is the first time I have seen them play.
This was also my first experience of the PDFA Intermediate Cup and I was surprised to see that Dingle were missing a few of their players who also play in the Wessex League, unable to participate in this cup due to the level they play at on a Saturday.
The Ground
To read my comments on the ground, click here.
The Game
Finn McGovern netted a hat trick as Dingle Rovers confirmed the league and cup double with a 4-1 victory over Friends Fighting Cancer FC in the PDFA Intermediate Cup Final.
The win confirmed a league and cup double as Dingle drew the curtain on a very successful season, despite the challenges that all clubs have faced amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It took just three minutes for McGovern to put Dingle ahead when a cross into the box from Ryan Bath picked out the forward who fired his header into the ground, but the bounce took it past the FFC goalkeeper for 1-0.
Rovers were on top in the game as McGovern forced a good save from the FFC goalkeeper who was at full stretch to parry the ball away. A succession of corners followed, but the goalkeeper was doing enough to try and keep FFC in the game.
The game heated up when Dingle’s #12 and FFC’s #8 were both cautioned after grabbing hold of each other in a small altercation between the pair.
Rovers had the ball in the back of the net again when a free kick floated into the box was caught by the goalkeeper who then dropped the ball as he was about to step over the line. Bath poked the loose ball in but the referee blew his whistle for a foul in the build-up.
Bath had a couple of chances to extend Rovers’ lead, with one shot coming back off the post as FFC soaked up the early pressure before creating a few chances of their own. #17 did well to almost draw the score level when he nipped through the defence, but the Dingle ‘keeper was equal to the forwards’ effort.
Dingle’s goalkeeper pulled off a fine save to deny #19 a chance to equalise with a curling effort from distance as Rovers took a narrow 1-0 lead into the half time interval.
Whatever was said in the FFC dressing room at half time clearly worked as they soon found an equaliser on 51 minutes. Jake Daniels hit a speculative shot from distance that caught out the Rovers goalkeeper and they were back in the game at 1-1.
Dingle looked shaky for a spell as FFC’s #14 was played in only to be denied by the goalkeeper. However, they managed to settle down and begin to create chances of their own when #16 left the goalkeeper rooted to the ground as his curling effort rattled the post.
With ten minutes remaining McGovern was the hero once more when he picked up the ball wide on the right and popped in a cross into the box that caught out the goalkeeper and dipped into the top corner to make it 2-1.
That was the finishing blow for FFC as Dingle netted a third through Ben Gurman. The substitute came off the bench to curl a wonderful stoppage-time free kick into the back of the net.
And there was still time for a fourth, and McGovern topped a wonderful individual performance by completing his hat trick, racing through and bundling the ball past the goalkeeper to end the game 4-1.
For a full album of images, check out my Facebook page.
Line Ups:
Friends Fighting Cancer FC: Not Available
Dingle Rovers: Not Available
2020/21 Games: 148
2020/21 Grounds: 83
New Grounds this season: 42
Total Grounds Visited: 332 (76)
The Terrace Traveller 