Devon & Exeter League
Bill Slee Cup Semi Final
Tuesday 28th May 2024
Kick Off 19.00 Actual 18.58!
Farway United 1 Exmouth Spartans 1, (3-5 pens) attendance 26
9’ 0-1
45’ 1-1
@ Eastlee Park
Money Acre Road
Farway
EX24 6EF
No Admission or Programme.
With this being a cup semi final, I was confident both teams would turn up (sadly, not always the case in many leagues these days!) and a phone call to the home team manager at lunchtime confirmed it was indeed all good to go. Farway is in East Devon, around five miles south of Honiton. The ground is to the north of the village, in between Church Green and Farway itself, on the right hand side of Money Acre Road as you head south. There is a very small car park and a wooden changing room/clubhouse building (hot drinks available) on the right as you enter, with the pitch down below, running widthways. Almost the entire crowd watched from the raised area, where there are also a number of wooden benches, whilst the far side has a couple of wooden dugouts. Quite a feat to find a flat enough area around here to accommodate a football pitch!
The game was between two teams from Division 2 of the league, with 6th hosting 8th, as far as final league positions go. Both goals came in the first half, Exmouth taking the lead after nine minutes, when a cross from the right was slid in from six yards and Farway levelling in the final minute of the half, when a free kick from the angle of the 18 yard box beat the ‘keeper at the near post.
Despite having a man sin binned early in the second half, Exmouth managed to hold out and once back at the full compliment probably had the better chances to win it. In the dying seconds they had a point blank header tipped around the post from a free kick and then saw a shot come back off the other post from the resulting corner.
Straight to penalties at ninety minutes. Exmouth went first and scored all five of theirs. Farway scored their first three, but number four was saved. According to F.A. Full Time it was 4-5 on penalties, which cannot possibly be correct when the team going first scored the final kick of the shootout!
