THE first of the two South Devon Football League semi-finals pitted Bovey Tracey 2nds against Kingsteignton Athletic and I think it is fair to say this much-anticipated fixture failed to deliver, reports Alastair Muirden.

Just as fast as chances were missed, the weather was deteriorating on the evening of Tuesday, April 22.

It was a fairly even contest for the first 45 minutes and the divisional difference was hard to see. The second half then belonged to the Division One side and I am sure a few of the Bovey players will have had a sleepless night thinking about those missed chances, in total I counted nine good scoring opportunities for the Moorlanders and a missed penalty kick.

At the other end, Kingsteignton’s first real chance was not until the 92nd minute and whilst keeping Bovey pegged back, they had a shot cleared off the line a minute later.

Extra time came and went unlike the biblical rain which affected everybody and in the penalty shootout, the Rams were the first team to miss and Bovey, having scored their first four, just needed to score the fifth to reach the final.

A good save by Ellis Rattue followed though and Kings scoring next meaning that Bovey were now chasing the game. Another good save by the keeper and Kingsteignton Athletic are now into another Herald Cup Final.

If the first semi-final failed to deliver then the second one, between Waldon Athletic and East Allington United the following evening, surely kept the crowd glued to the pitch fencing.

Six goals, a keeper carried off, a red card, a last minute penalty miss, extra time followed by yet another penalty shoot out and after all of that, Waldon Athletic have made it through to only their third Herald Cup final, which will be played on Friday, May 2 at Newton Rec with a 7pm KO.

This was a game of two halves and a bit more. When East Allington Utd sailed into a 2-nil first-half lead with goals from Fin Bullen and Martin Finnerton, the supporters from the South Hams must have been checking their diaries for cup final night plans.

But Waldon were doing what Waldon are good at and they were slowly but surely getting back into the game and when Ashley Grimes pulled one back just before the break, it was definitely game on.

The first big talking point came early in the second half when Fin Bullen challenged the Waldon keeper for a ball for which the referee judged as reckless and reduced East Allington to ten players. As a result of the challenge, the Waldon keeper Joe Whitehead had to be replaced and Kyle Doughty volunteered to put on the number one shirt.

Ater a lengthy stoppage, Waldon restarted the game and were in control but they had to wait 20 minutes for Cole Feasby to be in the right place at the right time and he levelled the score.

This seemed to give a second wind to the South Hams side who must have thought it’s now or never and they came back into the game which made for great viewing.

A late penalty was the next big talking point as the referee did not hesitate in pointing to the spot in the 88th minute after what seemed to be a 50-50 challenge. Josh Pascoe stepped up to send East Allington into the final only for stand-in keeper Kyle Doughty to palm the ball onto the crossbar to send the game into extra time.

The extra period continued in the end-to-end play and East Allington had settled back into playing with ten players and Waldon kept plugging away, knowing it would take something special to break the deadlock. In the tenth minute of extra time, the ball fell nicely for Cole Feasby some 20 yards from goal and he hit a shot that flew past the Allington keeper and it looked like game was over here.

It certainly wasn’t though as, with just two minutes left on the clock, Dan Joyce had the ball on the edge of the Waldon penalty box and they had all 11 players defending. He decided to take a speculative shot which seemed to bounce off two defenders and somehow found its way into the corner of the goal and by the time they restarted, the referee blew for full time and we had a second penalty shootout.

East Allington’s Fred Massey was the only kick taker to score and Waldon scored all four to put an end to a pulsating cup semi-final.

As previously mentioned, the final will take place on Friday, May 2 for a 7pm kick-off at The Rec and the last two teams standing are Kingsteignton Athletic and Waldon Athletic.

This competition is kindly sponsored by Torbay Clearance Services.