THEY WILL BE DANCING IN THE HARDWICK TONIGHT

NEW SALAMIS 1 THE HARDWICK 2
FA SUNDAY CUP SEMI FINAL AT THE IMPACT ARENA ALFRETON
25 MARCH 2018 --- 2PM

ROBERTS MAKES IT 2-0 TO HARDWICK

What a weekend it had been for the footy teams of Stockton with Hardwick securing a tight victory over Salamis and Town of the Northern League reaching the FA Vase final just 24 hours earlier there would be some joy in the north east never mind a little of the liquid stuff flowing.
The impact arena was looking resplendent in a the spring sunshine with the overall corporate red just broken up with a collection of stadium wide blue seats.  Amazingly this game had segregation in place for a small crowd if around 75 but as ever the North Eastern contingent were in good voice and as per the non league level its always worth catching up with teams from this neck of the woods.
Salamis from London have a rich pedigree on the football scene and indeed have won this trophy a couple of years ago but lost out to Hardwick last year so we were in for a keen contest and so it turned out to be.  Stockton based Hardwick Social would field a few of the Stockton Town lads and the standard of play was of course far from Sunday football but more like a step 4 game.

THE HARDWICK FC

Credit was due to Alfreton's band of helpers who had opened both snack bars, programme shop and were operating the public address system with the ever informative Bill Draper in control, a Reds fan who shortly will approach is 2,000 Alfreton game without a break a remarkable achievement.

NEW SALAMIS FC

Referee today would be Derbyshire FA official James Oldham who would need all his guile to keep a firm control on proceedings something I'm pleased to say he did.  In fact earlier on in the season he was involved in the strangest sending off I've ever read about when in the Conference North game between Bradford Park Ave and Salford with 3 minutes to go the visiting keeper was dismissed for urinating at the side of the pitch.

REFEREE JAMES OLDHAM WITH HIS TEAM AND TODAYS CAPTAINS

A nice collection of local non league fans were present and it was good to spend some time with flagman Dave and Neil aka Bob L Hat from the Kirkby in Ashfield and Belper Parishes respectively.
With both teams lined up for a photo shoot it was noteworthy that the kits would provide an interesting back drop to the game with Hardwick looking good in green and the Salamis offering of red and white stripes equally impressive.

BOB L HAT AND FLAGMAN DAVE LOOKING GOOD

So to the game and Hardwick were out of the traps straight away kicking to the North St end and with Salamis struggling to put much together it was perhaps no surprise that the Stockton based team took the lead a dash of pace cutting off the left hand side of the box from the appropriately named Chris Stockton saw John Kyriacou clip his legs and referee Oldham had no doubt pointing straight to the spot.  James Ward lined up for the penalty and although Joe Wright in the Salamis goal got a hand to it there was too much power on it for him to be able to keep the ball out of the net.

STOCKTON [11] JUST ABOUT TO GO DOWN UNDER THE CHALLENGE

After the break Salamis came out battling hard to get back into the game but Hardwick were defending well and closing down the London based side all over the park making it a frustrating afternoon for them.  When the next goal did come it was to double the lead for Hardwick a superb header from Stephen Roberts who rose to power home into the Salamis goal after 77 minutes.

ROBERTS HEADER MAKES IT 2-0 TO HARDWICK

As so often happens Salamis came back within four minutes with a goal they would have been grateful for a little early a lovely semi overhead kick from Richard Georgiou to give his team hope.  Amazingly he very nearly scored a similar goal in the closing stages something which would have pushed the tie into extra time but it wasn't to be and Hardwick confidently saw time out to book a final appearance against Gym FC who were victorious in the other semi-final.

JOE WRIGHT IN THE SALAMIS GOAL CLAIMS THE BALL

A superb little game up to a very good standard that in the end saw the right result with Hardwick having another trip out towards the end of the season as they look to retain their FA Sunday Cup.