HITS Consultancy Senior Knockout Cup Final
Barrowby 2
Heckington United 0
Saturday saw the first Grantham League trophy up for grabs and it was contested by two teams at the opposite ends of the Premier League.
Whilst Barrowby are flying high at the top, Heckington are languishing at the bottom, so it was the Swans who entered this game as clear favourites.
The game immediately went to form as Barrowby opened the scoring after just six minutes when Callum Tyndall pounced on a goalkeeper spillage to slot home from close range.
Heckington were fortunate not to go down to 10 men when the goalkeeper scythed down an advancing Barrowby attacker only for the referee to judge that he wasn’t the last man.
The remainder of the first half was dominated by Heckington but for all their possession, they could not break the Barrowby defence.
The first half ended in controversy when in the middle of a goalmouth scramble, a Barrrowby player appeared to punch the ball away as it was about to cross the line. The referee and linesman waved away all the pleas from Heckington and the half time whistle went to the relief of the Barrowby team.
The second half started very much how the first half ended with the hand ball incident appearing to inject extra impetuous into the Heckington players. Again the Barrowby defence worked tirelessly to keep Heckington out.
With 18 minutes remaining and Barrowby looking to make some changes, the best move of the game resulted in Barrowby increasing their lead.
Walmsley played a quick ball along the line to man-of-the-match Tyndall whose deft flick fell into the path of the advancing Radford. With a lightning turn of pace, Radford drove at the Heckington defence who could only watch as he laid the ball off to Johnson and with consummate ease, he stroked it into the side netting without breaking stride.
The last 15 minutes saw Barrowby use all their experience to see out time until the whistle went, when captain Ryan Jones lifted the first trophy of the season for The Swans.
Barrowby were sponsored this season by Grantham Honda, Bloomsbury Bakery, SprayTech and White Swan.