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Blues book cup final spot; Reserves in Semi defeat

Sidley United 4 - 1 Rustington - Sussex FA Intermediate Cup Semi Final

Sidley United booked their spot in the final of the Sussex FA Intermediate Cup with an excellent victory over SCFL side Rustington.

The match, sponsored by Vector Recruitment Solutions, pitted the teams top of the MSFL and SCFL Div 2 and promised to be a tight and competitive encounter. And it seemed set to be that way as early on Sidley shaded the play without too many chances coming their way.

There was a huge penalty appeal which wasn't awarded when Sam Crabb seemed to be pulled back by a Rustington defender and Crabb was injured in that phase of play. His replacement, Tyler Capon, was quickly into the action though and he set up the opening goal by brilliantly keeping the ball in play and hooking it through for Charlie Cornford to run onto and his composed finish into the bottom corner gave Sidley the advantage on 30 minutes.

One quickly became two and again Capon was involved, doing well to win a corner which was headed back across goal by Josh Elliott-Noye for Paul Rogers to nod home from close tange on 34 minutes. The Blues may have gone in three ahead but Billy Nash made an excellent stop to deny Elliott-Noye who had turned and fired towards the far corner.

Straight from the restart, Lee Carey's audacious shot was tipped onto the crossbar by Nash but Sidley were three goals up on 52 minutes as Rogers played a lovely one-two to get in on goal and he rolled the ball home.

Rustington though struck back less than a minute later as Chris Darwin turned and fired an unstoppable strike into the top corner, giving Hutchins no chance. The game then became more open with Rustington tails up and feeling like another goal would really bring them back into contention.

However their momentum was ended when Mike Gilchrist was shown a second yellow card for throwing the ball at Sidley manager John Carey and the Blues seemed to be able to see out the game.

In the sixth minute of stoppage time, the Blues won a penalty as Cornford was clipped in the area and Lee Carey stepped up to slot the ball home to wrap up the match.

The Blues will face Jarvis Brook in the final at Culver Road in Lancing at a date to be confirmed.

Sidley Team: Hutchins, Featherstone, McEniry, Hickman-Smith, Walker, Elliott-Noye, Ellis, Carey, Cornford, S Crabb (Capon, Cumming-Bart), Rogers (Clifford). 

AFC Hollington 3 - 2 Sidley United II - Hastings FA Junior Cup Semi Final

The Reserves couldn't match the first team success as they lost their semi final against AFC Hollington at Tilekiln.

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