Bridge roll back the glory times (From Western Telegraph)

Bridge roll back the glory times

Senior Cup - semi-final

Merlins Bridge 3 Goodwick United 1

MERLINS Bridge rolled back the glory years to march stylishly into the Senior Cup final after out battling Goodwick United, in a keenly contested semi-final played at the Bridge Meadow, last Thursday.

Conditions were atrocious with rain and sleet sheeting down from start to finish, but the impressive Bridge Meadow pitch stood up brilliantly to the test.

The previous Saturday, the Bridge gained an impressive 4-2 league win at Phoenix Park.

Both side's have a really good cup pedigree but the big question was whether Steve Thomas' young Wizards' could repeat their success in the cup.

The answer was an emphatically yes, and what's more they passed the test with flying colours.

However, it was Goodwick who should have taken the lead as early as the third minute. Mike A'Hearne found himself in acres of space with only Trevor Wright to beat, but the striker's low drilled shot went agonisingly wide and the Wizards' where left off the hook.

Just five minutes later and it was the Wizards who drew first blood.

Talented former Wales U19's central defender Simon Gilderdale's route-one ball immediately turned defense into attack.

The ball fell invitingly for striker Niko Algieri, he cleverly outstripped the Goodwick defence and finished brilliantly, drilling low and hard past Darren Turner's outstretched body.

The Bridge had the better of the opening 45, but Goodwick kept battling away without reward.

Algieri went very close to scoring a second when his vicious right-footed effort from the edge of the area went inches wide.

Wizards' battling central midfielder Nathan Thomas earned the first booking of the evening from referee Brian Hawkins, after his clumsy mis-timed challenge on Adam Raymond.

But the Wizards grabbed a very important second goal just six minutes before the interval.

Classy midfielder Carl Mason worked his way down the left flank and intelligently passed square straight into the path of the totally unmarked Brett Shakir. The highly rated right side midfielder kept his composure to gleefully crash his eight yard effort into the back of the net.

In the second period it was Sean O'Connor's Goodwick troops who ploughed forward in the non-stop rain to try and claw their way back into this thrilling cup tussle.

However, the Bridge defensive quartet of Kevin Phillips, Simon Gilderdale, Peter Thomas and Chris Ormond, all played solidly and made life very difficult for Goodwick to carve out a scoring opportunity.

Shortly after the turnaround Barry Hayes went close to pulling one back. Around the hour mark Hayes should have done better when he determinedly dispossessed Ormond, but his edge-of-the-area effort skidded dangerously right across the face of Wright's goal mouth. A real let off.

Goodwick where delivered a hammer blow in the 64th minute. Defender Steve Blackford sliced down Shakir just outside the Goodwick 18 yard box. Blackford earned a yellow card for his troubles.

But worse was to follow from Nathan Thomas' resulting free-kick which wasn't dealt with and it somehow made its way into the net via Algieri's boot. But it was difficult to see who had actually scored, not that it mattered to either Thomas or Algieri, because more importantly it put them three up.

Barry Hayes did finally pull one back for Goodwick, and Raymond nearly added another but it just wasn't going to be their night.

Thomas was clean through in injury time and should have put the Wizards 4-1 up, but Turner pulled off a terrific save to deny what looked a certain score.

The last time that the Bridge reached the final was back in '96 when ironically they beat Goodwick, which earned them their last double.

Delighted Bridge supremo Steve Thomas spoke to Telegraph Sport shortly after the final whistle and said: "I was really nervous, but absolutely delighted with our first half display. That third goal killed them off and now we can really look forward to the final."

MERLINS BRIDGE: Trevor Wright, Chris Ormond, Lee Hudgell, Peter Thomas, Simon Gilderdale, Brett Shakir, Kevin Phillips, Carl Mason, Niko Algieri, Nathan Thomas, Simon Thomas. SUBS: Jamie Gilderdale, Peter Jones.

GOODWICK UNITED: Darren Turner, Wayne O'Sullivan, Martin Griffiths, Steve Blackford, Alan Davies, Barry Hayes, Paul DeGroot, Mike A'Hearne, Steve Evans, David Hayes, Adam Raymond. SUBS: Bernie Armstrong, Robert Hughes, Kevin Bowen.

REFEREE: Brian Hawkins. ASSISTANTS: Steve Evans, Richard Stephens.