Arthur Reed Shield Final sponsored by Leven Bridge Engineering, Thornaby Mandale FC 5 v 0 M'bro St Mary's Coll OB: Thornaby Mandale picked up their third piece of silverware when they lifted the Arthur Reed Shield after beating St. Mary's College.
The early stages of the game saw both sides battling to control a tight midfield area with chances being limited to attempts on goal by David Poole for Mandale and Mark Elliott and Dave Aspery for the College. On 20 minutes, Mandale produced the best move of the game so far which ended with Bradley Murray shooting wide after good link up play with Andrew Dyson.
Minutes later, a similar move led to the opening goal from Dyson finishing off a series of one two's by firing low into the net.
College fought back but lacked a cutting edge in front of goal and three before half time, disaster struck when a defensive misunderstanding led to Dyson putting away the simplest of chances.
The second half began much like the first, but as the game went on, Mandale began to dominate.
Lee O'Toole beat two men before shooting over and only the slightest of touches from College keeper Andrew Mortimer prevented a curling shot from Murray ending up in the back of the net.
Three goals in the space of eight minutes put the game well out of St. Mary's reach with Murray starting the goal rush when he beat the offside trap before going through one on one on the keeper. Two goals from O'Toole completed the scoring.
Murray and Dyson combined to set up the first and the second was a brilliantly executed 30-yard chip that floated over a stranded College keeper.
At the end of the game, Leven Bridge Company Secretary Geoff Payne presented the trophy to the winning side together with medals for all the participants including the match officials referee Neil Scanlon and his assistants Peter Plummer and Bob Scott.
Cliff Wells Trophy Final, at Stokesley
Woodmans Arms 1 Thornaby Village 0
Following their narrow defeat at the hands of South Bank United in the final of the Wilf Leader Trophy, the Woodman's Arms bounced back to take the Cliff Wells Trophy for the second year in a row by beating Thornaby Village 1-0. The only goal of the game came after only five minutes when Steve Sherrington crossed for Jeff Maloney to head home and for much of the early part of the game, the Woodman had the better of the exchanges.
As the half wore on however, the Village began to exert more pressure with their best chance falling to Anthony Hamling whose header came back off the post.
The game took on a whole new perspective with just a minute to go to half time when the Woodmans were reduced to ten men following the dismissal of one of their players.
Seconds later, only a finger tip save from keeper Craig Sharp stopped Hamling's curling free kick from putting the Village back on level terms.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Woodman's Arms had the better of the chances in the second half with Jeff Maloney proving to be a constant threat.
On more than one occasion, only the heroics of Thornaby Village keeper Nick Stephenson prevented Maloney from adding to his earlier goal with one double in particular catching the eye.
For the Village, Paul Rae had the best opportunity with ten minutes to go but his powerful shot flew harmlessly over the bar with the goal at his mercy. Dennis Cope from the league's sponsors Hathaway and Cope presented the trophy and medals to the two sides together with the match officials Steve Smitheringale, Alan Tonge and George Collins.
In the remaining league games, the Black Horse acquitted themselves well only losing 4-3 to Thornaby Mandale while The Grenadier picked up a point in their 1-1 draw against the league champions.
The Kings Head finished up runners up thanks to their 4-1 win over South Bank United while St. Mary's College surprisingly lost 3-2 to Stockton Elementis. The College did however finish with a flourish when they put sixteen goals passed an understrength Bulls Head side.
Mark Elliott hit eight goals while Phil Bellerby managed four. Andrew Bothwood hit a hat trick while Dave Aspery added another goal to his tally for the season.
Bulls did however get the better of local rivals North Skelton earlier in the week with a 4-2 win while North Skelton's Dominique Tokaski hit a hat-trick in his sides agm against Ennis Square. Unfortunately for the Skelton side, Jonathan Kirk hit six as Ennis did enough to finish in sixth position in the table.
A 3-1 win for the Woodman's Arms was also enough for them to finish above their opposition Stokesley in the their last fixture of the season.
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