There was a large crowd at St George’s Park for the Isle of Wight Challenge Cup Final between Ventnor and W&B Sports that needed a penalty shoot out to separate two evenly matched teams.
The first half was evenly contested with both sides creating chances but it remained goalless. W&B’s best chance came on 25 minutes when Joe Rayner outran the Ventnor defence but his shot was charged down by Dan Russell. The ball fell to Luke Lambert but he shot over the crossbar. Charlie Urry had Ventnor’s best chance on 38 minutes when the ball fell to him about 15 yards from goal but he hooked it wide.
There were yellow cards for W&B’s Joe Rayner and Ventnor’s Emerson Tattersal in the first half.
On 54 minutes a foul by Harry Mulholland earned him a yellow card and in the commotion that followed Emerson Tattersall of Ventnor and Josh Appell of W&B were shown red cards reducing both teams to 10 men.
It was W&B that broke the deadlock when Alex Przespolewski was allowed to run along the edge of the penalty area before driving in a low shot to Dan Russell’s right.
Ventnor made three substitutions with ten minutes remaining when Jack Groundsell, Kyle Drew and Steven Gee all came on within a minute replacing Keiron Ford, Charlie Urry and Jamie Brenchley as they sought an equaliser.
Two minutes into stoppage time Ventnor were awarded a penalty when Harry Mulholland was brought down and Robert Gee hit low into the corner of the net. W&B’s response was to make a substitution bringing on John Bilton for Darren Whillier. With no extra time any more, both teams were desperately seeking a winner but the match finished as a draw and a penalty shoot out to decide the winner.
Full Time Ventnor 1 W&B 1
And so to penalties and W&B shooting first. The first penalty each was converted but Ventnor seized the inititive when Wayne Newnham shot over. When Alex Przespolewski missed W&B’s fourth it meant that Ventnor were one kick away from victory with two kicks remaining. Now if you are a goalkeeper you can only become a hero in penalty shoot outs. Up stepped Henry Mulholland to win the match only to be denied when Kev Mitchell tipped his shot onto the bar. Still a penalty behind Kev Mitchell then took W&B’s fifth and duly scored. Back he went in goal and this time palmed Jake Balentyne’s penalty over the bar to level the scores at 3-3.
Sam Yelland put W&B back in front and when Steven Gee missed his penalty the trophy belonged to W&B.
Alan Marriott from the Isle of Wight County Press presented the trophies and Jake Balentyne was awarded the man of the match
Referee: Tom Berry
Attendance 295
Photo: IOW County Press