Semi-Finals

Sunday 21 March 2004

 

UK Flooring  4-1 St. Margarets

At Bristol City FC

Attendance 516

Carlsberg Man of the Match Award – UK Flooring’s Justin Pritchard

 

Nicosia  3-2  A3 (Canada)

At Marine FC

Attendance 613
Carlsberg Man of the Match Award – A3 Canada’s captain Lee Prior

A former winner will face a competition newcomer in the final of The FA Sunday Cup, in partnership with Carlsberg.

Nicosia, who won the nation’s flagship Sunday League football competition in 1991, overcame their Liverpool Business Houses Sunday League rivals A3 (Canada) 3-2.

Bristol Sunday League side UK Flooring, who are only in their third season, beat St Margarets, from the

Northampton Sunday League, 4-1 to become the first Bristol side to reach the final.

Nicosia and UK Flooring will now face each other in the final of the nation’s flagship Sunday League football competition, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this season, at the world-famous home of Liverpool FC on Sunday, April 25.

 

Bolton Wanderers star Kevin Nolan, Nicosia’s most famous fan, was among the crowd of 613 at Marine FC.

 

As a youngster, Kevin watched his father and three uncles win The FA Sunday Cup with Nicosia in 1991.

 

If Nicosia got to the final this season, Kevin vowed to buy them a new kit for the occasion, having given them

Bolton’s kit from last season to play in this year.

 

Nicosia got the scoring underway in the 16th minute with a goal from Antony Love, but just five minutes later, A3 (Canada) responded with their longest-serving player Lee Cooper

finding the back of the net.

 

Nicosia’s Mischa Showers got the first of two goals in the 47th minute to make it 2-1.

 

Anton Reilly put A3 (Canada) back in contention with a goal in the 74th minute, but a strike from Showers in the 90th minute made the result 3-2.

 

Despite the result, the Carlsberg Man of the Match Award went to Lee Prior, the captain of A3 (Canada).

 

His dream of returning to Anfield, where he won The FA Youth Cup for Liverpool in a side that included Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher, in the final is over for another season.

 

A crowd of 516 enjoyed the semi-final between UK Flooring and St Margarets at Bristol City FC.

 

The early chances fell to St Margarets, but UK Flooring began to get on top as the first half

progressed.

 

Justin Pritchard, who started his career on schoolboy forms with Chelsea and later had a four-year spell with Bristol Rovers, scored on the stroke of half time in a one-on-one with the St Margarets’ goalkeeper Peter Bulliman.

 

St Margarets, who had been unlucky not to score in the first half, came out for the second half hoping to get back on level terms, but Pritchard blasted a top-corner shot in from at least 20 yards to take the score to 2-0.

 

In the 69th minute, Peter Robinson, assistant manager for St Margarets, came on as a substitute in the hope of clinching a crucial goal.

 

But ten minutes later, it was his team-mate Wayne Richardson who found the back of the net to make it 2-1.

 

With ten minutes to go on the clock, St Margarets battled to draw level but the game was finished off in the 92nd minute when substitute Justin Bishop scored.

 

Bishop stunned St Margarets a minute later when he struck his second to make it 4-1.

 

Jack Perks, vice-chairman of The FA Sunday Cup Committee, presented the Carlsberg Man of the Match to UK Flooring’s Justin Pritchard.