Stonehouse Town win Severn Sport Shield in injury time; Tuffley beat Ciren to claim Third
Ewan Hall’s 92nd minute effort saw Stonehouse Town win the 2024 Severn Sport Shield, edging past Forest Green Rovers U18s, 4-3, in a fantastic final.
With an entertaining and end-to-end second half looking set to finish all square and the Shield about to be settled on penalties for the first time ever – one final ball into the box was flicked on and Hall tucked home.
The hosts made the perfect start to the game, with Lewis Bainbridge playing a great through ball to Luke Soule, who in turn laid the ball right for Jorrell Sanniola to step onto and slot home.
But Forest Green U18s, who had impressed during their Semi-Final win against a young Cirencester Town side in midweek, settled and looked to play their football.
Jose Marquez stung the palms of Stonehouse’s Trialist first half keeper, whilst Thomas Conteh looked a threat down the right hand side.
An incredible 30 seconds of action saw Soule miss a glorious chance to make it 2-0, before Forest Green went down the other end and levelled through Sergi Ismail.
Neat play from Gary McDermott’s side saw Isaac Hughes get in down the left side of the box, and his square ball left Ismail an easy tap in.
Then just before half time, Forest Green took the lead. Hughes went from provider to scorer, slotting home after being played in by Stephen Walsh.
Stonehouse needed to score the next goal and they did, three minutes after the restart. Similar to Forest Green’s leveller, a square ball from the left was tapped home – this time by Luke Soule.
Half time sub, Billy Glover nearly restored Rovers’ lead moments later, but was denied well in the one on one by Jordan Schofield.
But Schofield was beaten with the next attack, as a clearance fell to Preston Mason and he worked half a yard of space, before drilling into the bottom corner.
Stonehouse levelled with just over 20 minutes to go, though, as Tiger Harris was picked out in the box and produced a spectacular touch and flick over the keeper.
And with the game looking destined for penalties, a long ball was flicked on by defender Rich Thwaite and Hall was on hand to win it.
Following the game, Stonehouse were presented with the Severn Sport Shield and will be given first refusal on participating in next season’s tournament.
House midfielder Jacob Eakers was also presented with the Severn Sparks Player of the Final, with Forest Green’s Fraser Bell pushing him close.
The final followed a cagey Third Place Play-off between Cirencester Town and Tuffley Rovers, with Karnell Chambers’ goal the only goal in Tuffley’s 1-0 win.
The beaten Semi Finalists cancelled each other out, particularly in the first half – with Jack Freeman and Kieran Alder having free kick’s saved for their respective sides.
Chambers and Ciren midfielder Jack Horrell had efforts off target, whist Mino Marquez-Espada had an effort saved by Ciren keeper, Ronnie Newbury.
Just after the hour mark a crunching tackle from Josh Stevens saw Tuffley spring forward, with Chambers working space and firing into the roof of the net.
Stevens and Ciren defender Josh Seller had half chances from corners in the final 10 minutes, but there was limited goalmouth action in a very balanced contest.
And with that, another Severn Sport Shield is over with for another year!
A massive thank you to Stonehouse Town for hosting the event and all of their volunteers who helped throughout the week, thanks to all of the players and other teams who participated and to everyone who came out to watch and support the games over the course of the week!
Check out the Severn Sport social media pages later today for the Team of the Tournament
Severn Sport now moves on to getting ready for the first ever Women’s tournament, the Severn Sport Trophy – coming to Gloucester City’s TigerTurf Stadium!
