Shetland FA Manson Cup Final
Gilbertson Park, Lerwick
Admission and Programme: N/A
Attendance : 100 (estimate)
Match Rating: 3
The final game during my stay on
the Shetland Islands would be the biggest occasion, being a cup final staged in
the “capital” of the Shetland Islands and hosted at the usual home ground for
the infrequent matches played by the Shetland Islands representative side.
Gilbertson Park is situated about a
ten minute walk, uphill for the most part, from central Lerwick and is an open
park, with no spectator facilities nor dugouts and even the goals are only
wheeled into position for when a game is about to be played. For
today’s game, both touchlines were taped off. As I encountered at each ground
visited during this week on the Shetland Islands, the ground has plenty of charm
and interest about it. As one enters the park, there is a raised balcony which
offers a very good vantage point to watch the game, with rugged hills present
behind the opposite touchline, where modern building housing the changing rooms
is present. A low stone wall around part of the ground also adds a pleasant
charm.
A glance at the league table
suggested that Lerwick Spurs would be hot favourites for this game based on
league positions, sitting in second place with four wins from five
games, whereas Delting have so far lost four of their five games. To reach the
final, Delting won 3-0 away at Ness United in the Quarter-Final, before
dispatching Scalloway 3-2 at home in the semi-final. Spurs had beaten both of
the other Lerwick clubs to reach the final, beating Thistle 3-1 in the
quarter-final and Celtic by the same score in the semi-final. When the two
teams met in their first league game of the season, Spurs won 4-0, although in
the group stage of the Madrid Cup, Delting triumphed 2-0. Lerwick Spurs have
already won one cup competition this season, lifting (and retaining) the Madrid
Cup last month.
Enjoying weather conditions that
were comfortably the best for watching football during my week on the Shetland
Islands, it was surprising how low key the atmosphere was in the early stages,
with only a very small number of spectators present at kick off, although their
number did swell to three figures as the game wore on. The match was a
typically cagey cup final affair in the opening stages, although Lerwick Spurs
became ever more dominant as the first half wore on and deservedly took the
lead on the stroke of half time when their forward latched onto a slide rule
pass forward and the shot was placed low past the onrushing keeper from the
edge of the box.
Into the second half and there
seemed to be only one winner, as Spurs completely dominated proceedings as
Delting struggled to get into the attacking half. However, on 73 minutes,
suddenly the match was all square. A debatable corner resulted in some
ping-pong headers in the box, before the ball was headed powerfully towards
goal and a covering defender could only hook the ball high into the
roof of the net. As the game wore on, there was a feeling of inevitability that
extra time would ensue, but ten minutes from time, Spurs went back in front,
when the ball was passed across the penalty area before being clipped past the
keeper at the far post. Delting never looked capable of scoring a second
equalizer during the remainder of the match, and so it was Lerwick Spurs who
deservedly lifted the cup, presented to their captain by the referee in
typically understated fashion.
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