A FAMOUS EVENING FOR NETHERTON UNITED AS THEY REACH THE HITCHINGBROOKE CUP FINAL

HOW THE SURFACE AT NEW LAMB MEADOW LOOKED AT HALF TIME

It was nineteenth in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division (Step Five) v fourth place in the Chromasport Peterbrough & District Premier Division (Step Seven) on Tuesday evening as Arlesey Town entertained Netherton United in the Hitchingbrooke Cup Semi-Final. The fact the game was on was fantastic - a big congratulations must go to the Arlesey Town ground staff with all the rain that has fallen over the past few days caused many locally based games to be called off. 

The home side started well and had a number of good chances with Connor Barker in the away goal making a number of good saves before Chris Down scored for the away side striking a free kick from outside of the box low and hard past Robbie Ponting in the Arlesey goal. 

The real talking point of the game came moments later when Arlesey's Alassane Gomis was red carded for what the referee deemed to be a trip on the Netherton forward around 10 metres outside of the penalty box - the incident is included in the highlights below and has sparked some debate both in the ground and on social media. 

The second half saw Netherton United put in a solid hard working display defending really well on a heavy rain soaked

pitch. Arlesey had a great chance to score when Charlie Moss laid the ball across to substitute Bukele Mukudi in front of goal - When his shot went over the bar from close range you just knew it wasn't going to be their night. The final score was 0-1 in front of a crowd of 43 people at New Lamb Meadow. 

Looking at the league table Netherton United are probably favourites to win the title - They are just two points behind Peterborough North End Sports but have three games in hand and two over Stamford Lions (2nd) and Moulton Harrox (3rd) who are both on 34 points. They travel to Ketton, who are second from bottom in the table, on Saturday. The have applied for promotion to step six for the 2020/21 season. 

Chico Ramos's Arlesey Town welcome Wembley on Saturday for a SSMFL Premier Division fixture where there is a bumper 60 page programme on offer in including part 2 of their 25th FA Vase anniversary series. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS