Miller turns on style

Despite riding their luck earlier in the day, a Justin Miller brace helped the favourites ease to a 3-1 final win over the impressive Freestylers.

A total of 60 teams from all over Swindon turned out at King Edwards Place, Wanborough, to produce some football that more than matched the brilliance of the sunshine.

The stars of the first round were undoubtedly the youngsters of Stratton Crosslink who won all five of their group games without conceding a goal.

Goalkeeper Johann Sutton was rarely tested as Crosslink cruised through to the second round with Ashley Edenborough and Tom Cole exceptional.

Group H provided the best of the early action with Green Baize Vets, Thames Water B and Fox and Hounds battling it out for the two qualifying places.

Fox and Hounds missed out as a Matthew Tate miss against Thames Water proved costly.

The pick of the second round games was between Green Baize Vets and their younger side Green Baize. Neither side were willing to give an inch in a hard-fought match that ended 0-0 and had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out.

With the scores at 9-8 to Green Baize, ex-Swindon Town and Wales star Paul Bodin no stranger to penalties could only hit his spot-kick straight at the keeper and send Green Baize through.

In other second round matches Greyhound beat Thames Water C 2-0 thanks to goals by John Reeves and David Slattery, Dorcan defeated Green Baize Vets B 1-0 with a goal from Ian Wilmer and Freestylers hammered Endeavour 6-0.

Greyhound were given a scare in their quarter-final match against Investment who were 1-0 up with only minutes to go.

In a bad-tempered match Dave Gee fired home Greyhound's equaliser to take the game into a penalty shoot-out which they won 15-14.

Dorcan marched into the semi-finals after narrowly beating Westside 1-0. The only goal of the game came after a sublime bit of skill by Ian Wilmer allowed Graeme Little to prod home from close range.

In the other two quarter-finals Freestylers recorded a convincing 4-1 win over the previously unbeaten Stratton Crosslink and 147A beat Green Baize 2-1.

The first semi-final saw Freestylers demolish 147A 5-1 with a superb display of attacking football.

With Jamie Gosling and Sam Allison outstanding, the Freestylers produced some of the best football that had been seen all day.

Their goal scorers were Gosling (2), Allison (2) and Craig Shand while Ricky Mazzotta scored for 147.

The other semi-final was a tighter affair as Greyhound edged out Dorcan 3-1 on penalties.

A dominant first-half peformance by Greyhound was capped by a Justin Miller goal and it looked as though they were easing into the final.

Dorcan's Adrian O'Connell replaced Pete Hanrahan at half-time and his energy helped bring the underdogs back into the game.

Graeme Little equalised and it was Greyhound who were now looking rattled as their tackles became increasingly desperate.

With minutes to go, Dorcan's Ian Wilmer thought he had scored the winner only to see the ref had blown his whistle for a foul on him a split-second before he had released the shot.

In a cruel twist of fate it was Dorcan's man-of-the-match Michael O'Sullivan who missed the crucial penalty to knock his side out.

Freestylers struck the first blow in the final with a goal from Jamie Gosling. Craig Shand and Joe Reason played a nice interchange before releasing Gosling, who clinically fired the ball into the corner of the goal.

The goal stirred Greyhound into action as they raised their game. On the stroke of half-time some good work by Mark Jordan allowed Justin Miller to steer home the equaliser.

With both defences standing firm it was looking as though the game would have to be decided on penalties again, until Miller intervened.

He picked the ball up on the edge of the penalty area, took it round a couple of Freestylers defenders, dummied the goalkeeper before slotting the ball into the empty net to score a fine solo goal.

Dave Slattery added a third just before full-time to ensure Geyhound would be collecting yet another piece of silverware.