It was a tough few days at the office for some under-19 football squads from the Tabletalk catchment area this weekend.
Edgemead FC, Table View FC and Jumbo Giants were all knocked out of the running for the Premier Cup tournament proper.
The third round of this year’s Premier Cup qualifiers took place at the Blue Downs Sports Complex on Saturday and Sunday, and the victorious teams are getting closer and closer to realising their dream of booking their spots, at the Easter weekend spectacle in Belhar.
Jumbo Giants went down on an away goal against Bayview after recording 1-all and 2-all draws on Sunday. Edgemead, on the other hand, bowed out of the competition after losing 2-0 on aggregate against Belhar Spurs. They drew the first leg 0-0 before going down 2-0 in the second leg. Table View lost 4-1 on aggregate against Two Oceans Academy, after going down 1-0 and 3-1 in their two-legged match.
There is still one more round, in Manenberg this weekend, before the last round of qualifiers in Mitchell’s Plain, in two weeks’ time.
As it was the case in the previous round of qualifiers, some teams didn’t pitch up for their fixtures, giving their opponents easy passage to the next round. In one of the first games on Saturday, for instance, Khayelitsha’s Young Rebels were nowhere to be found, allowing their opponents, Central FC, to go through.
From then on things were smooth running, with all the teams honouring their fixtures, until Vasco da Gama and Nyanga’s Everton FC took to fields C and D for their respective matches. Their opponents Khayelitsha United and Juventus, also from Khayelitsha, failed to pitch up. Vasco and Everton were, as a result, through to the next round. Overall, however, the fans were treated to great football spectacle.
Other teams that went through, following Saturday’s matches were Valhalla United (who beat Durbanville 2-1 on aggregate), Hanover Park (2-1 against Bellville United), Fish Hoek (2-1 against Glen Eagles), Boland Ajax (4-2 on penalties against Elsies River United), Hout Bay United Community Football Club (4-1 against Westridge United) and Island Rovers (4-1 againsts Clyde Pinelands).
Action resumed on Sunday morning with more teams determined to book their spots in the next round.
Most of the teams honoured their matches and, as a result, there were fewer default results compared to the day before. The standard of football was arguable even better as most of the matches were high scoring. Even the losing sides just didn’t want to go down without a fight.
But, in the end, there had to be winners and losers. Among the teams who survived Sunday’s battle to book their spot in the next round were Juventus (1-0 against Blue Bells), Junction Rovers (4-1 against Strandfontein), Rock A Fellas ( 5-2 against Mfuleni United), Fulham (2-1 against Oregan Spurs) YSD Macassar (7-0 against Melchester United) and homeside Blue Downs Spurs (4-2 against Robinvale). The next round of qualifiers will take place at The Greens in Manenberg this weekend.
