FOLLOWING THE SALTMEN

The Cup Formerly Known As The Marsh Challenge Cup (TCFKATMCC) Semi Final

Saturday 7th March 2026, Thornhill Park

Attendance: 172

The Kop

Such is the resilience of the current Spa squad, that not even the slight inconvenience of getting knocked out of the competition in an earlier round has prevented them from marching imperiously to the final on 29 March 2026.

The Cup (well.…a Cup)

For long periods during yesterday’s semi final it looked like Lady Luck may finally have called time on the Saltmen’s run to cup glory. An excellent Slimbridge goal and the most blatant handball since Diego Maradona accidentally acquired an Adidas tattoo on his knuckles, left Spa with a (literally) uphill struggle in the second half.

The first half of this entertaining game was evenly fought. Droitwich shaded the first quarter and Slimbridge fought back in the second quarter, during which they took the lead. Following nice interplay on the left, an accurate cross was neatly dispatched by Shutt who had not been closed by the Spa defence and made the most of the opening.

Spa could have felt a little hard done by. The first period saw them getting the ball into danger areas but they were unable to find the final touch. What appeared to everyone in the ground (apart from the officials) to be a certain handball was waved away.

After the obligatory rub down with a Racing Post at half time, the lads started there second half positively enjoying a lot of possession without seriously worrying the mercurial Stephen Sarkodie in the Swans goal. So, to shake it up a bit, Andy Crowther made a double substitution replacing James Baldwin and Reiss Taylor-Randle with Nathan Binner and Spa cult hero Alex Dugmore. The introduction of fresh legs and fresh ideas galvanised the troops and pressure began to build on the home defence until the 69th minute when Sarkodie got to a slightly overhit through ball ahead of James Lemon. The Swans stopper let the ball slip from his grasp and Lem took the ball around the keeper only to find himself pulled back by Sarkodie depriving the Spa skipper of a clear shot on an open goal. The referee had little option but hand out a straight red in addition to the yellow he collected in the first half.

The Cop

The resulting penalty was efficiently converted by Ben Tilbury and it was 1-1. Momentum shifted strongly in favour of the Saltmen and within a minute they had the lead as Nathan Binner, who is getting a reputation for scoring important goals (see Fairford away) beat the stand in keeper at the near post.

The ferocious speed of Alex Dugmore created a third goal in this crazy 3 minute outburst. Chasing a ball he had no right to reach, the Spa man was tripped in the box giving the officials the easiest decision of the afternoon in awarding Spa a second penalty. Ben Tilbury calmly stepped up to claim his second of the game with the clock still on 73 minutes.

On 76 minutes, and with Droitwich going through a goal drought lasting nearly 3 minutes, Andy Crowther replaced skipper Lemon (who had put another Herculean performance in) with Sam Hurdman. It took Sam all of 5 minutes to take the Droitwich tally to four when he lashed home a loose ball in the hosts’ penalty area. The rest of the game was just rubbish.

It was good to see the lads being cheered off by another amazing Droitwich contingent in the crowd of 172. The players really do seem to appreciate the support.

Great displays from Spa all round but the much coveted Following The Saltmen Man of the Match award goes to Perry Moss. There were many signs that Pez is returning to his best form and that has to be good news for the club. Yesterday he had the Slimbridge full backs in his pocket. His close control and mazy running kept Spa on the front foot and caused our opponents constant headaches.

In the other semi-final Hereford Pegasus clattered four past the Raiders to set up a final at….erm….Hereford Pegasus on 29th March. Presumably the game will be switched to a neutral venue as it would be rather unfair to play a cup final on the home ground of one of the finalists. Keep your eyes peeled.

Next up, on Saturday we travel to Tuffley who knocked us out of TCFKATMCC two rounds before we reached the final. Simplez!

See you there

Cheers

FTS