Donald Double Fires New Thru

Blues captain Sam Donald was all that separated Pembroke and New in a hard fought quarter-final as Oxford went Cuppers mad.

Pan-New-Rama of Pembroke vs New clash

New had the best of the early exchanges, Donald forcing keeper, Matt McGonagle, into a smart save.Pembroke’s best chance of an even first half came when New’s keeper spilt a routine ball, but Jesse Schwimmer was unable to convert the rebound.

With the score at 0-0 going in to the second half, both teams continued to cancel each other out until Donald produced a goal from nothing in the 68^th minute. A smart turn on the edge of the Pembroke box gave him half a yard and this was all he needed to fire low into the bottom corner.

New extended their lead seven minutes later as they capitalised on a McGonagle mistake. A Charlie Court free kick from the left flank looked like presenting the keeper with a routine catch, however his fumble fell kindly to Donald who promptly doubled New’s advantage.

Pembroke managed to pull one back in the 82^nd minute as the New centre back turned Oliver Radway’s driven ball into his own net after a smart quick free kick. They continued to push hard for an equaliser; however despite a few close calls, the goal didn’t come and New squeezed themselves into the semi-finals.

This victory set up New with a tantalizing semi-final clash against Cuppers giants Worcester who defeated Trinity 2-0, a Julian Austin double in extra time seeing the holders home.

Twitter-verse goes Cuppers mad.

Both sides were delighted with the tie and took to twitter to express their excitement, New College’s official football twitter billing it a ‘clash of the titans’.

Elsewhere Lincoln vs Teddy Hall went the distance as the scores remained locked at 1-1  after 120 minutes sending the tie to penalties. Alex Jennings netting the decisive spot-kick to send Lincoln through to the next round.

Cuppers semi-finalists will be dreaming of Iffley

There they will face Premier Division Wadham who secured their semi-final place with an impressive 4-2 win away at Christ Church.

The excitement is already building for the semi-finals, scheduled to take place at Uni Parks this Friday at 2pm. All the teams involved know they stand only one game away from a shot at Cuppers glory and the semi-finals look set to be thrilling for fans and players alike.