Willenhall 5 Burton 6 on   Dec 2nd 2007
in
Staffordshire Cup Semi Final

A gracious one minutes silence was observed by all at the Willenhall ground today and the tough, hard fought match that followed would have made Dave Bowen a proud Burton supporter.

The first half saw Burton kicking downhill with the wind behind and into a bog in the bottom left corner. Willenhall were strong and durable, however they rarely got out of their half to worry Burtons solid defence. The referee was excellent in that he controlled all areas of play to allow two evenly matched teams to battle it out in terrible conditions.

Both teams knew this was their chance to make the cup final and in all honesty the game could have gone either way. Burton secured 6 penalty points in the first half from the trusty boot of Ben Marshall, however with a couple of try scoring chances missed the Burton team wondered if they might not have done enough to keep Willenhall at bay in the second half? 

Just as expected the second half was a copy of the first half, although this time it was Burton defending heroically right the way across the pitch. Willenhall scored one unconverted try in the corner, however they also missed some hurried chances allowing Burton to fight and battle back up the hill.

With time slowly  running out for Willenhall the Burton pack, with a few fresh legs thrown into the mix decided to pick and go in small pods, retaining ball time and time again. This work rate and desire to keep going epitomised the togetherness of the whole squad and on more than one occasion Burton worked up hill for nearly 30/40 metres - this was fantastic and awesome work, well done  lads.

Willenhall contributed to a great game today, however it is an elated Burton squad who now look forward to a county cup final in 2008 and some well earned enjoyment in the remaining league fixtures.