Frenchville Roos Secure Wesley Hall Cup for Third Year in a Row - 18 Sept 2021

CQ Premier League Final

Saturday 18th September 2021

Ryan Park

Frenchville Roos are victorious over Clinton and secure the Wesley Hall Cup for the third year in a row!

Full Time: Frenchville 2 - Clinton 2

Penalties: Frenchville 7 - Clinton 6

On Saturday night, a grand final came down to the most high pressure situation many of our local CQ Premier League players will ever face.

A penalty shootout was necessary after the Frenchville Roos and Clinton FC local soccer squads battled for 120 minutes at Ryan Park.

It looked unlikely that the match was going to go that far with Clinton masterminding a snatch-and-grab game plan which saw Liam Stephen knock in a brace, scoring once in the sixth minute and then grabbing the other in the 59th.

Clinton produced a solemn display of defence up until the 78th minute but the cracks started to form when a Tim Zimitat strike squeezed its way into the back of the net.

That goal, and a second yellow card offence handed to Clinton captain Liam Jones directly afterwards, spurred the Roos on.

The pressure of Frenchville’s continuous attack grew too much for Clinton’s now 10-men defence and after a delightful corner, Cooper Lems headed home the equaliser with just minutes remaining.

That forced the match into thirty minutes of extra time and when the scores remained locked it was down to the cruellest way to separate two sides, a penalty shootout.

The shootout was high-quality too with the first six penalty takers of each team keeping calm under pressure and slotting their shots home.

But eventually one team had to miss and that team was the Gladstone-based Clinton.