AFTER beating Newmarket Town Reserves and Tuddenham respectively Thetford Rovers made it to the final of the Snailwell Cup against Brandon Town, which was held at Lakenheath on a impressive pitch.

AFTER beating Newmarket Town Reserves and Tuddenham respectively Thetford Rovers made it to the final of the Snailwell Cup against Brandon Town, which was held at Lakenheath on a impressive pitch.

This is the first time these two teams have met competitively for quite a while and being a local derby there was a lot to play for. The game started off quite fast with both teams cancelling each others passing game, Rovers then come under a bit of pressure when the Brandon forward found some time in the box only for Ian Fancett in goal to pull off an excellent double save and a Gary Hockins block tackle keeping Rovers in the game. The second half started the same but Rovers started to get their passing game going with John Moore releasing Matt Blake down the left, Blake then went past three Brandon players to neatly slot home for his 40th goal of the season. Brandon tried getting back in the game and looked dangerous at set pieces but Fancett and excellent defensive work kept them at bay until a counter attack from Rovers with good work from Steve Davies and Tony Cornwall set up the hard working Rick Bowers to smash the ball home from the edge of the area.

With Brandon now committed to attacking Alex Degraca found the powerful Kenny Brooks who picked up the ball in his own half and went on a strong run going past two Brandon players before unselfishly setting up Matt Blake to make it 3-0. A good game played in good spirit which saw a good team performance from Rovers.