Real Bedford’s hopes of two trophies this season are well and truly alive after a comfortable 3-0 victory against Tring Athletic in the South Midlands Premier Division Cup on Saturday afternoon.
Goals from Tom Hitchcock, Ben Stevens and Luke Knight were enough for the Pirates to set up a League Cup final against either Cockfosters or Aylesbury Vale Dynamos who play their semi final on Monday night.
It took just seven minutes for Real to open the scoring as Tom Hitchcock ghosted into the Tring penalty area and slotted home into the bottom left hand corner to give Rob Sinclair’s men an early lead.
It was almost an hour before the Pirates made the game secure as Ben Stevens found himself surrounded by Tring defenders, but he was able to squirm clear and place home a second before a Luke Knight piledriver ten minutes later put the game to bed.
The League Cup might be the lesser of two priorities for Sinclair and his coaching team, but it provided an opportunity for some squad players to get some minutes under the belt, in a game which also saw the return of key attacking option, Mo Ahmed.
The 3-0 win also provides a psychological edge ahead of a repeat at McMullen Park next Saturday, this time in the South Midlands Premier Division which Real still lead by six points courtesy of a home loss for MK Irish against Harpenden in midweek.
Ladies lose 100% record
Real Ladies were in action on Sunday afternoon, and despite coasting towards the Eastern Region Women’s Football League title, they did lose their perfect record with a 4-1 home loss to second placed, Haringey.
Four first half goals from Nellz Humes, Rimini Lowe, Chloe Ions and substitute, Tori Campbell stunned Real and despite a consolation from Erin Price in the second half, the game was in the bag with Real unable to add to their 14 consecutive league victories.
The league title still looks like a formality for Georgia Clarke’s side as they still lead today’s opponents by four points but with three games in hand, while they too go in search of an historic double with a League Cup final of their own to come against Wroxham on 19th May.
“It was a real difficult one to take. To get to this point of the season, the girls have been fantastic”, said Clarke.
“It was a story of two halves. In the first, we didn’t deal with the conditions well enough and fair play to Haringey they punished us massively for that.
“The second half was better but things weren’t dropping for us and we missed chance after chance which is unlike us.”
Both Men’s and Women’s sides still hold the initiative in their respective title races and you can buy tickets to all of the games for the run-in at McMullen Park here.
