Fairford U18s beat Faringdon to earn their place in a cup final (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Fairford U18s beat Faringdon to earn their place in a cup final

FAIRFORD U18s moved into the final of the Elsevier League Cup with a hard fought 1-0 victory over local rivals Faringdon in Sunday's tie at Lydiard Park.

The make-up of the two teams was completely different with Fairford being the smaller, faster of the two and Faringdon looking bigger and more robust.

The first 20 minutes was fairly tight with both teams giving nothing away. Faringdon, though, set out their stall early on with a couple of heavy challenges on Fairford's Mcdonald and Clarkson.

Gradually, Fairford started to pen their opponents on to the back foot and with Chris Knowles starting to see more of the ball, he first put through Clarkson who was brought down just outside of the box.

The resulting kick saw Chris Hill's shot go just over the bar. Then Knowles set up Mcdonald who just failed to get on the end of a fine through ball.

Just before half-time, Faring-don had a great opportunity to take the lead when their forward found space just inside the box, but his shot was well saved by Paget in the Town goal.

At half-time, Fairford brought on John Watts for Tom Waters and he started to combine well with Knowles.

With Fairford now starting to have the upper hand, Snook and Tertios on the wings started to make inroads into the opposition's defence.

Ben Snook then make a good run and cut inside, only to be brought down on the edge of the box.

From the resulting free kick, taken by Hill, the ball came back to Tom Carpenter who fired into the net much to the delight of their travelling supporters.

Fairford brought on Dan Clifford for the injured Chris Knowles and he added valuable height to the Town attack.

Clifford had a long-range shot just go wide and this was soon followed with another effort from Clarkson. As the game wore on, Faringdon started to move men forward.

But with the back four of Spence, Mills, Hill and Carpenter holding firm, they were restricted to the long ball over the top which went through to Paget or was picked up by an ever-alert Danny Miles.

This win now puts Fairford through to the cup final against Beckley Sports with the tie scheduled to take place at the Oxford United stadium.