Rushall Olympic vs Warstones Wanderers
Monday 21st March • 7:30pm
Brocton FC, Silkmore Lane, Stafford, ST17 4JH

TICKETS
Adults £4 • Concessions £2 • U16s FREE 

We will be operating a cashless system across all of our 13 County Cup finals this year. Supporters can pay by card at the turnstiles. No tickets will be sold in advance of the games.

Once again, we have taken the decision to hand all under-16s free admission when attending with a paying adult.

PROGRAMME
All of this season’s match programmes will be digital only, meaning there will be no wastage of printed paper at any of our finals. Spectators will be able to view, read and download a copy of each matchday programme from StaffordshireFA.com.

This means that, wherever you are in the world, you will be able to read the latest edition of the matchday programme right from your fingertips.

VIEW THE PROGRAMME

RUSHALL OLYMPIC U21S
Rushall Olympic U21s currently sit second in the U21 North West Midland Football League, with four games in hand over first-place Lichfield City U21. They are four points behind the league-leaders at the time of writing.

The ‘Pics’ have suffered one defeat in 17 league games so far this season, at the hands of Sutton Coldfield back in February.

They might be looking towards they top goal scorer Brad Mansell for some success this evening. The forward has netted 26 goals in 13 appearances so far this season, with two assists along the way.

James Archer might also catch the eye today. The 21-year-old has picked up four Man-of-The-Match awards in 14 appearances.

WARSTONES WANDERERS
Warstones Wanderers, based in Wolverhampton, are current members of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division Two.

The club was established in 2001 as an under-10 team. An adult Saturday team was established and entered the 
Wolverhampton & District Combination in 2005.

After their first season they were accepted into Division Two of the West Midlands (Regional) League. Despite only finishing seventh in their first season in the division, they were promoted to Division One as the division was increased in size.

In 2008–09 they entered the FA Vase for the first time, beating Cradley Town 2–1 on penalties in the second qualifying round before losing 4–0 to Long Eaton United in the first round.

Ashley Dicken, Bradley Lawley and Daniel Lawrence will all be looking to make their mark in the cup final, all of which have seven goals this season.

REPORT
Staffordshire FA Challenge Cup Final
Rushall Olympic U21 1-4 Warstones Wanderers

A long awaited return to cup final duty didn’t disappoint as Rushall and Warstones went toe to toe in a competitive cup final on Monday night.

Both teams had scored plenty of goals on route to the final and it was Warstones who took the early lead after settling into the game early, Tom Piggott scoring from close range after a low cross was fizzed into the Pics penalty area by Kane Lewis.

The goal had been coming with the Rushall goal having come under pressure early but an equaliser almost came midway through the half when a strike from Lee Wood was deflected just wide with the resulting corner coming to nothing.

In a high tempo affair Rushall were struggling to create clear cut chances against a stubborn back line for Warstones but they missed two great opportunities to draw level just before the break.

Firstly, a melee in the box following a corner saw the ball fall to Tyler McCarthy but his shot through a crowd was blocked and, in first half injury time, Pics striker Sam Yankson was through on goal but was denied by Warstones keeperTom Greenhouse to maintain their 1-0 lead going into the break.

Pics keeper Brandon Hillback was at full stretch to keep out a Kane Lewis free-kick from the edge of the box, the full back curling a shot around the wall and towards the far corner before the keeper intervened with a fine save.

It was a short reprieve though as Warstones doubled their lead soon after with Rhys Brown firing home from the edge of the box through and into the bottom corner giving the keeper no chance.

Ten minutes later though and Rushall were back in it, Yankson firing home on the turn from the edge of the box to give the youngsters hope of mounting a come back and, for a while, they put pressure on the Warstones defence with a sense that an equaliser would come.

However, two quick goals at the other end put paid to any hopes of a comeback.

Firstly, Daniel Lawrence struck an absolute arrow of a shot into the top corner giving the Pics keeper no chance before he struck a second shortly after, cutting in from the right hand side and firing home low into the next to seal the victory.

Try as they might Rushall could just not find a way past a determined Warstones outfit who saw out the remainder of the time with solid defending throughout the team.

Congratulations to both sides on reaching the final and for providing an entertaining match for those who came to support from both sides.

All that was left was to thank the supporters, our hosts at Brocton and for Chairman Mike Stokes to present Warstones skipper Craig Radford with the Staffordshire FA Challenge Cup.