Delting and Whitedale to fight it out in second cup final of football season

The second senior cup final of the season, for the Manson Cup, will be contested between Delting and Whitedale, who knocked out town sides Spurs and Celtic respectively.

It was a good week for Delting who also defeated Spurs in Monday’s premier clash, while Whalsay’s hopes received a setback as they went down to Thistle. The other matches saw Celtic beat Scalloway, Unst and Whitedale share the spoils and Ness were awarded the points after Yell failed to field a team.

Manson Cup semi-finals

Delting 3, Spurs 1
Delting deservedly edged out Spurs with a strong performance. James Johnston gave Spurs the lead when he netted the rebound after Craig Dinwoodie had saved his penalty. Leighton Flaws pulled Delting level before half time with a well struck shot.

In the second half Delting had the better of the play and it was no surprise when Alan Duncan controlled the ball at the edge of the box and sent a left-foot shot past the keeper. Duncan secured the tie with his second goal after good work from Neil Hay.

Celtic 1, Whitedale 3
For a second time this season Whitedale bullied Celtic into submission after a first half which was fairly even.
The home side’s chances were created through the few good passing moves they strung together while the visitors were able to find holes in a disorganised Celtic back line and used the aggression and pace of Jamie Wilson and Duncan Anderson.

Those two players combined to open the open the scoring in the 13th minute when Ally Sim allowed Wilson to turn him inside out before passing square to the advancing Anderson. He strode another three yards before shooting at the exposed Paul Grant in the Celtic goal who was unlucky in that the shot hit a divot as he dived and bobbled up over his reach to slip into the net.

Wilson should have made it two when he got goal-side of Robert Smith but the finish was poor and Celtic survived.
At the other end of the field Martin Clark put in a great last-ditch block to prevent a Celtic shot, Sam Wood saw a great effort slip over the bar and Lowrie Simpson sent a shot straight down the throat of the keeper.

Celtic began the second 45 minutes with a bang when Justin Watson drove a shot from 40 yards which was not too far from the target.

Six minutes later, however, the lead was doubled when Polish maestro Poitr Drozdowski again found his shooting boots against Celtic to send a drive from 25 yards into the top corner.

Celtic manager Robbie Simpson rang the changes with 25 minutes to go, first taking on James Aitken and then Connor Regan. Their introduction added more drive and pace to the attack and it bore fruit minutes later when Aitken drove down the left flank, beat the full back and squared for Lowrie Simpson to score.

Whitedale then shut the door on any Celtic hopes of a comeback with a somewhat controversial goal. A forward pass to Jamie Wilson did clip a Celtic player on the way through but the striker was in an offside position when his own player passed to him. However, Wilson did what all good strikers would do – he spun and buried the ball beyond Grant. The neutral linesman flagged, most onlookers thought the man with the flag was right but referee Robbie Leask waved all protests away.

Best for Celtic were keeper Paul Grant, again showing he is having his best senior season to date, and Sam Wood. Whitedale deserved their victory and best were Duncan Fraser at centre back, Jamie Wilson and Kevin Nicolson whose unruffled and uncomplicated defending is a lesson to all.

For reports of all league matches, tables and fixtures, see this Friday’s edition of The Shetland Times.