Last weekend both Wiltshire Girls (U14) and Wiltshire Walking Football were successful in their respective Semi Final fixtures and will now compete in the National Finals where the titles will be dished out at St George’s Park during the weekend of 28^th and 29^th April.

Tony Norton of Wiltshire Walking Football spoke to us about the semi-final weekend.  “Eight teams took part and Wiltshire were drawn in a group of four alongside Dorchester Kix Start, Hampshire WFC and Wokingham UB50 (last years’ champions).

After winning our first two games (3-0 against Hampshire and 4-0 against Dorchester) it was down to a meaningless last group game against Wokingham with both teams already through to the semi-finals. In this final group game Wokingham came out 3-0 victors.

The semi-finals first saw Wiltshire against Neath, who had beaten Wiltshire in the last round final on penalties – was it the time for revenge? Both teams played out a 1-1 draw and it was penalties again to decide the victors.  Wiltshire goalkeeper Ian Wilkinson denied Neath their first penalty with a great save. Wiltshire converted all three of their penalties.

In the second semi-final game, Wiltshire faced Wokingham who had denied Wiltshire at the same stage last year before going on to lift the Trophy.

It was a tough and close fought game until Wokingham got a free kick about 10 yards outside the Wiltshire goal area.  They attempted a quick kick passed back to their incoming defender but with screams from the Wiltshire Manager Jon Hayton to block the shooter, Captain Tony Norton intercepted the pass and let rip with a screamer which stunned everyone including the frozen to the spot Wokingham goalkeeper, and scored the only goal of the game".

Next stop for both Wiltshire Walking Football and Wiltshire Girls U14s is St George’s Park where they’ll compete in the finals of their respective divisions of the FA Peoples Cup.