Hellenic Norman Matthews Floodlit Cup Semi-Final - Second Leg Slimbridge 2 Carterton 3 (Carterton win 5-2 on aggregate)

HOLDERS Slimbridge said goodbye to any hopes they may have had of retaining the Floodlit Cup, losing to a side who held their nerve to eventually ease their way into the final.

Goals from Kevin Lewis, Mark Odom and James Mortimer-Jones did the damage, but late strikes for Mike Symons and Jon Embling gave the scoreline a flattering look from the Slimbridge viewpoint.

Overall, Slimbridge basically lost because of the poor performance in the first leg, but take nothing away from Carterton, who are a young side maturing into a class act.

Slimbridge made a bright start and very nearly scored in the first minute after an almighty scramble on the Carterton goal line. The ball bobbled about following a corner, hit a post at one stage but was somehow hacked away to safety.

The visitors knocked the stuffing out of Slimbridge by taking the lead on 13 minutes to go 3-0 up on aggregate. From their first real attack, a defensive slip allowed Lewis to slot the ball past an advancing Ryan Chandler, to go into the net off the inside of a post.

Slimbridge rallied and Craig Cole had a shot well saved and Rich Moore glanced wide from a Richard Evans cross.

An impressive scissor-kick with his back to goal from Moore just inched over an empty net as the half concluded.

After the interval Cole cut in from the right to hit a curling shot just wide of the far post, before Mortimer-Jones fired over at the other end following good build-up play.

On 59 minutes, Carterton as good as finished the tie off, Odom scoring from his only attempt on goal all match. The fiery striker neatly lobbed an exposed Chandler from 14 yards.

Slimbridge kept plugging away and on 82 minutes scored a goal. Evans got a cross into the box, Moore flicked on and Mike Symons was on hand to bundle it into the net.

Two minutes later, Mortimer-Jones got on the scoresheet for Carterton, scoring direct with an inswinging corner from the left with Chandler grasping air.

In added-on time, Embling got forward to hit a spectacular shot. Rising from 35 yards out, it whistled into the top corner of the net with everyone left speechless.

A fine strike to finish with perhaps, but Carterton were deserved winners and will take their place in the final as probable favourites against the winners of the other semi-final, Almondsbury Town or Trowbridge Town.

Slimbridge: R Chandler, L Sterling, J Embling, A Pritchett (J Ackland 70), A Thomas, R Moore, R Evans, Matt Green (E Ward 60), J Freeman, C Cole, T Radcliffe (M Symons 51).