Football Percy Oldham Memorial Cup Soham United 1 Linton Granta 3 THE gloss on Soham United s landmark season was finally tarnished this week as they were defeated in the Percy Oldham Memorial Cup by Linton Granta. United clinched promotion to the Senior

Football

Percy Oldham Memorial Cup

Soham United 1

Linton Granta 3

THE gloss on Soham United's landmark season was finally tarnished this week as they were defeated in the Percy Oldham Memorial Cup by Linton Granta.

United clinched promotion to the Senior A league for the first time in their history last week but they were unable to complete what would have been a quite remarkable double as they lost out to division champions Linton.

True to their recent form, United showed no sign of nerves or tentativeness in the early stages of the match and their ambition was quickly rewarded as boss Andy Parker's son Jason, scored his second in two games to take them into the half-time break with a one goal lead with Granta showing no sign of recovery.

A doubtlessly fiery team-talk during the break ensured that Linton came out much stronger proposition in the second half though, and the league champions grabbed an early equaliser as Soham at last began to show the strain of a busy schedule that had seen them win six games in a truly frantic 14 days.

With Soham starting to falter, Granta went on to add two more goals as Andrew Palmer and substitute Luke Stanley fired home.

A late rally from Parker's men threatened to breathe life back in to the game but it wasn't to be as Linton held out for the cup win to go with their league championship.

Soham fell just short against Linton in a tense cup final. Photo: HELEN DRAKE.