Double delight for The Robins and The Tigers

It was delight for two Tameside clubs on Tuesday as Ashton United and Hyde United both secured cup final victories.

Ashton United defeated Avro in the Manchester Premier Cup final at Boundary Park, in what was a game of very few chances.

The best of the bunch fell to robins full back Benny Couto who found space down the left and flashed his shot across goal, only for his effort to ricochet back off the crossbar.

With both sides unable to break the deadlock in normal time, the match was decided by penalties.

Avro took the first spot kick which was fired wide of the target by Liam Ellis, giving the robins the upper hand.

Steve Cunningham’s men took full advantage, scoring all five of their penalties to put their name on the trophy for a record 17th time.

As for Hyde United, they picked up the Cheshire Cup for the seventh time in their history, defeating Crewe Alexandra in Tuesday’s final which was also decided by a shootout.

The Tigers went ahead initially through talisman Jack Redshaw before opponents Crewe found an equaliser five minutes before the break.

But Hyde’s lead was then restored in first half stoppage time thanks to a goal from forward Lewis Alessandra.

Despite keeping their opponents at bay for the majority of the second half, the Tigers’ resistance was finally broken 18 minutes from time when Crewe levelled the scoring once again.

With the scores level after normal time the match went all the way to penalties.

Tigers goalkeeper Jordan Eastham was very much the hero of the shootout, stepping up to take Hyde’s fifth penalty and smashing it home to take it to sudden death.

Eastham then saved Crewe’s sudden death penalty giving Antoine Makoli the chance to win it, with the winger making no mistake and putting his sides name on the trophy.