Cooke double sees City into County Cup Final

A Cody Cooke double saw City beat Frome Town 2-1 at Badgers Hill this evening to reach the Somerset Premier Cup final for the first time since 2008. After Dave Sims-Burgess had seen a 3rd minute header come back off the inside of the post both sides struggled to fashion further clear cut openings on a difficult playing surface. It looked like the game would reach half-time scoreless but on 43 minutes Alex Fletcher did well to collect the ball on the left side of the box and cross for Cooke to head home from six yards out. And into first half stoppage time it got even better for the Romans as Tom Smith and Sims-Burgess combined to set up Cooke to make it 2-0. When the sides met in the FA Cup earlier this season, City turned a 2-0 half-time lead into a comfortable 5-0 win however this time the Southern League Division One South leaders showed much more resilience and just before the hour mark pulled a goal back, Mannings netting after Ryan Clarke had blocked Simpson’s initial effort. City still looked the more likely side to add to the scoring although it took a great block by Joe Raynes to deny Mannings another goal on 71 minutes. Clarke also did well to keep out a 77th minute Ollis header before Omar Holness almost made it 3-1 with a long effort two minutes later that keeper Locke tipped over the bar at full stretch. This turned out to be as close as either side would come to scoring in the closing stages of the game, leaving City to look forward to a final date with either Odd Down or Yeovil Town.