It's Yellows v Swifts!

There were nineteen points between AFC Sudbury and Grays Athletic at the end of the regular season, but the gap between the sides was paper-thin at the MEL Group Stadium last night.

Athletic hadn't defeated the Yellows since March 2019, and had lost both encounters during the regular season, but there was no hint of nerves as Sam Bantick fired home the opener on fourteen minutes, firing across the goal into the bottom corner. The Yellows responded ten minutes later, a Reggie Lambe pile driver from distance finding the top corner, but it took only two more minutes for Athletic to regain the lead, Lewis Clark hammering home.

The match turned in favour of the hosts ten minutes after the restart, a shot from Josh Stokes blocked on the line, and the referee deciding that it had been done so illegally, showing Macauley Jones a red card for handball. The opinion of Yellow's boss Rick Andrews, given after the game, was that it should have been neither a penalty nor a red card, so it seems rather harsh on Athletic, but Sudbury took advantage, Nnamdi Nwachuku converting for his FORTY NINTH goal of the season- and with nineteen minutes remaining the hosts got the winner, Reece Harris firing low into the bottom corner to deliver a famous victory.

The other Semi-Final saw us head east and stop just before we fell into the sea, Lowestoft Town playing host to Heybridge Swifts. The two sides had met only ten days previously and that match had ended in a four-four draw, but we had to have a winner last night, and it was the visitors who triumphed. After a goalless first half Swifts went ahead on the hour, Sam Park scoring for the fourth game in succession- and ten minutes from time another effort from Park was stopped by Warren Burwood in the Town goal only for Rob Harvey to follow up and make it two.

The last time Swifts reached a Play Off Final they were defeated only by the FA, triumphing over Maldon & Tiptree only to be denied promotion because there was one more winning side than promotion spaces available and the outcome was decided on points per game. This time around, however, the winner is guaranteed to go up, and Swifts will travel to Sudbury on Saturday afternoon. The visitors will be confident- they were the first side to defeat the Yellows this season, on November 15th, and took a point at the MEL Group Stadium in the return fixture in February.

Many congratulations to our Finalists, and we'll see you on Saturday!

Image from Steve Screech.

Follow the Pitching In Isthmian League on Instagram. Head here or search for theisthmianleague on your app. We're also on Facebook and Twitter.