A ROUND-UP FROM THE TWO DAYS OF THE FA DISABILITY CUP FINALS:
The first day of the 2022 FA Disability Cup was a huge success, with plenty of action taking place across a bright and sunny weekend at St George’s Park.
The sixth edition of the tournament consisted of six impairment-specific cup finals, three on each day, and all broadcasted live on BT Sport.
The partially sighted, amputee and blind finals were up first on the Saturday 11 June, with the cerebral palsy, Powerchair and deaf finals occurring on Sunday 12 June. Each athlete was a credit to their sport and provided huge inspiration to those both attending live on the day and the many watching at home.
With the event being across two days, I had the opportunity to visit St Georges Park on Sunday 12th to photograph the powerchair Disability Cup Final.
2022 Results - Saturday 11 June
PARTIALLY SIGHTED FINAL – Birmingham Futsal 5-1 Merseyside Futsal
AMPUTEE FINAL – Manchester City Amputees 1-0 Portsmouth Amputees
BLIND FINAL – Royal National College (RNC) for the Blind Hereford 2-2 Brighton and Hove Albion Blind FC (RNC won 1-0 on penalties)
Sunday 12 June
CEREBRAL PALSY FINAL – CP North West 4-4 North East and Yorkshire CP FC (North East and Yorkshire CP FC win 5-4 on penalties)
POWERCHAIR FINAL – Northern Thunder 1-1 West Bromwich Albion PFC (Northern Thunder won 2-1 on penalties) Northern Thunder made it third time lucky as a penalty shootout secured them the cup for the very first time. Sam Smith opened the scoring just before half-time for Northern Thunder with a well-worked passing move, but Matt Gilbert hit back for West Brom in the second period.
With extra-time unable to determine a winner, it came down to spot-kicks which ultimately resulted in happiness and plenty of relief for Northern Thunder, seeing as they had been in the final twice before and had lost on both occasions.