Yes, Sean's Walkathon certificate and Bernie's Employee of the Hour award from the hospital were shoved aside on the mantel as they had to make room for the big, shiny trophy Coveside snared with a gripping 3-2 win in the Crossover Challenge Cup in front of thousands (all right, maybe 50) fans at Kinsmen Stadium on Saturday.

The lads were missing a few regulars, of course we're still without Al Roberts and Rob Paul - the peg legged duo - and Mark Docherty had some urgent business to attend to at the corner of Drake and Davie, but a solid cast was ready for the Cup Final against rival Malones, who were also minus a couple of their stalwarts.

Bernie had a riveting motivational speech for the boys, as they put in their normal warmup routine (put on your socks, make a few cracks about your teammates behind their back, laugh at Karim actually doing some running) and were ready to go from the start.

Actually that's a lie. The lads came out flatter than Brad's bicycle seat, and word is Viagra is looking to give us a sponsorship deal for next year, we need to come out harder.

Malones swarmed the Coveside goal for the first 10 minutes, and the lack of a warmup clearly showed. Balls were being given away like Beef Groovy CDs and the resulting ping pong around the goal almost saw Coveside go down early.

Once the lads had found their legs, things started to turn around. Craig Larson was having a blinder up front and was torching the Malones defence with strong diagonal runs, supplied by some brilliant distribution from Karim Ismail and Harp Dhaliwal.

Fifteen minutes in Larson broke the deadlock after some magnificent maneuvering. Mike Norris made a blinding run down the left from his outside back position, Bryn Botham saw Mike out wide and knocked a picture perfect ball to him, Sunny ran with it, crossed it into the box where Craig pounced and buried it in the back of the net. 1-0 and the team had not seen that kind of ball movement since Russ Hennessey wore rugby pants and went "commando" with both hands in his pockets. 

Malones looked dangerous on the counterattack but the boys had firmed up at the back and some brilliant effort and sure tackling from Randy Ash kept them at bay.

Larson added to his tally 10 minutes after his first, converting a brilliant corner from Ismail and knocking the ball in the side of the net to make it 2-0.

Coveside were unlucky not to go up 3-0 after some startling work down the right from Jason Fisher. He made what could be the run of the year, beating four Malones players and blasting a shot at the top corner only to have it skillfully palmed away by the keeper. Andy Dudley was also unlucky not to add to the lead as he snaked up into the play only to just miss with a solid charge onto a rebound.

Halftime came and everyone was pleased with the work ethic, and Bernie reminded up to keep it up and made some key changes.

The second half began and Coveside carried the play again. Larson and Brad Chapman made a striking pair up front, not unlike Larsson and Hartson who also wear the green and white hoops (who ate all the pies, who ate all the pies ... chanted the crowd at Kinsmen).

With about 20 minutes to go an unfortunate bounce saw Malones get in clear with a breakaway which was buried into the back of the net to make things interesting.

Referee Reg Varney got into a comical routine with the Coveside sidelines, flouting the Millar's League rules and refusing to let Coveside sub any players unless it was their ball. This aggravation, as usual, only served to aggravate Varney, and he got into several yelling matches with CUFC players. He even got into a Cockney Confrontation with Andy Dudley after Varney blew a horrible call of handball that should have seen a kick go to the Green and White after Randy Johal had made a nifty play to set up what looked like a breakaway. The defender hacked at Randy, the ball bounced up, hit his hand and Varney called it for Malones. Dudley objected the loudest and between Varney and Dudley, the word "Geezer" was used about 47 times before the Coveside sparkplug ended up with a yellow card.

They nearly tied it up when their charging midfielder, number 10, was playing a fancy give and go with their centre forward, only the play was neatly stamped out by an alert Harpie who stepped right into the play to thwart the threat.

Larson completed his hattrick with a brilliantly alert play with 10 minutes to go. A soft goal kick from the Malones keeper skidded into Larson's path about 30 yards out, he collected the ball, sliced past the central defence and knocked it past the crestfallen keeper to seemingly put Coveside home and dry with a 3-1 lead.

However, it's never that easy for the green hoopsters. With 7 minutes to go, as Malones poured forward in desperation, the crowd at the back saw a blast emerge from amidst a tangle of legs after a giveaway, and the ball found the back of the net, setting up a tense few final minutes.

Coveside managed to kill the clock and secure their second piece of hardware for the Ward mantel to go alongside the Summer "B- Cup" championship won two seasons ago.

Well done to all the lads on a successful season and we can confidently look forward to summer.

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