Brian’s Taxis Macclesfield and District SFL : IT’S been a difficult season for all teams in the league due to the severe winter forcing pitch closures for what seemed an eternity. 

When there was action the games generally were good overall, no more so than in the First Division which had three new teams competing this season.

While it seemed that both Fresh and Tonic found the going tough they did at times perform very well and deserved the results they did get, but it was the Golden Lion who came out on top, winning all their league games with a record number of goals.

The Lion side also had success in the District Sunday Cup but were beaten in the semi-finals by eventual winners Pack Horse after a great game at Congleton Town.

In the Premier?Division we all thought that this season we could see a couple of teams making a challenge on the dominance of the Pack Horse.

However,  this came and went, especially towards the end of the season and the Pack Horse eventually ran out champions again, setting a new record of nine consecutive titles.

Both the Pack Horse and Queens Macclesfield also represented the Sunday League in the Cheshire Sunday Cup and they were a credit to the league.

Congratulations go to Queens Macclesfield who were eventually beaten at the quarter-final stage.

The League Cup final took place on Sunday at the Moss Rose and was, as always, well attended by friends and families of finalists Pack Horse and Queens Macclesfield in a repeat of the final a few years earlier.

Congratulations go to Queens Macc in a great game which they won 3-2 in normal time.

The much-anticipated final saw the Queens motivated by a chance to halt the Pack’s bid for a treble.

They set up to use pace down the wings and it took 20 minutes for them to take the lead, Dave Short latching onto a pass from Craig Hayes and rounding the keeper to slot in.

Pack then pressed and looked dangerous from set pieces with the Queens defence struggling to deal with their height.

Such a ball came in and after some confusion Nick Ward poked home from close range.

The game was poised at 1-1 at the break but Queens started the second half the hungrier and retook the lead through Will Perry’s close-range finish.

Short made it 3-1 moments later, capitalising on a defensive slip to chip the keeper.

Although his first effort came back off the post?Short was the first to react and slotted home the loose ball.

Pack threw everything they had at Queens in the last 20 minutes and pulled one back through Jordan Hitchen’s free kick that sneaked in at the near post.

It proved to be mere consolation for Pack as Queens saw out the victory and collected the cup.

Again we have now come to the end and we now all look ahead to the next season which will again be on us very quickly, and the league offers its thanks to the people who have worked hard on behalf of the league.

They include Frank Peate who  has had to put up with so much with weather conditions playing havoc with the fixtures, referees’ secretary Mark Lee and Broken Cross Club for letting us use their facilities.

A special thank you goes to Brian Ault of Brian’s Taxis, who again are the league’s sponsors.

I would also like to thank all the match officials and the players and officials of all clubs for their time and effort over the last nine months.

John Newsome