Captain fantastic leads Madeley to cup with hat-trick

Mateusz Cichon gave Polonia a 28th-minute lead with speculative left-footed half-volley from outside the box that found the far corner.

He followed up with a second five minutes later when a good transition from a Madeley corner found him 30 yards out from goal and his left-footed volley took a deflection and rocketed in off the underside of the crossbar.

Madeley rallied and, on 37 minutes, captain Matthew Stuart pulled one back from 10 yards.

Two minutes later, the game was all square as Charlie Knowles directed a lovely left-footed volley over the head of the advancing keeper.

The turning point in the game came just before half-time when Polonia’s centre forward Saimonas Burksaitis was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident, having been fouled on the halfway line.

The second half with 10 men was too much for Polonia and they were soon behind when Knowles added his second with a shot from the edge of the box that was deflected by a defender past keeper Vytautas Simkaitis.

On 60 minutes, Ben Smith made it 4-2 with a close-in right-foot volley from a corner and on 75 minutes he bagged his second of the final when he rolled the ball into the far side of the goal.

Knowles completed his hat-trick on 77 minutes with a right-foot shot into the top corner.

Although they had never stopped working, Polonia could not get back into the game which – for the most part – was played in a very good spirit and they applauded Madeley, who were deserved 6-2 winners.

In the Graham Arrowsmith Invitation Cup semi-final, Telford Scaffolding Services cruised to a 7-1 win against Donnington Sports to take their place in the final.

The other semi-final finished 3-2 to Shifnal Imperials, who were at home to Wellington (Ketley Bank) United, but the match is under review by the league.

In Division One, Railway wrapped up their season with a 6-2 home win against Sandbrook Vaults.