Essex Veterans League Premier Division League Cup Final Runwell Old Boys 3 Old Parmiterians 3 (AET) 3-1 Pens THIS was billed as the Premier Cup Final and it lived up to its billing with boths sides playing good football with no quarter being given or asked.

Runwell Old Boys came out of the blocks quickest, getting to the ball first and after some neat moves they opened the scoring from a free kick.

Taken by Colin Rex and floated to the far post, it evaded everyone until Mark Wadeson nipped in and from near range opened the scoring.

From the way they started it seemed like Runwell Old Boys were going to run away with the game.

This was underlined on 30 minutes when another Colin Rex free kick was misjudged by the Old Parmiterian defence and floated into the top corner to make it 2-0.

Then on 38 minutes a rare lapse in the Runwell Old Boys defence let in Gary Weeton on the left, who hit a good shot that seemed covered by goalkeeper Gary Smith.

But right in front of him it hit a divot and shot up and although he got a hand to it the top spin helped the ball into the empty net.

This success spurred on Old Parmiterians and five minutes later another chance on the left fagain fell to Gary Weeton and he made no mistake drilling the ball low and into the far corner.

The half ended with Old Parmiterians on top and they started the second period in the same vein duly taking the lead after tens minutes when Andy Gombas caught a nice one from the edge of the box which found the corner to give them a 3-2 lead. They maintained their superiority for another 15 minutes when Runwell Old Boys had a half chance and from then on slowly excerted pressure.

This pressure finally told in the 40th minute when a good move left Terry Lee in front of goal with a tap in to level the scores and take the game into extra time.

The whole game had been played at a very good pace and in the extra 30 minutes legs became tired and chances were few and far between and nobody could find the net, so to penalties.

The first two on each side resulted in one scored and one saved for each team.

The third for Old Parmiterians was smacked over the bar while Runwell Old Boys third was saved but had to be retaken and subsequently converted.

Old Parmiterians fourth was screwed wide, leaving Dave Carter the opportunity win it for Runwell Old Boys, which he did with aplomb sending the youngsters in the stand, who had cheered the players all night, wild with delight.