RAF men win thrilling match against Army to retain Inter Services football title
The men's Royal Air Force football team have won the Men's Inter Services title and retained the Constantinople Cup after a 2-1 victory over the Army at Shrewsbury Town FC.
With goals from Aaron Eyett and Sam Rawlings, the light blues had to beat the Army in order to retain the title for the second consecutive year.
The Army, who only had to draw against the RAF to win, counted a goal from Scott Hynd but their efforts were not enough to retake the title they last won in 2019.
It was a strong start for the RAF in the opening stages of the first half as the light blues clearly controlled the game, and with eight minutes on the clock, Eyett got the RAF's first goal of the evening, putting them up 1-0.
The Army struggled to gain possession of the ball from the RAF, but goalkeeper Luke Cairney raised eyebrows with some incredible saves from a number of RAF onslaughts, thereby keeping the light blues from running away with the game.
After many missed chances from the RAF, James Spalding found his chance to score a goal of his own and managed to get the ball into the net but it was ruled out for offside.
The Army began to find their rhythm deep into the first, and a free kick opened the door for the Army to finally level up the scoreboard.
Taken by Lee McCombie, the ball found its way into the box for Scott Hynd to head the ball into the net to level the scoreboard to 1-1 by the end of the first half.
The second half was the chance for either team to turn the tables on this game and the RAF began the second half as they left off, as Jake Gosling hit the post in his attempt to get one up on the Army.
The Army, as it stood, were in a position to win the Inter Services title as they only needed to draw, but a determined RAF team frustrated the Army's attempts to get a score up for good measure.
The RAF, knowing they had to beat the Army to win the title, had fallen through many open doors up to this point, until Rawlings headed the ball from inside the box and into the net turning the RAF's fortunes around.
With the score now at 2-1, the RAF only had to hold off the Army in order to win the Inter Services title.
As the Army subbed in some fresh players, the reds began to play more aggressively and found themselves with open-door opportunities to score.
However, the RAF had their defence in order, deflecting the Army's attempts to score before full-time.
At the final whistle, the RAF won the game 2-1 which was enough to retain their Inter Services title, just as their female counterparts did earlier in the day, as the Army lick their wounds after coming so close to taking back the title they last won in 2019.
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