SINGH SABHA’s superior fitness helped them to overcome a physical Datchet Village side 4-1 in an entertaining Roy Lester Memorial Trophy semi-final on Sunday, writes Ryan Gibbs.

The game at The Falcon Centre finished 4-1 after extra time after both teams were matched 1-1 during 90 minutes.

Hardeep Soor broke the deadlock in the first-half, after beating a defender to the ball and slotting it past the keeper.

After a response from Datchet at a set piece, it remained a stalemate until extra time.

Mubarak Bashar was the first to score in extra time followed by two goals from Harinder Hunjan.

Singh Sabha had the majority of possession and dominated all over the pitch. However, Datchet’s set pieces caused real concern for the hosts who struggled to deal with the height of the opposition players.

Sabha secretary Huggy Sandhu told the Observer: “Datchet had a six-foot, six-inch guy up front. They had hardly any attacks but just bombarded us with height from set pieces. Luckily our keeper was six-foot four-inches.

“They didn’t really have any attacks through open play. We played the football and scored mainly on the counter-attack. It was a pretty good performance and we played well.”

“You could tell we were the better team. Ten minutes into extra time we were passing the ball around and just keeping it between us. The opposition couldn’t run.”

The two teams played a few weeks ago in the Premier Division with Datchet coming away with a 3-1 win.

Sandhu said: “We had a rough game with them. They were quite abusive and had a man sent off. We lost 3-1 and we wanted revenge, which we managed, and now we’re looking forward to the final.”

The final will take place on April 21 at Holloways Park, Beaconsfield with Singh Sabha’s opponents yet to be decided.