Non-League and Academy football writer

At the Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground on Sunday afternoon, the second leg of the Newmont versus Hilltop semi-final (of the prestigious Somali British Champions League) took place. Newmont trailed 4-3 going into this hugely important second leg with the current SBCL champions. After a 2-2 draw in the second leg, Hilltop would progress to yet another SBCL final, with a 6-5 win on aggregate over two legs. They will face FC Olympia, of Birmingham, in this season’s final, in what is a repeat of the 2025 final.

Newmont got off to a great start in this semi-final second leg tie. They would take an early lead in the game, after Mohammed Ali had received a good forward pass from out on the right-hand side of the pitch, and from just in behind the Hilltop defence, the Newmont forward would hit an initial effort against outrushing goalkeeper, Hossam Hassan. However, the ball would then rebound off him on the follow-up and inside of the Hilltop penalty area, and go into the goal, 1-0.

After that early goal for Newmont to level up the aggregate scores, and following a good start from the home side, it was Hilltop who would react strongly as a team. After Kamaal Nur would cleverly flick the ball onto Michael Panford inside of the home team’s penalty area, the Hilltop forward’s resulting effort was excellently saved and closed down by Newmont goalkeeper, Sukhraj Dulai. And as the good pace to this big game continued, and after Newmont had created a couple of decent additional openings, Hilltop would then create another decent chance, as following a good move Kamaal Nur’s curling effort from the edge of the Newmont box, would be well turned onto his near post by Sukhraj Dulai.

Next, and Luqman Cusman’s impressive lofted pass would find his Hilltop teammate Shuaib Ali’s run towards the back post of the Newmont goal. Shuaib Ali’s resulting volleyed effort would go narrowly wide of the goal, however. It then (a couple of minutes later) looked like Luqman Cusman had curled a good effort following some good skill to the edge of the Newmont box, into the top left-hand corner of the Newmont goal. But, the ball had in fact hit the top of the goal, on its way over. And then just before half-time, Mohammed Ali would head the ball against the Hilltop crossbar, after meeting a corner-kick delivery inside of their penalty area.

During the early stages of the second half and a good, curling Hilltop ball into the Newmont box, would make it difficult for their goalkeeper to gather the ball. And the alert Michael Panford would get to the ball at the back post, before finishing low into the goal, 1-1. As Newmont had done throughout this competition so far this season, they would show good character once again as a team, soon going on to retake the lead in the second leg. The influential and impressive AB would play a quick one-two pass with a teammate before receiving the ball once again inside of the centre of the Hilltop box, and then finishing low and powerfully into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, 2-1.

Similar to Newmont this season, Hilltop throughout their time in the SBCL, have a great way of responding at crucial moments in games. And not long after that goal for Newmont, they would soon take lead overall in the two legs, by making it 2-2 on the day. Hussein Mahdi did well in a tight area inside of the home team’s box, before just laying the ball back into the path of Kamaal Nur, who did well to find the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, 2-2.

Jibril Mahdi would go relatively close to extending Hilltop’s lead in the tie, before Newmont really pushed, as a team, for a late equaliser. But, after seeing a very late penalty claim waved away by the referee, Hilltop would then counter forwards at pace down the other end of the pitch soon after, resulting in them being awarded a penalty of their own. However, in the final action of the game, Ali Mohamed would see his effort from the penalty spot hit the goalkeeper’s crossbar, before the referee had sounded his full-time whistle.

 A lot of credit must go to Newmont for their achievements as a team in this season’s SBCL, and it has been a pleasure to cover the vast majority of their games. However, and in a very competitive two legged semi-final, it was Hilltop (my player of the match on Sunday was Shuaib Ali) who did enough to book their place in yet another SBCL final. Can they secure another SBCL title, or will it be FC Olympia’s turn this time. Well, I’ll be there to cover the final of this great competition, once a date and venue is confirmed.