Billingham Town will play Norton or Team Northumbria in the final of Northern League second division competition the Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup.
Darren Trotter’s side dug in to beat South Shields 1-0 at Bedford Terrace last night, with a first half Louis Whensley goal sealing their place in the tournament showpiece.
Town will discover who they will play in the final next Wednesday night when Teesside rivals Norton entertain Team North in the second semi-final.
Whensley headed home a 37th minute winner from Mattie Dixon’s left-wing cross, his first goal since rejoining the club from Crook.
Town had further chances to increase the lead through Whensley, Drew Lambert and Josh Keogh, but it was a closely contested cup tie.
Home keeper Michael Thackeray showed a safe pair of hands when tested and Shields finished the game with 10 men after Stephen Ramsey was sent off for a second bookable offence.
“It’s fantastic for the lads and the club to get through to the final,” said Town manager Darren Trotter.
“It was an excellent performance against a good team, and it could have gone either way to be honest.
“But the lads were resilient and stuck to the gameplan, and everybody played their part.
“We haven’t won anything yet, but it’s great to be able to provide a bit of sunshine for the supporters and the committee who have stuck by us after the dark days of last season’s relegation.
“You can’t beat a derby, and we would love to play Norton in the final.”
Town will find out tomorrow night if they will be awarded with three points for last month’s game at Whickham, which was abandoned with four minutes to go while they were 2-0 up and the home side were down to six players.
“Hopefully common sense prevails and we are awarded the points,” said Town chairman Peter Martin.
“We lost two players to suspension for an extra game following an incident that was no fault of our own.”
Norton remain second in Northern League Division Two after battling back from 2-0 down at half-time to claim a point in a 2-2 draw at Chester-Le-Street.
Michael Jameson and Marcus Laing were the Norton scorers.
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