IT was the week for revenge this time 25 years ago in the local football leagues.

Jack Clark, the Hexham Courant’s football correspondent at the time, reported on cup final victories for both Prudhoe WMC and Alston during the 1994-95 season - defeating teams they had lost to a matter of weeks ago in other cup finals.

Substitute Tony Monnelly was Prudhoe’s hero in the final of the Hexham and District Sunday League’s President’s Cup final as they got one over on town rivals Prudhoe Hospital.

His goal came in the 88th minute and, to make the victory even sweeter, it came just two weeks after they were casualties to Hospital in the Knockout Cup final.

It was a final in which the two goalkeepers caught the eye, Paul Waters impressing for Hospital and Andy Jackson for the triumphant WMC.

There were chances for both sides throughout the game, but Hospital were denied the opener by the goal frame. After Stephen Callender beat his man and sent over an inviting cross, a bullet header from Howard Potts, the father of current Preston North End star Brad, came thundering back off the crossbar.

The game ramped up after the break and the tackles got stronger, with goalscoring opportunities also increasing.

But the Hospital forward line was unable to find a way past the alert Jackson as the game looked destined for an extended 30 minutes of extra time.

The decisive moment came close to the death, Monnelly bursting through and picking his spot to put WMC on the path to glory. With Hospital dead and buried after the goal, Paul Cartmell nearly added insult to injury when he beat two men to create a chance for himself, but his finish didn’t meet his build-up play and went wide of the target.

Extra time was needed when Alston and Haltwhistle Red Star met in the final of the Clayton Cup, but it was Alston who were celebrating just one week after their opponents inflicted defeat over them in the League Cup final.

Had it not been for Haltwhistle shot stopper John Richardson, the 2-0 margin could have been a lot higher as Alston took full control of the extra 30 minutes from the first minute.

In fact, they were ahead after just three minutes when a well struck free kick from man of the match Gary Greenan was headed into the path of Paul Thompson, who could make no mistake from close range. Richardson was then called into action to first prevent substitute Stan Wood, while his palms were stinging as he made a great stop to keep out a thunderous free kick from Greenan.

Yet the impressive keeper could do nothing to prevent it being game over on 104 minutes, Lawrence Wilkin picking out Wood to send home the decisive second goal.

The drama brought an entertaining game to the end which saw Alston nearly gain the lead in the opening exchanges when a 20 yard lob from Thompson hit the top of the crossbar.

Haltwhistle responded and a venomous free kick from 30 yards from Ged Wall just cleared the top of the goal. Chances in the second half fell to Alston’s Mike Ritson and Haltwhistle’s Chris Smith, but still the deadlock couldn’t be broken. Alston thought they had found the winner during normal time when a goalmouth scramble saw the ball head towards goal, but Darren Shield cleared off the line to take the tie to extra time.