THE Morning Star’s footballers came within a whisker of lifting their first piece of silverware at the weekend, cruelly losing on penalties in the final of the Berkeley Nomads Cup.

Carl Worswick pushed the Allstars into a first-half lead, with the slender goal cushion preserved until half-time through some tenacious defending from Adrian Roberts, Chris Hirst and James Eagle.

The Berkeley Nomads equalised after the break, but Worswick almost snatched victory at the death with an audacious long-range chip that clipped the post.

Stalemate swung the final into a spot-kick lottery in which Worswick rattled the woodwork, Eagle and Roberts blazed over and, although keeper Peter Mengerink converted his effort, his heroics in goal couldn't quite keep out the all-important last penalty.

"It's devastating, nobody can quite believe it. I’ve got the boy Mengerink crying his eyes out in there, but I've given him a hug and told him how proud I am of him - how proud I am of all of them," Worswick said.

A sluggish start, not helped by a gruelling early morning trip from London to Gloucestershire, saw the Allstars play out a drab 0-0 draw with the NUJ before crashing to a 3-0 defeat.

But, despite not having the luxury of substitutes, the Allstars responded admirably with thumping 3-1 and 4-0 victories to book a final berth.

Hirst later held off Mengerink to be voted overall Player of the Tournament at the evening's awards ceremony.