Chingford Harriers 0 Flyers U21s 0 (Flyers U21s won 3-1 on penalties)

Essex Alliance League Division Four Cup Final, Wednesday 11th May

I was at the first Essex Alliance Cup Final for three years, and it saw Flyers U21s take the Division Four Cup honours, edging out Chingford Harriers on penalties after a goalless draw at Victoria Road in Dagenham.

These two had finished second and third respectively in the Division Four table, although Harriers had finished seven points clear of Flyers and had narrowly missed out on the Division Four title by two points from Sporting Pillars, so Harriers were looking to try and get some silverware in this competition, although Romford side Flyers also fancied doing just that too.

Shall we see how both sides got to the final? Oh ok then let's have a quick look...

First Round

West Essex Under 23s 2 Chingford Harriers 4

Quarter Finals

Chingford Harriers 1 Fairlop Rovers Reserves 1 (Chingford Harriers won 4-3 on penalties)

Newham Royals 0 Flyers U21s 5

Semi Finals

Chingford Harriers 1 Emerson & Upminster A 1 (Chingford Harriers won 4-3 on penalties)

Sporting Pillars 1 Flyers U21s 2

Harriers then had to win three ties, and two of those were on penalties, whilst Flyers played just the two ties to reach the final, but did beat league winners Sporting Pillars in the semi finals, so that was a very good result indeed.

Onto the final then and the first half saw limited opportunities for both on a nice sunny clear evening in Dagenham, and a decent crowd of over 200 were their to cheer on their sides, although the majority certainly appeared to be cheering on the Romford side and were making the most noise.

Flyers saw an early header saved, and then Harriers had a decent chance when they got clear but thankfully for Flyers a defender managed to thwart the attacker before he got his shot away, and then just before the half hour a lovely ball in from Flyers just evaded any attacking threat coming in.

Late on in the half Harriers created their best chance thus far but saw a spectacular effort fly wide, but then they were down to ten men for the end of the first period and start of the second when Billy Ling was sin binned for speaking out of turn to the linesman, and Flyers nearly took advantage in stoppage time at the end of the half but saw an effort smashed into the side netting.

Neither keeper had been tested though really, would that change in the second period, well Flyers had two great chances early in the second period to break the deadlock but saw a header thump against the bar and then another one fly over from close range, but apart from those two chances the opening twenty minutes of the period was fairly quiet.

Both teams created half chances with around twenty minutes remaining, but with plenty of players going down with cramp and other issues, it was very stop start and becoming a bit of a scrappy encounter, and it looked as if one goal would settle the game if indeed a goal was forthcoming, and Flyers nearly grabbed it late on but a brilliant block on the line prevented that from happening, so the tie went to penalties.

Now for Harriers this was a third straight penalty shoot out in the competition and they had won them both 4-3, so would lightning strike thrice for the Chingford side, well no, as they endured a terrible shootout, netting just one of their four spot kicks, and allowed Flyers to run out 3-1 victors in the shootout and become Division Four Cup winners!!!

Full time Chingford Harriers 0 Flyers U21s 0 (Flyers U21s won 3-1 on penalties)