I was over at the Jobserve Community Stadium for the showpiece final in the county of Essex on Tuesday night and saw goals from Matt Rush and Alfie Pavey help Braintree Town to BBC Essex Senior Cup glory for the first time in 27 years after a dominant win over Concord Rangers.
These two come from the same division, the Vanarama National South, but both have had very differing seasons it has to be said, Braintree are currently inside the play-off spots in fifth position and are unbeaten at home all season in the league, whereas Concord sit bottom of the same division having won only eight of their thirty-three games and are thirty-three points behind tonight’s opponents.
And in the league games this campaign Braintree have won both, 3-1 at The Aspect Arena and then 1-0 at Cressing Road, so Braintree have the upper hand with all the stats leading into this one between the sides at least.
Town’s form has been pretty good too, they were thirteen unbeaten in the league until Saturday when they were turned over by struggling Hungerford Town who are battling the drop along with Concord so that was a rare blip of late for the North Essex side, so they were hoping to bounce back and pick up only a second Essex Senior Cup triumph in their history.
Concord themselves have used this competition as a welcome distraction from their league struggles, although it has been a far from convincing run in the competition and one they did actually get knocked out in before being reinstated, more on that later, but there form of late has been, well, not to great which is not surprising considering they are at the foot of the table.
They have only two wins and two draws since the start of February although they have had a week to prepare for this contest after Saturday’s league game was postponed due to the weather, but could they possibly finish off what had been a very fortuitous campaign in this competition, some say you need a lot of luck to win cup competitions, well Concord have certainly had their fair share but credit to them for making it all the way to this game.
Let’s see how both sides made it to Colchester then shall we:-
Braintree Town
Third Round - Maldon & Tiptree (a) W4-2
Fourth Round – Southend United (a) A-W
Quarter Final – Colchester United (a) W3-2
Semi Final – Chelmsford City (a) W1-0
After seeing off Isthmian North Maldon & Tiptree Town then were handed a walkover win after Southend United pulled out following two postponements and the Blues saying fixture congestion meant they had no choice, and then they won a thriller at tonight’s venue when they came from behind to net two late late goals to see of The Us, and then netted a first win over bitter rivals Chelmsford City in thirteen years, so a very decent run to the final it has to be said, and not one home game either!!!
Concord Rangers
Third Round – Aveley (a) D1-1 (won 4-2 on penalties)
Fourth Round – Grays Athletic (H) L1-3 (Concord were subsequently handed walkover win after Grays thrown out)
Quarter Final – Canvey Island (a) D0-0 (won 3-2 on penalties)
Semi Final – Hornchurch (H) D1-1 (won 5-4 on penalties)
After seeing off Isthmian North Aveley on penalties, they were then dumped out in convincing fashion by another Isthmian North side Grays Athletic, only to then see them thrown out of the competition for an administrative error, giving Concord another chance to continue their journey, and they then saw off Island rivals Isthmian Premier Canvey Island, again on penalties, before guess what, they needed penalties again to edge past another Isthmian Premier side Hornchurch in the semi-finals to make it to the final this evening. As said, a lot of luck was needed!!!
I did attend both semi-finals so here is my blog on that if you wanted to check that out before seeing what happened this evening in the finale of the competition for this season
Right to tonight’s events, and it was evident from the off who was having a good season and who was not as Braintree dominated the opening exchanges so it came as no surprise when they got their noses in front in the 11th minute when Rush broke the Concord offside trap to bare down on goal and send a confident finish beyond Mitch Beeney into the far corner and send the large Iron contingent at that end of the ground into raptures.
Those fans probably should have had more goals to cheer before the break too as Braintree squandered several decent openings to increase their lead, and even saw another effort ruled out for offside after Rush's ball to the back post was touched home by Pavey, but the striker had strayed ahead of his teammate so the flag went up, so even though the Iron had a lead at the break and were dominant, it was just 1-0.
Could Concord fight back at all in the second period, well they had their spells in a second half which was a little more competitive, but if truth be told you always felt Braintree had them at arms length, especially after they went two goals to the good eleven minutes after the break although how it came about was contentious.
After Braintree had missed from point blank range, the ball ran loose and after Pavey had fallen to the ground whilst been challenged inside the box a penalty was awarded to The Iron, which saw Concord go mad with the decision and surround the referee, and also saw boss Rob Small throw his jacket into his dugout, he was incensed, and if I am honest the penalty looked soft at best, but it had been given, and Pavey picked himself up to fire home the spot kick and Concord now had a mountain to climb.
Concord tried their best to get back into the contest but found a Braintree side who just looked like they would deal with anything the Yellows could muster, and they just managed the game there on in to take the crown and win this seasons BBC Essex Senior Cup, avenging the 2013-14 final loss to Concord in the process, and take their first crown since the 1995-96 season.
Full time Braintree Town 2 Concord Rangers 0
My final word goes to the crowd who made the atmosphere a good one, almost 2,500 were in attendance which was a superb effort, and also thank you to those who gave me the opportunity to experience the hospitality section, Barry Fitzgerald for organising me a ticket, Rob Parker for giving me a lift there, and to Kevin Curran for the lift home afterwards, it is all very much appreciated and nice to get the opportunity to have these experiences too, so many thanks!!!
Anyway that concludes the BBC Essex Senior Cup for 2022-23, congratulations to Braintree Town, and that also concludes this blog too, many thanks for reading as always!!!
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