BBC Essex Women's Cup Final, Thursday 11th April
The second Thursday in April saw me back over at Dagenham & Redbridge's Victoria Road ground for another County Cup final, and this time is what the turn of the Women as holders Billericay Town took on Hashtag United in an all FA Women's National League Southern Premier contest.
Now Billericay Town as said are the current holders of the Essex Women's Cup after they defeated Hashtag's Reserve side 1-0 in last years final, but they were up against the first team this time around and probably went into this final as underdogs after Hashtag's superb season this season, Billericay were a huge twenty nine points behind Hashtag in the league, Hashtag sat second behind champions Portsmouth whereas Town were third bottom although safe from relegation.
Hashtag were also looking to add another trophy to their cabinet this season after picking up the FAWNL League Cup recently, and they were coming into this final on an unbeaten run of ten games in all competitions, winning nine of those contest in the process, one of them was against tonight's finalists too, a 2-0 win in mid march, so the signs certainly pointed towards a Hashtag win here.
Billericay's form wasn't great either, they had lost all four league games in March, although they can take some heart from winning some silverware nine days ago when they thrashed Ashford 5-0 in the Isthmian League Women's Cup Final, so they were at least going for some more silverware here too, maybe they were a cup side this season, so maybe this would be much tougher for Hashtag than people may have thought.
Saying that, the two games between the two sides in the league had been close, both won by Hashtag, but this being an Essex derby they were always likely to be tight and tense contests, so this one probably was not going to be any different, let's see how these two set up tonight's final:-
Billericay Town
Quarter Finals - Hashtag United Reserves (H) W1-0
Semi Finals - Billericay Town Reserves (H) W6-0
Hashtag United
Quarter Finals - Bowers & Pitsea (H) W4-1
Semi Finals - Chelmsford City (H) W11-0
As you can see, both sides began their campaigns in the Last Eight so only needed to win two games to reach the final, Town repeated last year's final result, again beating Hashtag's Reserves 1-0, before they thrashed their own reserve side 6-0 in the semi finals, Hashtag themselves had two relatively simple ties to reach the final, thrashing both Bowers & Pitsea and Chelmsford City with a combined fifteen goals in the two ties.
So, how would this final pan out? Well, the contest was as good as done inside the opening twenty minutes as The Tags totally dismantled their opponents with four goals in the opening eighteen minutes, opening their account for the evening after just six minutes when a great move ended with a ball being played in the path of Wiktoria Fronc for her to fire beyond Blues skipper and goal keeper Alex Baker before it was two only a couple of minutes later when Valentine Pursey rifled home brilliantly from an angle after cutting back onto her right foot.
And only a quarter of an hour was on the clock when The Tags made it three after Sammy Rowland found the bottom corner from range, and it was four on eighteen minutes when after Baker could only save a cross from the right across her own goal, Malika Apindia was in the right place to thump the loose ball over the line, and at this point you feared for the young Blues outfit as this final was threatening to become really embarrassing for them.
The Tags though had been ruthless and maybe they took their foot of the gas slightly for the remainder of the half but credit to The Blues who improved after they had fallen four goals behind so early on, and they did manage to net the next goal of the contest to give them some cheer when a lovely move saw them get down the left, and after Tags keeper Frankie Angel had come out to try and thwart the attack, she was beaten to the ball and saw a square pass to Soraya Walsh allow her to find the empty net with the keeper stranded, all of this inside the opening half an hour.
No more goals were forthcoming in the remainder of the first period, and The Blues were hoping that if they could nab the next goal then maybe, just maybe they could put a bit of pressure on their opponents for the first time in the contest, however, these thoughts and hopes were totally banished inside the opening five minutes of the second half.
This is because The Tags saw Fronc get in to slot home her second of the contest barely two minutes after the break, and then a handball inside the Blues box gave The Tags the chance to add another in the 50th minute, and skipper Grace Gillard thumped home the resulting penalty and The Tags were cruising at 6-1 ahead and threatening to run riot once again.
Baker tipped a couple of efforts wide of her post to prevent further damage, and in fact it was the Blues who managed to add the next goal of the contest with ten minutes left when a lovely long pass was perfectly into the path of Ruby Sealey who lofted a lovely finish over Angel and into the corner of the net to make it 6-2, but The Tags were to have the final say when Fronc completed her hat-trick deep into added on time when flicking a lovely finish over Baker into the far corner, capping a marvellous evening for her and her side.
What a brilliant season Hashtag United have had then, the runners up spot in the FAWNL Southern Premier almost secured along with the League Cup and now BBC Essex Women's Cup triumph, it's certainly not been a bad season that is for sure, for the young Blues side it's a good learning lesson for these players who were well schooled this evening that was for sure, but they have managed to stay in the division this season and have a trophy in their cabinet so no doubt plenty of positives to take from what has been a pretty tough one on the whole.
Full time Billericay Town 2 Hashtag United 7
A great review on how the game played out. Full credit to Billericay they kept going and did well to reduce the score by half time. But quick fire goals at the start of the second half killed any chance of a fightback.
ReplyDeleteCheers for the kind words, and thanks for reading too
Delete