Essex Alliance Premier Division Cup Final, Thursday 8th May
Thursday night was another Essex Alliance Cup Final, and this time it was the turn of the Premier Division to take centre stage and brought together Inter Newbury of Premier Division East & Sporting Bengal United Reserves from Premier Division West at Dagenham & Redbridge's Victoria Road ground.
Now Sporting were aiming to complete a league and cup double after their championship triumph in their division, losing only two games on their way to the title, and winning fourteen out of the eighteen too, their path to the final started in Round One where they saw off Saint City by two goals to nil, and then in Round Two they defeated London Park City 4-0.
They squeezed past Barkingside Reserves in the Quarter Finals before they edged their semi final against Dagenham United 2-1 to set up tonight's contest, Inter Newbury had fared less spectacularly in their league form, most likely ending the season in sixth spot out of eleven clubs, and losing half of their twenty league games in the process.
On their day though they can be a danger to anyone, as proven in the run to this final, they destroyed London Cranes 7-0 in Round One before netting a 3-1 success over Greengate District in Round Two, the Quarter Finals saw them secure an entertaining 5-3 win over Something From Nothing, and then edged a semi final over FC Baresi Reserves 1-0 to reach this evenings final.
Sporting then probably were fancied to win this but Inter would surely have other ideas, they wanted to end their season with a trophy and deny their opponents the chance of league and cup double success in the process, and the early exchanges certainly saw Inter with the better of the game, Sporting took longer to settle but once they had they actually started to attack more and ended the first half stronger, however despite this the game had really struggled to get going, and the goalless scoreline at the break certainly suggested this, would it improve after the break?
Well, with only two and a half minutes elapsed in the second period, the only real moment of quality in the entire game happened, and it came from the left boot of Dawid Potoczek, who had actually began the match on the bench but came on during the opening forty five minutes, he cut inside and unleashed a wonderful left footed effort which flew across goal and into the far corner, it was a sublime strike and Inter now had a lead, a lead Sporting would need to overcome if they were to keep their chances of a double alive.
However, neither keeper were really tested, Inter almost doubled their lead when a lovely through ball was run onto but the finish was well saved, but apart from this neither keeper really had to make a save of note, it was that sort of game, not much in it, and not much in the way of quality, that's how it goes sometimes, two good sides cancelling each other out so to speak.
It was certainly well contested though, but with Sporting unable to muster a response, it meant Inter Newbury would hold on to record a superb win and take Premier Division Cup honours, something they certainly celebrated with their adoring fans and staff afterwards, a very hard fought win, well done to them, and Sporting would have to settle for the league triumph and runners up in the cup, still a great season nonetheless.
Full time Inter Newbury 1 Sporting Bengal United Reserves 0
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