Essex Alliance Division Two Cup Final, Tuesday 6th May
Tuesday night, the first one in May, saw the Essex Alliance Cup Finals get underway and I always try and attend as many of these as possible every May to help support the league and watch some decent contest as well, and in turn the league look after me at these finals, so I always look forward to them every year. They even gave me the opportunity to hand out the medals at the end, which they have done several times before, always a nice thing to do, so I thank them for that.
The first one of of several to take place over the next couple of weeks was in Billericay at New Lodge, it brought together Division Two champions Royal Forest & fourth placed Old Barkabbeyans Reserves, Forest were aiming to keep their chances of a treble this season by picking up this cup and also the Fenton Trophy on Saturday against Chadwell Heath Spartans Reserves at Dagenham & Redbridge's Victoria Road ground.
Old Barks themselves were trying to add this trophy to a county cup one they won on Friday, and pick up a double of sorts, they are currently twelve points behind tonight's opponents in the table but that would mean nothing heading into this final of course, a one off game often sees the ones who deal with it better and produce the best performance come out on top.
Royal Forest's run to the final, like Old Barks Reserves was a short one (there are only three rounds ahead of the final) and in Forest's case they only needed to win a couple of games to get here, a thumping 8-1 win away to CSM London U23s was followed by a 4-2 semi final win over Ongar Town Reserves, Old Barks had to play one extra round, they saw off Saint City Reserves 5-0 away from home, then needed penalties to see of Glendale before a semi final win over Parsonage Leys, 3-2, saw them into tonight's finale.
Who would settle the quicker in this final then? Well, Old Barks had the first decent chance when heading wide from close range, but thereafter it was Forest who really began to create openings, and just before the midway point of the first period they grabbed the lead when a corner swung over saw Eoin Coughlan force the ball towards goal and although a defender tried to keep it out, he could only help it on its way into the roof of the net. Advantage Forest.
And in first half stoppage time Forest really took control of the contest when they added a second goal, and what a goal it was, Daniel Thompson running through several visiting players before slotting home beautifully to double their lead, and they headed into the break two goals up and well on their way to success.
They continued the onslaught at the start of the second half too, and had several decent chances to add to their lead, but, just before the hour mark they finally added a third to all but end the contest you felt, Remel Green being put in on goal and he applied a lovely finish into the net and duly celebrated in style in front of his adoring fans.
The game thereafter saw a decent battle but you felt it was all over, and Forest were just now enjoying the occasion, Old Barks did have fleeting efforts on goal but were never ever going to threaten a comeback, it never looked likely as Forest were keeping the game under control and comfortably saw it out to take the win and keep their treble chances alive.
Full time Royal Forest 3 Old Barkabbeyans Reserves 0
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