19/04/2016 – ESBL Report – Reserve Knock-Out Cup Final
ESSEX & SUFFOLK BORDER FOOTBALL LEAGUE
RESERVE KNOCK-OUT CUP FINAL
LITTLE OAKLEY FC RESERVES: 2. WEST BERGHOLT FC RESERVES: 3.
Date: Tuesday 19th April 2016. Venue: Garrison Ground, Colchester.
This is the second of the seasons Cup Finals, again played at the Garrison Ground, Colchester and the league extends thanks to the Army for allowing the facility to be used. Both finalists play in Division One and they will know each other really well, with committed management and a ethos of trying to bring younger players through their clubs, Little Oakley currently sit in fourth place whilst West Bergholt lie in tenth, but in cup finals league form often means very little.
The Match Official for this match was Adrian Arnott and his Assistant Referee’s were David Feline and Adam Wolton with Ryan Smith acting as 4th Official. For a change a nice evening welcomed those supporters who had gathered and on the perfectly prepared pitch with the floodlights on from the start, a decent game of football should follow the usual “Respect” handshake and a perfectly observed minutes silence in respect of Brian Lawrence, ESBFL Authentication Officer, and former chairman of Little Oakley FC who passed away recently.
West Bergholt started proceedings and keeper Long was quickly out to the feet of Hallas who fell over rather easily with the ball going out for a throw-in from which Newman sent in a low shot that Long caught six yards out. In the build up to this second minute attack Bethell (B) was injured in a hard but fair block tackle with Knight and despite limping away was clearly going to be substituted with Read taking his place just after Stanford played the ball forward for Eggerichs to chase. On ten minutes Sones handled the ball twenty-five yards from goal but the free-kick taken by Harte flew straight to Bethell (L) and the game was poised for some attacking football from both teams. Good pushed the ball forward for Roots to chase and Knight joined in to put Lord into a position for a cross which cannoned off Stanford for a goal-kick.
Play had been a bit frenetic, end to end, and both management teams were calling for their players to settle down and play football. More free-kicks followed but delivery of the ball into the penalty area failed from both teams although one for West Bergholt, taken by Murrells fell nicely to Newman who volleyed high and wide. Another free-kick from Marangou went straight to keeper Long, whilst an attempted but miss-placed back header from Knight put Long, in trouble but he reacted quickly enough to divert the ball away from Mucaj. A free-kick from Kioussis found Stanford but Farrow cleared to Lord whose shot was charged down and when Good tried to get past May he was fouled with May receiving a caution, then Eggerichs had to track back to stop another West Bergholt attack and the pressure was mainly on the Little Oakley defence.
On twenty-six minutes Green hauled down Mucaj inside the penalty area, a clear penalty and a caution for Green, except that when Murrells stepped up to take the penalty he missed the target completely and Little Oakley had a reprieve. With this wake-up call Little Oakley pushed forward with a long ball to Stanford who forced a throw-in but a general lack of control persisted, however on thirty minutes Stanford clashed with defender May who was caught in the face with an elbow which led to lengthy treatment for May and only a caution for Stanford who perhaps was fortunate not to have been dismissed. A break by Mucaj forced Kioussis to concede a corner but it was the midfield and defences that were on top in an end-to-end game. Knight set another move going for Little Oakley finding Good, allowing Eggerichs to force Farrow to concede a corner and we approached the half-time break with Little Oakley having more possession but lacking the final pass to create a decent scoring chance.
HALF-TIME: 0 – 0
Little Oakley restarted the second half and surely the quality of play has to improve but Lord fouled Murrells allowing Farrow to have a snap shot from the free-kick but we did not have long to wait before the first goal was scored when West Bergholt worked the ball down the right wing and when the cross was poorly defended JONNY MURRELLS snapped up the chance and lobbed the bouncing ball back over the head of keeper Long. West Bergholt replaced the injured Marangou with Skingley and Little Oakley replaced Smith with May with Long having to save from Mucaj whose team had gained the upper hand or so it seemed. Another foul by Lord allowed Mucaj to chance his luck from the free-kick but Green blocked the shot and Good cleared up-field. On fifty-five minutes Little Oakley scored an equaliser, Roots pushed the ball forward and GARY STANFORD ran clear to slot the ball past the advancing Bethell (L), game on. West Bergholt hit back with a long ball from Farrow finding the head of Mucaj but the header went wide. Eggerichs forced a corner off Farrow but the corner was hit too long and despite being recovered by Roots the ball to Stanford was blocked and Lord picked up the loose ball to cross back into the danger area where Eggerichs headed over.
So with fifteen minutes of the second half gone we had seen more action than in the first half and that was not going to change as when Green chased after Mucaj he deliberately tripped the player from behind to earn his second caution and perhaps a cheap dismissal. Another dangerous run by Mucaj following a mistake by Knight saw him lob the advancing keeper, Long, and Little Oakley made another change bringing on Sheppard for Harte. When Lord slipped the ball into Stanford inside the penalty area we all thought a goal would follow but somehow the ball rolled past Stanford who was left kicking thin air allowing Bethell (L) to collect the loose ball. Mucaj put in a robust challenge on Stanford and numerous free-kicks continued to litter this competitive match. On seventy minutes Eggerichs was replaced by Poole and Stanford was narrowly caught off-side on two occasions as Little Oakley pressed for another goal, despite now playing with ten men.
Good committed a silly foul wide on the left side, showed dissent and was cautioned allowing Mucaj to float the free-kick into the penalty area where Read scuffed wide at the far post. Lord played Stanford through again but Farrow got a foot to the ball to divert it back to Bethell (L) whose fly-kick hit Roots and flew wide of the goal. With normal time running out a shot by Stanford from a deflected shot by Sheppard was chested down by Farrow who cleared out of defence and in the last minute Bethell (L) was forced into a fine save, tipping over an effort from Good who latched onto a ball from Stanford.
FULL TIME: 1 – 1
West Bergholt kicked off the first period of extra-time, a corner from Good was punched clear by Bethell (L) and both teams continued to attack in this open game. Murrells and Hallas linked up but captain Kioussis defended well whilst no challenge was shirked with the referee allowing the game to flow as much as possible. Midfielder Lord continued to put in telling tackles to win back possession for his team and only an illegal challenge by Hallas stopped him putting Stanford clear. At the back Kioussis was leading his numerically reduced team just as his opposite number Farrow was doing for his fully complemented team. A free-kick from Good was headed down and wide by Stanford and just as the first period of extra-time was about to close a deft effort from Kioussis forced a fine save from Bethell (L) who tipped the ball over the cross-bar.
EXTRA-TIME
HALF-TIME: 1 – 1
So with fifteen minutes to go, whose nerve would hold or would we require penalties to separate these evenly matched teams with West Bergholt threatening first when a break from Mucaj, who rode three tackles before finding Hallas who forced a corner. West Bergholt kept up this pressure and with eight minutes to go when Little Oakley failed to clear a corner the ball fell to PERRY NEWMAN who curled a low right-footed effort around the assembled masses into the far right corner of the net and Mucaj was cautioned before play restarted, probably dissent!
Little Oakley, to their credit went straight down the other end so when a cross from Roots was headed goalwards at the far post by Stanford, May stuck out an arm to handle the ball and after the referee consulted his assistant a penalty was rightly awarded, with no further action on May who had already been cautioned! Sones was cautioned for dissent about this decision, a clear cut one from where I stood, and LUKE SHEPPARD stepped up to drive the penalty kick past the diving keeper.
In the last minute, with penalty kicks the next option, we witnessed the winning goal and a quite brilliant goal it was too, a corner was taken short by Murrells to ERMAL MUCAJ standing on the corner of the penalty area from where he struck a fine curling shot over the heads of everyone into the top right hand corner with no goal-keeper ever going to save that chance, queue wild celebrations as there was little time left to resume the game, although keeper Bethell (L) did earn a caution for dissent towards the Assistant Referee.
EXTRA-TIME
FULL-TIME: 2 – 3
After a dull first half this game burst into life in the second half, we saw a goal apiece and a player dismissed, which took us into extra-time, no goals in the first period but three in the second period which led to West Bergholt FC Reserves retaining the Reserve Knock-Out Cup.
Both teams tried to play football and after two hours there was not much to choose between the two teams, there must have been some tired limbs as no quarter was given in any challenges witnessed by eight cautions, four for tackles and four for dissent!.
Once again for a final I’m opting to select a “Star Player” from each team, for Little Oakley, the performance of the older heads of Lord and Stanford was only surpassed by their skipper, Kioussis who defended stoutly throughout and who held his team together when they were reduced to ten men after an hour. For West Bergholt, May, Sones and Mucaj stuck to their tasks throughout but again it was their skipper Farrow who stood out, a dependable defender who marshalled his team well.
Teams:
LITTLE OAKLEY FC RESERVES Colours: Blue & Black Shirts, Black Shorts and Blue Socks.
Ashley Long., Michael Knight., Jamie Smith., Richard Green., Nathan Kioussis (C)., Reece Harte., Ian Lord., Daniel Roots., Gary Stanford., Jay Eggerichs., Luke Good.
Manager: Gary Kioussis
Assistant Manager: Paul Beasley
Coach: James Good
Used Substitutes: Daryl May., Luke Sheppard., Sam Poole.
WEST BERGHOLT FC RESERVES: Colours: Red Shirts, Black Shorts, Red Socks.
Luke Bethell., Sam Day., Carl Marangou., Guy Wormall., Shane Farrow (C)., Jason Sones., Ermal Mucaj., Jonny Murrells., Bobby Bethell., Craig Hallas., Perry Newman.
Manager: Greg Murthwaite.
Used Substitutes: Connor Read., Christopher Skingley.
Unused Substitutes: Darren Revie.
Referee: Adrian Arnott (Colchester).
Assistant Referees: David Feline (Colchester).
Adam Wolton (Colchester).
4th Official: Ryan Smith (Braintree).
Star Player: (LITTLE OAKLEY FC RESERVES) Nathan KIOUSSIS
Star Player: (WEST BERGHOLT FC RESERVES) Shane FARROW
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