South Midlands Floodlit Cup Final.

Saffron Walden Town 2

Eynesbury Rovers 1

Wednesday 16th May 2007
         

The Bloods finish their season on a high at Catons Lane with a Cup Final victory over Eynesbury Rovers.  Barker was first to test Houseago in the visitors goal with a fierce shot in the opening minutes. Albone should have put rovers in front but fired wide of the post. Smith out jumped the rovers defence to head home, but Houseago was on hand to deny a goal.

Eynesburys first corner on 43 minutes resulted in towering defender Harper out jumping the bloods defence to head into the net. 0-1(43minutes)

The second half saw Walden apply more pressure on the wings and Chadwicks cross found Smith head only to see the ball skim the post.  Mynott collected the goalkick and passed to Chadwick,who beat two defenders to cross to the unmarked Barker to fire in the equaliser.1-1 (54 minutes) Fisk came close with a header from a corner but Pledger did well to deny the visitors the lead and Newman saved the day with a clearance of the line from a corner that bounced around in the box.

Waldens Chadwick was sent off for a second yellow, so manager Marc Das put on strikers Ben Riches and Spike Bell to up the pace.

Within minutes Riches and Bell both had shots cleared off the line, with the Rovers big defenders lacking in pace and stamina the bloods gather momentum. Smiths powerful header to Riches to outpace the defence to slot through to Bell, who showed his silky skills by a perfect lob over the advancing Houseago for Waldens second 2-1 (74minutes)

Dove broke through the "Walden Wall" fired high over the crossbar with only the goalie to beat.   Man of the match Bell was unlucky with a shot that almost beat the outstretched Houseago and from the corner Bells curling cross that the Rovers keeper managed to pull out of the goal.

In the closing minutes Bell was their again with a shot in the net that was deemed off side to leave Waldens this years trophy winners.

The bloods enthusiastic supporters paid dividends by their vocal appreciation that spurred their team on to take the silverware,led off by their smiling lucky mascot 6 years old James Day.

Teams:

Walden - D.Pledger, M.Clark, B.Newman, A.Riches,P.Flack, T.Butchart(capt), M.Barker, S.Kingham, B.Smith, R.Mynott, R.Chadwick.

Subs. M.Clarke(Butchart) M.Das,B.Riches(Mynott) S.Bell(Newman) K.Badcock(gk)  

Eynesbury - B.Houseago, S.Humpfreys,K.Kidd, G.Clark, S.Harper, B.Albone, S.Kingsbury, C.Lanham, D.Fisk, J.Dove, C.Smith.

Subs R.Taylor, P.Carey, P.Knight,D.Goodall, D.Shipp.