Report

Subs: Kareem, Jack

3' 1-0 Connor
13' 1-1
19' 1-2
22' 2-2 Nathan (Abdul)
28' Sub: Kareem for Sean
36' 3-2 Kareem (Nathan)
HT
5' 4-2 Nathan (Abdul)
5' Sub: Jack for Nathan (inj)
24' Sub: Nathan for Abdul (inj)
26' 4-3
29' Sub: Abdul for Jack
40' Sub: Sean for Lewis (inj)

Could the season have ended any better? No!
To win the League and Cup double is just a fantastic achievement, and the way the lads set about their game in this game was simply awesome. They never felt like underdogs and never played like underdogs.

Yes, we lived life on the edge a little in that final 10-15 minutes but you expect that against the quality of opposition we were up against. We had put ourselves in such a strong position at 4-2 up and then with Rugby's 3rd goal the inevitable pressure of them pressing for the equaliser came. With I believe the final kick of the game we managed to clear a shot off the line and the cup was ours!

The game was only 3 minutes old when we took the lead through Connor; a perfectly flighted ball from the right hand side of the box over the advancing keeper. A dream start.

The equaliser came, 10 minutes later, straight from a corner, the ball floated high and dropping in to the far corner.

Then 6 minutes later we were 2-1 down. A free-kick from 20+ yards going to Taylor’s right.

It would have been easy for our lads to let their heads drop at that point but they didn’t. The reward for that mental strength came 3 minutes later when Nathan scored from what seemed an impossible angle. Game on again.

Then, after nearly 5 months out, Kareem came on after 28 minutes and within 8 minutes had put us 3-2 up. Nathan had the ball on the left hand side and played a super pass across the 18 yard line to Kareem, who very coolly hit it low to the keeper’s right.

That was the way it stayed until half time and we had the chance to regroup, ready for the 2^nd half.

We expected to come under severe pressure in those opening minutes of the 2^nd half but in actual fact started off brightly and moved further ahead after 5 minutes. A long ball forward from Abdul was met by Nathan who lobbed it high over the keeper and in to the empty net.

It was delirium. 2 goals clear, in a cup final against a top team. The only downside was that Nathan incurred a smack to the face during the celebrations and had to come off with a nose bleed. It was terrible timing from his and the team’s point of view.

In the minutes that followed we nearly went further ahead when Kareem won the ball near the halfway line and burst forward to the edge of the box meeting the keeper on a one on one. Unfortunately his shot just went past the post. That would have given us so much breathing space but it wasn’t to be.

Instead, Rugby got themselves back in the game with a well taken goal with just under quarter of an hour left on the clock. That certainly set up a nervy end to the game and changed the whole shape of the last few minutes.

The nerves, nails and hair were well and truly shredded by the end, and we saved the final blocked shot until the dying seconds.

But we got there, and then all hell broke loose. Against all the odds we had done the double. The scenes at the end will live with us all forever I am sure. And we now have the DVD to remind us of those magical moments.

A stunning end to a stunning season. Over the course of 24 competitive games, we had come unstuck just 3 times, including once against today’s opponents. In the 6 games that we had played in both cup competitions, we had overcome 4 A league teams and a B league team, and suffered just the solitary defeat against Rugby in the quarter final of the internal cup.

That is some achievement and one that we rightly feel proud of. When it came to the big games our lads showed up time and again and more than anything demonstrated amazing mental strength.

Well done lads, you blew us all away at times this season with the quality of your football, and capped it all today with an outstanding cup success.