League Cup News

Cup Final 2010 Result & Report

On a cold night at Witham Town our last final of the season between division 2 champions Walnut Tree and County cup finalist's and still chasing the premier division title Wickford Town came to a head, Wickford in their famous yellow and green and Walnut Tree in their distinct red got under way, with two teams knocking the ball around with confidence and working hard for each other they cancelled each other's attack's out, you had Mark Fitheridge and Dave Boakes barking out the orders from the sidelines to their teams, the first big attack from Wickford midway through the half saw Marc Collyer run on to the ball and beat Matt Newton in the Tree goal with a well timed lob to open the scoring for the premier side, straight from the restart Walnut Tree came close when they had a goal bound shot deflected over the bar, the Tree had the bit between their teeth and Nick Strachan was sweeping up at the back for Wickford at every opportunity, by now the game was in full swing, Ben Willmore of Wickford was in fine form tipping over a super header from one of the Fitheridge boys, Wickford had a free kick 25 yards out wide and Nick Strachan hit a super curling shot inches wide of the top corner of the goal, just before half time Jordan Hazell's long throw was headed over the bar. The second half got under way with Walnut Tree keeping the ball and pressing hard at the Town defence, 3 minutes in and the Tree get a throw, from Chris Montague's throw Pat O'Connell Ghosted in (like martin peters) and flipped the ball with the back of his head over Ben Willmore and into the net to the delight of his team mates and fans to level the game at 1-1, Wickford upped their play and after a clever through ball from midfield Jamie Newman ran through went round keeper Matt Newton and tapped the ball into the empty net to take the Town 2-1 up, the pace was increasing with both teams going for goal and it was Wickford's turn to press forward and after the ball was cleared by the Tree's defender's to the edge of the box Jamie Newman looked up and curled a great shot into the net inches from Newton's finger tips to make the score 3-1, the ball was played to Jordan Hazell on the half way line and he ran down the flank and crossed the ball, as the ball came into the box it was hit goal bound from one of the Fitheridge boys (hard to tell them apart from a 100 metres) and it hit the defender on the line and he cleared it to safety, second's later another header was tipped over by Willmore in the Town goal, with time running out for the Tree, Wickford's Ben Freeman ran down the left wing beat two defender's cut into the box and hit the ball towards the top corner but Matt Newton tipped the ball away to safety, Walnut Tree pushed forward and Wickford's defender's were holding on and blocking shot's, the referee blew his whistle to end a really good game of football, there were handshakes all round, Congratulation's to Wickford and Commiseration's to the Walnut Tree, the referee was Scott Frain, his assistant's were Martin Bircher and Francis Cotton, and the fourth official was Jim Haynes, once again a big thank you to Witham Town for the use of their facilities and the committee member's and Mick Newman for the great work they do at these event's.