St Michaels F C 1 Sevenacres & Sidcup F C 3 Game played 15/4/12
St Michaels F C arrived at VCD’s ground in Crayford as massive underdogs in the Bob Snow Memorial Cup Final. Whilst St Michaels headed the Second Division, their opponents were at the top of the First Division having won 15 out of 15 of their League Games with their only defeat this season being in the semi final of the Arnold & May Beckley cup where they were narrowly defeated 2-1 by the leaders of the Senior Division.
This however meant nothing to the St Michaels team who, cheered on by a large contingent of club and family members battled for every ball and more than held their own in a tense and frantic first 30 minutes. Unfortunately the deadlock was broken a minute later when a header at the far post was scrambled in by a Sevenacres player. This just spurred St Michaels on even further and with only a few minutes of the half remaining Adam Fahy (aka Tom Daley) was brought down (evidently), and the resultant penalty was calmly put in by Ronnie Mewes to make the scores level at half Time.
H T St Michaels F C 1 Sevenacres & Sidcup F C 1
The 2nd half continue in the same vein with both teams battling for the all important 2nd goal. Play continued at a fierce pace with the referee continuing to be inconsistent with his decisions by booking Jack Meade when he won the ball fairly and letting the Sevenacres Centre Forward off when he badly studded Adam Fahy on the thigh. These strange decisions were to be pivotal in the match when Ben Baptiste was unfairly adjudged to have fouled his man and the Sevenacres Centre Forward who should not still have been on the park stepped up to strike a free kick from 30 yards against the crossbar and then unluckily bounce of the diving Harry Graham into the net.
St Michaels continued to push for the equaliser and had a few good opportunities that were not taken. With just 5 minutes left a mistake in the St Michaels defence led to Sevenacres scoring from wide out on the right and making the score 1-3 to Sevenacres. To the credit of St Michaels they still did not give up and almost scored on a couple of occasions which would have set up an intriguing last couple of minutes. The final score remained St Michaels F C 1 Sevenacres & Sidcup F C 3.
Whilst every player gave their all special mentions go to the captain Sam Meade who was tireless in defence and gave a superb performance at Centre Half, Jack Meade and Ben Baptiste who gave their normal battling performances. Man of The Final however goes to Dan Regan who foiled numerous Sevenacre attacks and was always a threat going forward.
What a great effort by the boys. They never stopped running, tackling and fighting for the cause. They are a credit to themselves, their parents and St Michaels Football Club. This will not be our last final but merely the first of many. Now on to the League and lets finish with what we deserve the League Title.
As a foot note I received a text from the Sevenacres Manager after the game congratulating us on our performance. He said that we were the best team they have played all season and gave them their toughest game.
