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2006-2007 Season of the National Christian Cup
Report from the winners, St Albans Romans
St Albans Romans win the National Christian Cup.
St Albans Romans FC, a local Christian Team, produced a storming second half
performance last Saturday to win the National Christian Cup by 4-0. The final
of the competition was played at Nene Park, the impressive home of Rushden &
Diamonds, and was refereed by Dermot Gallagher, the Premiership referee, in his
last competitive fixture before retirement.
St Albans played Doncaster Evangelical Churches in the final having beaten
opposition from Chelmsford, South Wales, Bradford and Liverpool en route. Both
teams were making their first appearances in the final and started nervously.
The St Albans centre backs, Tom Gunning and Adam Powell marshalled the defence
well but the forwards struggled to get through a strong Doncaster defence and
there were few chances in the first half.
The second half started in a similar fashion until St Albans made an inspired
substitution on the hour mark to bring on Danny Lanham and push the pacy Jon
Kendall further forward. The change quickly forced a corner and the resulting
cross was knocked back to Adam Powell who drove the ball home for a vital first
goal.
The Doncaster players were stunned and the Romans immediately doubled their lead
when Allan Gray put Steve Harris through on goal and he provided a quality
finish. Doncaster continued to battle for a way back but the greater fitness of
the St Albans side began to show. Two further goals followed on the
counter-attack, firstly from Zoltan Konkoly with a stunning volley and then Pete
Wilson rounded off the scoring in the last minute.
The overall scoreline did not reflect the close game but St Albans were jubilant
and their captain, Will Kumar, received the trophy from Derek Jefferson, the
former Ipswich and Wolves player who now heads up Sports Pursuits, a leading
charity that encourages young people to take up sport. Derek awarded Adam
Powell the Man of the Match for his defensive performance and crucial first goal
which was the catalyst for the Romans victory.
St Albans Romans was started 10 years ago by members of the catholic churches in
the city and it runs two teams playing in local Christian leagues in
Hertfordshire. The National Cup win rounds off a spectacular season in which
the first team have only lost twice and have achieved the league and cup double
for the second year in a row. Further information on the club can be found at
www.romans.org.uk.
Report from Doncaster Evangelical
A game of two contrasting halves. Both teams began a little nervously,
understandably so given that it was the first appearance for both sides in
such a prestigious cup final.
Doncaster had slightly the better of things in a very hard but fairly
contested first half although St Albans had the more clear cut chances to
take a lead, a very strong header from a corner just missing the target
being a typical example. Doncaster felt they may have had a shout for a
penalty award, however top ref Dermott Gallager ruled the challenge to be on
the line of the 18 yard box, the resulting free kick not causing any
problems to St Albans.
Doncaster had a good spell of possession midway through the half with a
number of corners resulting from the pressure, however St Albans defended
well and managed to break effectively, but couldn't manage to create a clear
finishing opportunity. 0-0 at half time and things pretty even, with
Doncaster having the greater percentage of the ball.
St Albans came out for the second half with a renewed spirit and purpose,
and after 5 minutes put Doncaster on the back foot, Doncaster failed to
raise their game to combat this, and seemed to be suffering somewhat from
an attitude of complacency.
St Albans opened the scoring from a corner which was not cleared
effectively, a low drive from the edge of the box finding the Doncaster net.
Almost immediately from the restart St Albans got their second, poor
defendind allowing the St Albans striker to get goal side of his marker and
run in on goal,fending off a chasing defender, to coolly lob the Doncaster
keeper, 2-0.
Doncaster seemeed to have the stuffing knocked out of them having conceded
two goals so quickly and never really recovered. With 25 minutes left they
made tactical changes to try and take the game to St Albans, but superb
defending and superior levels of fitness saw St Albans deal with this very
effectively, and a break down the Doncaster left saw a superb cross met with
an even better finish, to the top corner on the half volley, making a 3-0
lead too much for Doncaster to pull back.
A last minute defensive error by Doncaster handed St Albans a fourth goal to
bring to an end a dismal second half display by the Yorkshiremen, not taking
anything away from a St Albans team who were clinical in their finishing and
full of confidence and passion, deserved winners , even though the final
score did not really reflect upon the overall content of the game.