Essex Senior Cup Final 2011

Billericay Town v Aveley FC

Not part of our scehdule this game, but when on a tour of Essex clubs, who would dare turn down the opportunity of seeing a cup final?

And so it was after 4 days of unseasonally scorching April weather, we approached Ship Lane (for the second time this season) accompanied by heavy rain clouds and a brisk wind. Trust our luck that the weather should decide to turn, myself finding it particularly incredulous after being sat sunbathing merely hours before.
Fortunately though the rain would ease by the time the teams took to the pitch, and despite the breeze, it would still be a darn sight warmer than the last time we were here to see Thurrock play.

There seemed to be something fishy going on as both Tuna and Salmon were missing from the Aveley line-up, and yet we'd only seen them play a few weeks before. We quickly realised though that at this level a lot of the players move from club to club on short term deals meaning it was highly likely that a fair few of the team that we witnessed lose to Wealdstone were probably cup-tied for tonight.
We both predicted a comfortable Billericay victory knowing full well that despite Aveley's commitment to the cause, they lack any real penetration going forward. It seemed their best chance of a positive result would be to keep things tight at the back.

Billericay scored after 60 seconds. No mean feat seeing as it was from a free kick by defender Flanagan who had to wait at least half that time for the Aveley wall to assemble themselves. Unperturbed, Flanagan cooly curled his shot around the wall and neatly into the bottom corner.
I would say it silenced the Aveley crowd, but they didn't seem to have one, just a handful of young fans. To their credit though, one of them had brought a drum to literally try to drum up some support, using it sparingly in the first half, and annoyingly in the second.

So after 1 minute the game was effectively over, but to their credit Aveley fought as hard as they could, with Orlando Smith once again being their most threatening player, but a lack of composure in front of goal thwarted any attempts at a comeback.

We compared the game to that of the 1997 FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Middlesbrough. In that showpiece, Chelsea scored inside a minute and added a second to kill the game, sending the 40,000 or so Chelsea fans into deliruim. Much the same here, Billericay eventually grabbed a second, resulting in 450 or so Billericay Town supporters chanting with glee as they knew they'd be bringing the cup home for the first time in 35 years.

It was a little disheartening to see the Aveley players trudge off at full time to collect their runners-up medals with barely any of their own fans to greet them. Credit though to the opposition support who stood and clapped them as they approached, and despite only being a Non-League Final, the obvious dejection on the players faces was for all to see.
But soon it was time for the winners to approach, and quite possibly the worlds largest trophy was lifted in delight by club captain Micah Hyde. He may be in the twilight of his career, a former Premier League player, a former International player in fact, but winning is winning, and Hyde was clearly enjoying the victory as much as his less prestigious teammates.