Chingford Athletic Claim Saturday Junior Cup

Chingford Athletic 2-0 Iona, Wednesday 20th April 2016, Kick-Off 7:45pm, New Lodge, Essex Saturday Junior Cup Final.

Chingford Athletic marked their first appearance in the Essex Saturday Junior Cup Final with a 2-0 victory over Iona at Billericay Town FC.

Speedy striker Michael Mignot and dead ball specialist David Livie provided the two goals at either end of the encounter to hand the Essex Alliance League outfit a maiden County Cup success and leave Manager Lee Bowers brimming with pride: “I’m absolutely delighted. I’m still a bit shocked!” he declared after the final whistle had sounded.

“I’ve just been looking at the trophy and the oldest name on it is from 1893, so I’m delighted for the boys that they have put our name on it. I thought, over the course of the game, we deserved it; we created more chances. Iona were a good team and they passed the ball around, and I don’t think our players coped with the bobbly pitch as well as they did, but we created the chances and looked a bit more threatening,” he added.

Mignot gave Chingford the lead in the 8th minute. Having previously delivered a series of dangerous crosses from the right-hand side which were cleared to safety, on this occasion the attacker darted in behind defender Steve Green to latch onto an under-hit back-pass and slot confidently underneath Sam Boardman.

“Since Christmas, we have normally been slow starters and we normally get the goals in the second half, but we’re pretty tight at the back and I think that’s about our 15th clean sheet of the season from around 30 games in all competitions,” reported Bowers.

“We know we don’t concede many, so trying to get a goal early does settle us a bit. We’re not a one-man team by any means, but I think Mike is near to the 40 mark in terms of goals in all competitions, which is tremendous.”

Iona sought an immediate response, but they found themselves thwarted by Athletic goalkeeper Jack Francis, who gathered Jim Darke’s near-post strike after he had exchanged passes with George Fosh. Darke, in particular, looked threatening on the left flank, though the Mid Essex League team were unable to further test Francis inside the opening 30 minutes.

The rapid Mignot was almost presented with an opportunity to double his personal tally shortly after the mid-point of the first half. This time gloveman Boardman was quickly off his line to prevent him racing onto a Jack Eva through ball. On the half-hour, Tom Kavanagh also went close as he fired wide at the far post from an Eva corner.

A beautiful move involving Jonny Hirst and Will Gleeson ended with Kavanagh steering the ball across the face of goal in the 37th minute before Boardman had to keep his composure a couple of minutes later to apprehend first Mignot, then Gary Murray just outside his own penalty area.

Chingford continued to pressurise the Iona defence and, five minutes before the break, Livie’s measured 25-yard free-kick was wonderfully palmed to safety by the agile Boardman. However, Iona threatened themselves two minutes later when Fosh’s clipped set piece wasn’t sufficiently cleared and Dan Darke’s close-range effort was deflected wide.

There was still time for the menacing Mignot to use his devastating pace to good effect as Chingford sought to end the opening period by doubling their advantage. He sped down the left flank, advancing one-on-one with Boardman before wastefully smashing over, leaving his team with the most slender of leads at the interval.

Even that had to be preserved by Francis in stoppage time as he palmed a powerful Nathan Berry header over from point-blank range after Dan Darke’s initial effort from a corner had been cleared off the goal line. Iona were quickly on top in the second period, too, with Charlie Nichols warming Francis’ gloves following Berry’s 54th-minute pass.

Bowers insisted this proved their triumph was a collective effort: “Gary, who played up front with Mike for most of the game, gives him the support and tries to create stuff. I didn’t think we played at our best, but we did well. The boys at the back need a mention, and the goalkeeper. He did the basics well, even if there weren’t too many saves for the cameras. We had to use five subs as the boys were getting cramp on what was a big pitch to play on.”

At the other end, a tenacious run by Murray culminated in Boardman making a smart near-post stop on the hour, and Livie was unfortunate when the custodian spilt his shot from a Mignot centre, only for the ball to be scrambled away from danger in the 65th minute.

Iona’s best chance of equalising came ten minutes from time when Berry got in behind Francis and cut the ball back to substitute Charlie Nichols, who saw his shot deflected over. Their hopes were quashed in the 88th minute when Chris Collins was adjudged to have brought down Mignot and Livie stepped up to smash the resultant penalty into the back of the net.

“In the second half, I think they had made a few subs at half time and we were battling hard but, when the space opens up a bit and our forward gets his legs running, he won the penalty to kill the game off,” claimed Bowers, who has set his sights on more silverware now that the Saturday Junior Cup has been secured.

“If we get accepted into the Essex Olympian League, then we’d move up into the Premier Cup. Hopefully we can step up and add a few more players and go a long way in that competition. It would be a nice challenge and I think the boys deserve it. When we get the ball down and play, we’re a really good football team, but they need that little bit of belief sometimes.”

Chingford Athletic: Jack Francis, Anton Trice, Jonny Hirst, Jack Coker, Matt Thompson, David Livie, Will Gleeson, Gary Murray, Jack Eva, Michael Mignot, Tom Kavanagh. Substitutes (repeated): Michael Hay, Luke Arnold, Billy Harding, Tom Pearce, James Clarke.

Iona: Sam Boardman, John Perry, James Perry, Ed Freeman, Steve Green, George Fosh, Nathan Berry, Jason Summers, Jim Darke, Dan Darke, Chris More. Substitutes (repeated): Stuart Connew, Josh Flook, Joe Woods, Chris Collins, Charlie Nichols.

Bookings: Chingford: Kavanagh (41, foul).

Referee: David Gainsford (Basildon).

Assistant Referees: Steve Connor (Braintree) and Aaron Irvine (Westcliff-on-Sea).

Fourth Official: Andrew Simmonds (Grays).

Attendance: 197.