Stevenage Borough Ladies celebrate a goal in the Girls U14 County Cup Final

County Cup Round-up: Issue 3

A recap of this years County Cup Finals, this issue including the Senior Challenge Cup, Boys and Girls U14's and the Boys U16's.

Senior Challenge Cup – Boreham Wood FC 2-1 Royston Town

The opening fifteen minutes of the Senior Cup final at Vauxhall Road was fairly even, with the best chance coming from Royston Town free-kick from 25-yards out.

Boreham Wood slowly got going, and on 17 minutes began to look livelier when Watford loanee Michael Folivi had an effort from outside the box collected by Crows’ keeper Josh Tibbetts.

Minutes later, another Premier League loanee Josh Quigley had his effort saved by Tibbetts after breaking down the right hand side and into the box.

Quigley squandered another chance on the half-hour mark, when he put another effort wide of the post.

This was soon forgotten however, when Angelo Balanta placed his free-kick effortlessly in the top left had corner of the net from 25 yards out, to put The Wood 2-0 up.

On 34 minutes, Quigley finally got his goal, as he picked the ball up in the area and cleverly manoeuvred the ball around the keeper to pass into an empty net, doubling the lead.

20 minutes into the second half, Boreham Wood had the chance to put the game to bed, but Tibbetts had other ideas as he pulled off a remarkable double save, pushing the ball onto the bar and out.

As we entered the final ten minutes, Royston captain Scott Bridges pulled one back for the Crows, 2-1.

They pushed for a late equaliser but continued to catch themselves out, as they let Boreham Wood break a couple of times on the counter-attack, but Tibbetts kept them out.

It wasn’t to be for Royston though, as the full-time whistle blew which meant Boreham Wood are this season’s Senior Challenge Cup Winners!

Girls U14 Challenge Cup – Boreham Wood 2000 0-6 Stevenage Ladies

Stevenage Ladies came into this game knowing in the back of their mind they’ll be heading to the FA People’s Cup Finals next month; a victory at The County Ground would set this opportunity up perfectly.

Both sides had excellent records going into this game, Boreham Wood 2000 conceding the only goal between them, but both racking up an impressive 18 goals.

Despite Boreham Wood having a good record in the tournament up until now and playing some great football in the final, it just wasn’t their day as Stevenage turned up and ran out 6-0 winners.

The Wood defended excellently to keep the score at 1-0 going in to half-time, after wave after wave of attack from The Boro, but Stevenage’s magnificent football and team-work was too much for Boreham Wood to handle.

Congratulations to both teams, Boreham Wood 2000 on their impressive cup run and Stevenage on their back-to-back County Cups.

 

Boys U14 Challenge Cup – Ware FC Academy 4-0 Chars Youth 

Sunday 22nd April was a big day for Ware FC’s Academy, with two teams featuring in Finals at the County Ground.

First up was the U14’s who faced Mid Herts Rural Minors League leader Chars Youth.

Ware FC, currently competing in the Eastern Junior Alliance League, were favourites for this one, but Chars Youth, who sit top of their league with an 11-point gap, had the ability to give Ware a challenge.

On the day, Chars Youth didn’t turn up like they had in previous cup games on their route to Letchworth’s County Ground.

They were beaten 4-0 by a very good Ware FC Academy side, who’ve looked impressive all season.

With Chars Youth being only six years old, the future looks bright! Congratulations for both teams on making the Final!

 

Boys U16 Challenge Cup – Ware FC Academy 3-2 St Albans City Youth
Double delight for Ware FC Academy!
In what shaped up to be a very impressive and closely contested game, we weren’t disappointed!
Both teams apply their trade in the Eastern Junior Alliance leagues, Ware FC competing in the U16 Black division and currently sit top, whilst St Albans City play in the U16 Brown league and are in fourth place.
Going into the game, like the U14’s in the previous game, Ware were the favourites going into the game, which ended up going right down to the wire. 
With the game ending 2-2 with a fair amount of chances going to each side, we entered extra-time to determine a winner, which was stolen by Ware in the last few minutes of the game.
A gutting ending for St Albans after they put in a great shift, but the quality from Ware showed in the end after they nicked the winner with minutes to go!