Croxley (Home) - Cup

Date: Saturday 17th February '07         
Time: 10:30                                             
Competition: Challenge Cup
Location: Home (Boggymead Springs)


St Albans Romans                            2 (0)
  Harris
 Gray

Croxley Baptist Church                   1 (0)
  


Match Report

Meetings between the two teams are usually close affairs and this turned about to be another tight battle.

To be honest, neither team really played as well as they can and as a spectacle it was more of a Northampton v Millwall than Real v Bayern.

Anyway, apart from Croxley having to reorganise after an unfortunate early doors injury to their centre half, the main highlight of a fairly tense first half was an amazing miss from Gray who managed to crash the ball against the crossbar from 12yds despite there being no keeper in between the posts.

On the half hour mark the Croxley 'keeper pulled off a great save to deny Wyatt.

In between these efforts Whittaker had to come off injured on 27'.

Second half and still all to play for.

A bit more action this half.

Kumar made Gray feel a bit better by managing to miss from underneath the crossbar following a good move started by himself on 48'.

Croxley then had 3 chances in the next 10 minutes but were unable to force a save.

On 60' Romans took the lead after a good move ended with Harris rounding the keeper to slot home with more than a hint of offside.

Ten minutes later Croxley were back level after a simple move found the usually rock solid Powell wrong side and the Croxley forward coolly
lobbed 'keeper Chav.

Croxley almost took the lead a minute later from a free kick which had the defence scrambling to clear.

Capt Will was upset and had to do his William Wallace Battle of Falkirk speech. This had immediate effect.

The effect was Will handballing in a dangerous area and Chavster pulling off a great save from the resultant free kick. (Note to Will - Nobody has ever fallen for that holding your face after handball trick)

On 83 minutes with the game looking like it was going to extra time, the ball was lost by the Croxley midfield (after Lanham had passed to them) and Harris rounded a defender to shoot for glory. His shot was very well saved but Gray was on hand to tap in to make it 2-1.

Romans held on despite a last minute scare from a close range header and now meet new boys Kings Sports in the Final in an attempt to retain the Cup.

Not the best of games and need to move up a gear for next weeks National quarter final.