Orpington Rovers are Kent Reliance Sunday Junior Trophy winners after a terrific final against a very gutsy AFC Westgate United Services Club who played for an hour with just ten men, but more than matched the winners every step of the way.
The game’s only goal was a penalty on the half hour which only followed a remarkable passage of play when AFCWUSC keeper and Man of the Match Simon Chittim performed single handed heroics to keep his side level only for Orpington to be awarded a spot kick from which they scored.
Chittim though deserves the plaudits he received for (along with his fellow defenders) keeping Rovers at bay as his side pressed forward more and more in search of a goal that just wouldn’t come.
In the end it was Orpington then who prevailed much to the delight of boss Neil Barnes who spoke with KSN after the game for the second time in the weekend after leading Kingsdale to the Kent Junior Cup C on Saturday.
“It’s been quite a weekend”, he admitted after the game. “You couldn’t write this. After yesterday, today’s fantastic, especially as Orpington have been my team for a number of years now and this for the club is unheard of. We’ve been going since 1979 and within that time, this is the first time we’ve won a Kent trophy – a fantastic day.”
“In all honesty I think the referee was right with the red card, and I think the player was very unlucky, but it is sadly the letter of the law. Before that however the keeper denied my son Graeme three times I think it was – I won’t ask him about it until he’s had a few drinks” said a very proud Dad smiling, “but seriously I thought the keeper and his defence were fantastic in that passage of play, and for that matter for most of the game, and I hope that the game as a whole was as entertaining for the crowd, even if it wasn’t for the managers.”
“I think the extra man in the end told and enabled us to create the chances and possession. I think we just about edged it and can’t begin to tell you how proud I am. I have a place in my heart for Orpington and today is quite something for me personally, it really is.”
Westgate player boss Aaron Miles was naturally disappointed when he spoke with KSN.
“Massively, massively disappointed,” he admitted. “I thought the boys did brilliantly with ten men, but to lose to a penalty and an early sending off – I thought it was harsh.”
“The effort was undoubtedly there with ten, but I thought we controlled the game with eleven. We set out to exploit their lack of pace down the wings and it was working. We had a great chance before the penalty and it’s a different game if that goes in.”
“I must be honest I think I’d have preferred the keeper to let in one of the four he saved before the penalty as we’d have been left with eleven, but he was absolutely superb, and when they called his name for Man of the Match, I really couldn’t have thought of anyone else on the pitch who deserved it more.”
“We kept saying to the boys all week if we’re not first you’re last, so it’s a gutting day for us, but we’ve done really, really well and if we haven’t covered ourselves in the glory we may have warranted, we got close. So proud of all of them that I can’t tell you!”
After the opening half hour was spent with the two sides adjusting to the pitch and each other, the first real chance of any note fell to AFCWUSC when James McPherson was beaten to a long through ball by Ale King, who knocked the ball back to his keeper Jordan Glendon.
Problem was though that the keeper’s clearance was poor going straight back to McPherson whose low shot was well saved at the base of the left post.
The deadlock was broken in Orpington’s next forward foray and it was very hard not to have sympathy with AFC keeper Simon Chittim.
He made a fine save to firstly deny Babs Ojo and then proceeded to deny Graeme Barnes not once, not twice, but three times with each save becoming more remarkable than the preceeding one!
Barnes finally managed to get the ball past the keeper only for the ball to hit Neil Roberts on the line. Referee Firmin had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and sending the defender off for what looked like a harsh handball, but a penalty it was, and Cameron Shields made no mistake sending the ultimately unlucky keeper the wrong way.
On the stroke of half time, Robert Wells’ free kick was straight at Chittim as it was fired through the crowd and any touch would have left the keeper routed to the spot, but this time fortune was on the keeper’s side as the ball thudded into his chest.
The ten men started the second period very brightly and McPherson had a low drive early on that Glendon did well to hold away to his right. Dave Northam then went close with a low drive that the Orpington keeper did brilliantly to get down to – turning the low shot round his right post as the Thanet side stepped up their search for an equaliser.
With spaces starting to appear at the back for AFCWUSC, Orpington had the space and room to now play on the counter attack and so nearly doubled their lead when Wells got on the end of some magnificent one touch football only to be denied by a superb last ditch tackle by Greg Parsons and then in their next attack Joseph Visser stung Chittim’s hands with an angled drive.
Barnes then turned provider with a great angled pass for Visser whose first time shot flew across the face of the AFCWUSC goal.
Try as they might, the ten men couldn’t score the goal that they needed leaving coach Barnes to collect his second Trophy in two days as another Kent Trophy heads for the Barnes mantelpiece ..
AFCWUSC – Simon Chittim, Ben Davies, Neil Roberts, Kelvin Jackson, George Wickes, Ryan Roberts , Alan Ling, Jacob Jackson-Wells, Dave Northam, James McPherson, Adam Lavender
Subs – Ben Lambert, Aarin Miles, Greg Parsons, Jamie Martin, Jamie Pert
ORPINGTON – Jordan Glendon, Alex King, Callum Naessens, Lee Peters, James Hutley, Denzel Walters, Graeme Barnes, Cameron Shields, Robert Wells, Joseph Visser, Babs Ojo
Subs – Steve Visser, Scott Barnes, Jesse Visser, David Moores
REFEREE – Dean Firmin
ASSISTANTS – Barry Jeal, Chris Minter and Shaun Laver
Pictures supplied by PSP Images.