Billericay Town U18s 2-2 Brentwood Town U18s A.E.T.
(Brentwood Town win 5-4 on penalties)
EJA Challenge Cup Final
Thursday 13th May at Brentwood Arena

Match report by John Mifsud.
Photos by Amanda Protheroe & Stephen Radley.

The U18s long campaign came to end at Brentwood on Thursday night after a long drawn out but entertaining game of football played by both sides.

It was an evening that saw the balance of strength swing from side to side, with many good chances falling to both teams.

It was Brentwood that drew first blood right on the stroke of half time giving the holders of the Cup plenty to think about in the break if they were to penetrate Brentwood's solid defence to get on level terms.

And so they did! 10 minutes into the second half saw Blues striker Jacob Cleaver level things up with a well taken strike just inside the box (with a little deflection to help things along the way).

But then 1 min later (guess what?) the oldest lesson in the (football manual) book was applied and Brentwood had regained the lead with a well-taken goal.

With full credit to the youngsters; their heads could of truly dropped but instead they dug in and the midfield consisting of Billy Radley, Bradley Hooper, Danny James and Tom Deval started to link up well with forwards Mike Marsh and Jacob Cleaver upping their tempo which resulted in relentless pressure leading to a superb taken free kick taken by Billericay left back Ricky Brown on 68 minutes which gave the Brentwood keeper no chance of saving whatsoever.

From then on Billericay had control of the game with some solid goalkeeping from Lewis Lockyer and defending from Kane Branson, Connel Dunlop, James O’Brian and Ricky Brown, but in all fairness to Brentwood they held fast with also some good neat defending and goalkeeping which took the game to the end of normal time after 90 miiutes ending at two a piece.

Extra time came and went with both sides looking now rather tried after 120 minutes played. It was really a shame there weren't two Cups as both sides had really earned the respect of each other and no one wanted or deserved to go out on penalties.

But penalties it was and as the saying goes? The rest is history!

After the game Blues Manager Paul Moody said; "What a great season it’s been for the lads, I am proud of every single one of them in the squad. With so many of them coming through the ranks and stepping up not only from the U15s and U16s but playing for the ressies and the first team."

As for the Cup?  Well, we’ll let Brentwood baby-sit it for us for (short) while; they are a very good side and well deserved, well done to them.


Squad: Lewis Lockyer, Kane Branson, Connel Dunlop, James O’Brian, Ricky Brown, Billy Radley, Bradley Hooper, Danny James, Tom Deval, Mike Marsh, Jacob Cleaver, Alex Kent, Kofi Kessie, Mark Laing,  George Sofroniou, Matt Harper-Penman.