Normally Non League Finals Day would signify the end of the season for clubs but for some there’s an extension of a week or just a few days. Such has been the incredible success for Littlehampton Town this season there was another cup final to come just days after Wembley heartache.
Having secured the league and cup double but missed out on the FA Vase at the weekend Town had a chance to secure a historic treble for the first time in their history, the league champions and runners-up Saltdean Utd went head to head in the Sussex Principal RUR Cup final at Culver Road.
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Not surprisingly Littlehampton juggled the squad around including Joe Benn playing as more a number 10 than anything else behind Zac Harris, George Gaskin making a welcome return to the dug out with managerial duties after Sunday’s horrific clash which saw an overnight stay in hospital.
Their opponents were denied promotion after failing the FA ground grading criteria and manager Bryan O’Toole subsequently left the club after the completion of the league season around a month ago. Despite this Utd fielded a pretty decent strength side and as I’ve seen this season from Littlehampton you can take 4 or 5 out and replace them with an equal performance.
Saltdean had the first chance of the game after 10 minutes, James Binfield with a smart save down to his right to tip the ball around the post as we seemed set for a pulsating clash with plenty of endeavour despite one team not playing a game for four weeks and the other coming off the back of that huge Sunday game.
It did take a little while for Town to get themselves on the ball but the pace of Lucas Pattenden as has been so often this season a fantastic outlet and one that provides so much.
Littlehampton took the lead on 19 minutes, Lee Garnham threading the ball through to Harris who then returned the compliment and with a big deflection the midfielder opened the scoring.
Just five minutes later Town were on the scoresheet again as Pattenden was upended in the penalty area and Benn stepped up to score a remarkable 60th goal of the season, the quickfire double had Littlehampton well in their stride and a lot to do for Saltdean to get themselves back into the game, looking a little shellshocked.
Dion Jarvis brought a great save out of James Broadbent as Town could have put the game to bed before half time as Utd struggled to get any momentum after the double salvo for the remainder of the half.
Littlehampton began the second half with a clear intent to get the game won early on as they pressed and hurried Utd in possession causing a few errors and with the twin wing threat of Jarvis and Pattenden still causing all sorts of problems.
Harris was unlucky on a few occasions not to find the net himself, the best effort on 68 mins after being slid in by Benn, tested the reflexes of Broadbent but unable to make the net ripple.
Benn himself had a couple of half chances while Pattenden cut inside his full back only to find his efforts blocked on the way to goal. Saltdean to their great credit probed and pushed to find a way back into the game but again only really half chances in the final ten minutes, not much to test Binfield in the Town goal.
There was a glorious late chance in stoppage time for Utd to claw one back but the ball sailed over the bar leaving Town to clinch an unbelievable third trophy of the season, one that most supporters are unlikely to see ever again happen in their lifetime.
A quite amazing season to follow that, even with the best will in the world no one would have predicted it was going to turn out like this, I’ve dug out a part I wrote in a blog back in July when Town faced Worthing in a pre-season friendly.
Little did I know then I’d be pretty spot on, just nine defeats from 62 competitive games this season is a staggering figure with over 200 goals scored and three players appearing in over 50 of those games, stats courtesy of the brilliant @marigoals_ on Twitter.
60 goals from Joe Benn is just remarkable, possibly the best at Step 5 this season total wise and 47 from George Gaskin would have won someone a title on it’s own, Benn on Wednesday deployed in a much deeper role and still having an influence on the game, when you think back the striker missed three months of the season through injury what could that total have been?
As I mentioned above there were a few changes from Sunday, five in total and it didn’t make a difference to the performance, that’s been the case this season on any occasion I have watched them and that amounts to me 15 times out of the 61 games I watched from Step 1 to Step 7.
So there we have it, that’s the season finished for live games, this time last year I was still watching as well due to the National League starting later than most but while there is no football to watch bar Step 1 play-off’s there is plenty going on as always in non-league football and rest assured there will be eight blogs a month through the summer with interviews lined up and to be agreed and lots of other news, don’t go anywhere this summer without having a read!
