The Isuzu FA Vase has fond memories for me over the years for a variety of reasons. Back in 2013 when the final was on a separate day to the Trophy Tunbridge Wells arrived at Wembley to play Spennymoor Town. My father was involved at the Wells until his sudden death some two years prior and would have loved that day out.
Four years ago I was privileged to provide the newspaper coverage for my then hometown team Littlehampton Town as they reached Wembley on the back of a league title win and two cup triumph’s.
Non League Finals Day for me signals the end of the non-league season at the home of football and I really enjoy to watch the rawness of the Vase final for players who might never get this kind of opportunity again to the more technical and tactical prowess of the Step 1 and 2 clubs in the Trophy final, plus the day itself is great value for two games of football.
Hailing from Kent I will always back a team from there and with Punjab Utd securing a 1-1 draw at Cockfosters in the first leg, it was all to play for in North Kent on Saturday afternoon. The visitors are more well known for being a station at the end of the Piccadilly Line, but they are in the hunt for a play-off place in the Spartan South Midlands Premier Division.
Likewise for Punjab in the Southern Counties East Premier Division and with a cup final to come this month, it’s been a decent season for both sides but only one could progress to Wembley.
With queues building at 1.45pm, the tie certainly captured the imagination of the people as it should have done for a game of this magnitude. With the tie nicely poised after the first leg, this 90 minutes was interesting to see how both approached it.
A wind was brewing itself up which stayed for the full duration of the game so how both dealt with that was key to the proceedings, the hosts having the extra for the first half.
I had said before the game an early for Punjab would have set the tone and maybe set the pattern for what might unfold. The wind with them seemed to work against them as Mitch Beeney’s drop kicks were more often than not going straight through to his opposing number Connor Sansom.
With the need to play the ball more on the floor, Cockfosters opened the scoring on 11 minutes, when an overhead kick from George Lutaaya from the far right of the penalty area looped over the top of Beeney and into the net.
With the visitors having something to defend and not needing to force the game the onus was on Punjab to take the game to their opponents and whilst Chris Edwards’ free kick forced a good save from Sansom the home side just couldn’t get anything going to trouble the Cocks.
The consensus at half time was that the second half against the wind might suit the hosts more than the first 45 but it turned out to be more of the same with Cockfosters keeping the home side at arm’s length and not able to test Sansom.
The visitors wrapped up the tie four minutes from time as Jandir Da Cruz was given a free header in the six yard box and made no mistake to seal their passage to Wembley and no way back for Punjab.
There was time for a mass brawl on 90 minutes which resulted in a red card for Punjab’s Jack Barry, Junior Moses for the visitors slightly lucky to escape a card of any colour I felt, but Cockfosters worthy winners and heading for the arch on 17th May.
A superb crowd of 1,209 were in to see, a great achievement for any side to reach the last four and the fact that whoever made Wembley had already surpassed their previous best run in the competition shows how difficult it is to win this competition let alone getting back to defend it.
Punjab will feel disappointed that they didn’t give everyone a good show of who they really are, they were flat both sides of the half time whistle and even the substitutions didn’t make any inroads.
Cockfosters were good value for the win, got the early goal to settle any nerves and make the home side do all the running to get back into the tie. Their game plan certainly worked more effectively than that of Punjab, they won the second balls all the way through the game and very little for Connor Sansom to do in the game.
As always lovely to see Chloe Norley before and after the match and spending the 90 minutes with one half of the Kent Non League Podcast crew Jon Phipps for customary one game a season meet up.
However, Punjab have plenty left to play for, chasing down a Southern Counties East Premier Division play-off place and a Kent Senior Trophy final to come this month whilst Cockfosters are also pushing for that route out of Step 5.
Wembley might be on the agenda, but with over five weeks until that final they have a mad month to extend the league season first and there will be a few needing to stake a claim for a place in that starting eleven.
Just a final word on keeper Mitch Beeney, I used to watch his dad Mark play for Maidstone Utd back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, indeed the keeper as the Stones won the then GM Vauxhall Conference and into the Football League, he also went on to play higher at Brighton & Hove Albion, certainly makes me feel quite old!
