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ELTHAM GREEN WIN MIKE KING TROPHY

  • 30/04/06
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In the 2006 final of the Mike King Trophy, Eltham Green FC defeated the holders, and new League champions, Selsdon Baptists by 5-4 to lift the trophy. 4-0 up at one point, Eltham withstood a late comeback by Selsdon in the last quarter of the match.

Starting the game as second favourites, Eltham Green looked the more nervous as Selsdon seemed to settle better, but the first chance fell to Eltham's Adam Bull who, unmarked in the opposition box, headed tamely over the bar. Selsdon looked to have taken the lead midway through the first half but supporters' cheers were quickly silenced when it became clear a shot had just gone the wrong side of the post into the side netting. With Eltham Green coming more and more into the game, as half time approached Selsdon's keeper Dave Simmons did well to scramble a goalbound shot round his right hand post. Respite however was short-lived as Daniel Bull swung the resulting corner in towards the far post and onto the head of Phil Sterne who powered the ball into the net. 1-0 then to Eltham Green as the half time whistle blew shortly afterwards.

Still fired up when he came out for the second half, in the first few minutes Sterne first of all picked up a yellow card for an over zealous reaction to a minor scuffle, then charged down a defender's attempted clearance and raced away unopposed to beat the keeper and double the lead. Patrick Wakeford then made it three and when Mike Morgan got a faint touch to a Phil Sterne free kick midway through the second half, at 4-0 it looked as if the game was all over. Even when Selsdon's Kent Mercer curled in an unstoppable shot from outside the box to make it 4-1, to the impartial observer it looked like just a consolation goal.

Selsdon obviously had other ideas; after all they had come back from 0-3 down to beat Eltham 4-3 in a league match. As momentum swung their way, Ian Hassell scored a second to increase their hope and another shot just went wide into the side netting. In an absolute deluge of non-stop incident Adam Bull raced away to make it 5-2. Surely that would calm Eltham's nerves, but no, Ricky McElvey made it 5-3 from a goalmouth scramble. Seldon threw everything forward, Eltham looked totally spent and conceded a fourth, scored by James Canning. At the end of what had been a fairly well contested match tempers then began to get frayed. Adam Bull, after earning himself a yellow card minutes earlier for taking his shirt off celebrating his goal, unfortunately responded to some heckling from the crowd with language abusive enough to earn himself a straight red from referee Steve Hunt. Down to 10 men, Eltham Green nevertheless managed to hold on for the few remaining minutes to scrape home by a single goal after what had been a pulsating second half.