CUP FINAL PREVIEW: Newham Athletic take on Asianos in Division 4 Cup Final

This Friday evening marks the opening night of cup finals as we head to Aveley FC for our inaugural final at the venue, the Division Four Cup Final featuring Newham Athletic and Asianos Reserves.

All of our divisional cup finals will be held at the wonderful Parkside stadium, just a stone’s throw from the M25 and A13. There will be bar and refreshment facilities available on the night which you are all welcome to make use of.

Each clubs involved has been allocated tickets which they are required to sell so please contact your clubs for tickets in the first instance. We also have a supply of tickets on the turnstile on the night at a cost of £5 each.

We now look ahead to the games and provide some insight into who might be crowned cup winners at full time.

Division 4 Cup Final – 7.45pm Kick-Off
Newham Athletic vs Asianos Reserves

Friday night’s final sees two of the division’s top sides go head-to-head with league leaders, Newham Athletic, looking to possibly complete the first part of a league and cup double this season. But standing in their way is the formidable challenge of promotion contenders, Asianos Reserves, themselves having had a real sterling season.

For Newham Athletic, the season has seen a real improvement having had a difficult outing last term. With an influx of new personnel and management, the club have taken great strides which is demonstrated by some excellent results on the pitch. In the league, the side are top and require just one more victory to seal the title with a number of games still to play. Their journey in this competition started with a home quarter final against Alliance United where they secured an emphatic 7-0 win to book their place in the semi finals of the competition. In that semi final, they faced up to one of toughest possible opponents with a home tie against second placed East Ham Inter. But Newham were just too good on the day as Joseph McEnroe scored twice and one each from Leon Anderson and Chris Jennings were sufficient to see them book their maiden cup final spot. The goals have really been shared around this season with three players each sitting on a ten-goal haul including Leon Anderson, James Farmer and Kane Greene meaning that the goals could come from anywhere on the night. As a side who have a keen eye for goal, you can expect plenty of chances in the final.

Taking on Newham Athletic are another side to have shown great improvement this year in the shape of Asianos Reserves. Having moved down from Division Three after a difficult season last year, they are another team to have recruited well this year and in a strong position to push for promotion over the remaining league games that are coming up. They also had a good run in the London Junior Cup this year, traditionally a very strong competition involving a lot of travel. Their run in the Division Four Cup started at the quarter final stage and they had to overcome the abandonment of that initial tie against Monkhams due to a very serious injury. Nonetheless, they bounced back from this setback to record a strong 4-2 win after extra time in the replay where Ali Jalo was the hero, striking a hat-trick and accompanying an Abdinasir Hashi effort onto the scoresheet to secure their place in the semi final. In that semi-final, Asianos put in a strong performance to overcome a plucky Grey Area side where Naveed Hussain, Naeem Monsur and Ali Jalo once again found the back of the net to earn a 3-1 win on the day, confirming their place at Aveley this Friday evening. The men to watch on the night are Naeem Monsur who has accumulated sixteen goals this season along with the efforts of Ali Jalo who is a real big game player with ten goals to his name.

Looking at how the sides might fare, it is a really tough match to call with both sides having recorded one victory each in the two league games with just a single goal margin in each of those encounters. You’d expect therefore that this final could be a similarly tight affair with little to separate the sides. How the two teams handle the occasion could play a big part in the outcome with some nerves always likely to surface at some stage. Nonetheless, you’d be expecting a high-quality game of football that befits two sides in the upper echelons of their division and the quality of the playing surface at Aveley.

Congratulations to our appointed match officials on this final, a reward for the continued hard work put in by our referees across the season. Promotion seeking, James Goodman, makes his long-awaited Corinthian cup final bow with the whistle and he will be ably supported by the experienced and respected duo of Simeon Joseph and John Conaghan from the touchlines.

We wish everybody the very best of luck in the final and we look forward to a terrific match!