St Johns Arsenal 1
Doncaster College for the Deaf 2
Team News
Tom Bastock was away in India on work duty with Lehman Brothers and Henry McDougall also again missed out with an ankle injury. Other than that, Memnos Costi enjoyed a full squad to pick from and chose to make two changes to the team that beat Glasgow Athletic DFC in the BDSC cup final. Jonathan Evans was recalled to replace Thomas Bastock in defence and Ross Edwards was chosen ahead of Andrew Coombs at right back.
Report
Although the game was held at the National Hockey Stadium, the playing conditions were awful. The weather was simply atrocious and you got the impression that had it been a professional league game, the match would have been called off. Both teams struggled with the waterlogged pitch, finding it difficult to keep possession and chances were hard to come by.
However, it was St John Arsenal that had the better of the early stages and on the half hour mark, Ailey calmly converted a Darren Dunne through-ball into the back of the net. After the opening goal, St John then settled and looked to be in control of the match, enjoying the lion share of possession but Doncaster equalised just before half time to knock the wind out of their sails. A free-kick was awarded for an innocuous foul just inside the Gunners' half. Rown Dixon stepped up and delivered a dangerous swinging ball onto the back post, which Ross Edwards who was trying to flick clear could only succeed in heading it back into his own net. It was a disappointing goal for the Gunners to conceed at exactly the wrong time (not that there is ever a great time to conceed). The St John Arsenal's defence will be disappointed that they left it to one of the smallest players on the park to head clear such a dangerous free-kick.
After the half-time break, St John Arsenal then got off to a terrible start when Doncaster took the lead following a classic counter attack. St John were awarded a corner, which Ailey could only tamely head towards goalkeeper, John Atkinson. As a result, St John found themselves over committed - Atkinson reacted quickly and threw the ball towards Mark Sinclair on the right wing who then easily outpaced the covering Matthew Byfield. After breaking clear, Sinclair then shot towards goal, which Christou could only palm onto Peter Drury who was following up and it left him with the simplest of tasks of slotting the ball home.
But minutes later, the Gunners were back on level terms. Ross Edwards made up for his own goal by cleverly chipping to Hasan Er on the right wing who in turn found Daniel Ailey on the edge of the six yard box. Ailey finished empathically, blasting the ball into the roof of the net for his second goal of the afternoon. The goal seemed to spur St John on and they enjoyed their best spell of the game where they even came close to reclaiming the lead. Hasan Er and Daniel Ailey once again combined in a similar move to the equaliser but this time Atkinson was equal to the task. He somehow turned the goalbound effort wide of the post despite initally going the other way. Eventually Doncaster had the last say when three and a half minutes into the allocated five minutes of injury time, Hogan found Sinclair unmarked in box and he made no mistake heading the ball past Paul Christou and in doing so, sending the Doncaster supporters into raptures.
The victory ensures that Doncaster gained quick revenge for the BDSC cup semi-final defeat that St John Arsenal inflicted on them earlier this season and it also prevents the Gunners from becoming the first team in history to win the BDSC and EDF double.
Doncaster College for DFC: Atkinson, Demend, Corbett, Anderson, Drinnan, Hogan, Naylor, Wood, Sinclair, Drury
Scorers: - Edwards OG 40, Drury 52, Sinclair 90 (+3)
St Johns Arsenal DFC: Christou, Hasan Er, Edwards (Coombs 60), Evans, Byfield, Dunne, Gregory, Huseyin Er, Ailey, Marios Costi (Memnos Costi 75), Powe
Scorers: Ailey 30, 55
