St Johns and Vittoriosa Falcons kick off cup final season tomorrow

Tomorrow night sees the start of cup final season for the Essex Alliance Football League as the Division One Cup reaches it’s climax. As with all of the cup finals, we are pleased that Dagenham & Redbridge FC have agreed to the use of their fantastic facility at Victoria Road which we hope you will all agree is a stadium befitting the occasion of a cup final. Representing the league in this historic first cup final are St Johns Deaf and Vittoriosa Falcons.

St Johns Deaf have reached the final this season on the back of wins over Glendale, Forest Green and Northend with this final being their third of four that the club have reached in this season alone! Having started the campaign like a runaway train, it was looking odds on that St Johns would win everything this season but, whilst their cup progress has been magnificent, this has sadly affected their league form with a third place finish a likely outcome. The club continues to perform well on the national stage and have reached finals for both the British Deaf Football and the English Deaf Football cup competitions so their ability remains undoubted.

For Vittoriosa Falcons, this cup final appearance is a second in consecutive seasons after reaching the East Ham Memorial Cup final last season before losing out to now Essex Olympian League outfit, FC Hamlets. The club have progressed well having been Ilford & District Football League Division 2 champions last season and having already secured at least a fourth placed finish this campaign in Division 1. Much of their season has been built around the goal-scoring feats of Daniel Vearer and Nathan Scarborough who have had no problem in finding the back of the net with 26 and 20 goals respectively. The key to this final you suspect might be St Johns’ handling of this deadly duo.

We also congratulate our third team, the match officials, who have worked hard this season and been rewarded with the honour of officiating on a cup final. Mark Hankin will be the man in the middle, fresh from a successful promotion campaign himself and will lead his fellow promotees and trusty lieutenants with the flags, James Goodman and Paul Kemp. The experienced head of John Simpson will be keeping the touchline in order as fourth official.

Good luck to everybody involved in what should be a wonderful occasion.

Tickets for the match will be available at the turnstiles on the night at a cost of £5 (adults) and £3 (concessions).