CUP FINAL PREVIEW: Lymore Gardens and Chigwell Rovers in Division 2 Cup Final showdown

The Division Two Cup reaches it’s conclusion for the season at Dagenham & Redbridge FC on Friday night as two of the league’s newest clubs, Lymore Gardens and Chigwell Rovers, each take to the field hoping to secure their first piece of silverware. We look ahead to the cup final and provide some insight into who might be crowned winners on the night.

Division Two Cup Final
Lymore Gardens vs Chigwell Rovers
At Dagenham & Redbridge FC, 7.30pm Kick-Off

This final brings together two newly formed sides in their debut football seasons and what a way it has turned out for both, culminating in an appearance on the hallowed turf of Dagenham & Redbridge FC. Gardens and ninth-placed Chigwell Rovers, the run to the final

As we look back twelve months to last season’s Division Two Cup Final, we can recall a scintillating match between Chingford Athletic Reserves and Custom House which had everything including a glut of goals. Custom House fought back to level at 2-2 with the Dockers’ Wooster father and son duo coming up trumps but, seconds from full-time, Jake Mignot wrote himself a piece of club history for Chingford Athletic as he coolly netted to win the cup!

For Lymore Gardens, it has been a really interesting season having struggled for consistency in the opening throws of the season before becoming one of the most dangerous sides in the division, reflected in the results of the latter part of the campaign. A fifth-placed finish represents a really solid season for Lee Benjamin’s Leyton-based side and they will be looking for improve on that position in the new season for sure. Their run to this final has taken in an emphatic 5-0 win away at Chingford Harriers in the quarter-finals before facing league title contenders, Colebrook Royals Reserves, in the semi-finals. A hotly contested semi-final between those two sides saw them finish level at 2-2 as Dylan Roberts and Michael Konis both scored for Lymore to keep their side in the match. In the resultant penalty shootout, they squeezed through in a 4-3 win to book their place at Dagenham & Redbridge FC. Looking through the season’s statistics, it is clear that it is a real team effort, as their club motto suggests, with the goals having been shared amongst the team with nobody having yet reached double figures. Dylan Roberts is the leading scorer with 9 for the season and he looks like a man to look out for.

For Lymore’s opponents on Friday night, Chigwell Rovers, have followed a very similar path this season with a difficult start to the campaign seeing them bottom of the table and winless until November before the appointment of Ben Lacey as the new manager soon after. Rovers went on to secure Division Two safety with five league wins in the season as they finished ninth, helped much by the quantity of goals scored. Their best form was however saved for the cup competition where their run to the final started with a win against the holders, Chingford Athletic Reserves, who were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Their semi-final matched them with a vastly improved Forest Green outfit who looked odds on favourites to progress through. What ensued was a semi-final of epic proportions as Rovers led 2-0 with half an hour to go but Forest Green battled back, eventually levelling in the second minute of stoppage time to take the match to penalties! But a Rovers shootout victory secured their place in the final against the odds. One of the players to watch for the men in white and blue is Will Osmond whose 21 goals this season have propelled his side to many a victory this season.

The league games between these sides have seen two closely contested clashes, with one victory to Lymore Gardens back in September (3-1) before an entertaining score draw in the most recent encounter back in January (2-2). This suggests that this final could be a closely fought battle and could be decided on how well each team handles the cup final nerves. You would have to make Lymore Gardens the favourites based on their loftier finish in the league but with Rovers capable of scoring plenty of goals, you can’t rule them out causing a shock on the night.

Congratulations to our appointed match officials on this final, a reward for the continued hard work put in by our referees across the season. The experienced Norman Redington is the man with the whistle at the home of his beloved Daggers and will be ably supported by Enus Ali and Simeon Joseph from the touchlines. Completing the quartet, Steve Worpole will handle the fourth official duties on the evening.