2009/10 Mike King Trophy final report
26 Apr 2010

In a terrific roller-coaster final, New Life won the Mike King Trophy for the first time in their history, having lost in three previous finals.

New Life 1sts took the lead against Selsdon Baptist late in the first half with a fine finish by Tim Hall having been put through one on one with the keeper by a pass from Rubin Alibaj.

Having dominated the first half, New Life might have expected to increase their lead in the second half, but Selsdon drew level when a quickly taken free kick went through the New Life wall and past the unsighted Ben Uzun. New Life argued that the free kick had been taken before the referee had blown his whistle, but the otherwise faultless ref - Phil Stevens - allowed the goal to stand.

This incident clearly rattled New Life and they fell behind only a few minutes later. A long ball, bouncing high on the very hard pitch, was poorly dealt with by the New Life defence and Selsdon's sub pounced to crashed a great volley into the top corner.

At this point, New Life were really strugging and it was hard to see them getting back into the game despite the superiority they showed in the first half. However, a chance eventually fell to Ruben and he flicked the ball over the head of the Selsdon keeper. It took an eternity for the ball to reach the line and was eventually cleared off the line by a Selsdon defender. However, his efforts caused him to be seriously injured and the game was held up for nearly 10 minutes while he received attention from New Life's paramedic manager Richard Howes. Praise God that they guy was able to hobble away, but he played no further part in the game.

The break in play seemed to allow New Life to collect themselves and they started to play better football again in the last quarter of the game, with Curtis Williams really starting to terrorise the opposing full back and get in some good crosses. Steve Bryars and Tony Slade came on for Andy Dutton and Joe Henegan and, shortly after, Ruben scored the equalising goal with a long range lobbed volley that he struck so early the goalkeeper was taken by surprise and didn't move.

New Life finished strongly, with Peter Sherlock replacing Tim Hall, but they couldn't find another goal and the game went to extra time.

Within two minutes of the restart, Ruben scored again when his pace took him through one on one with the keeper and he calmly put the ball in the bottom corner of the net.

For the rest of extra time, New Life looked very comfortable and actually wasted a few half chances as Selsdon looked totally exhausted. However, Selsdon mounted one last effort in the closing minutes, and forced a succession of corners. According to the linesman we had played 3 minutes of added time after 120 minutes were up when the ball fell at the feet of a Selsdon player who prodded it home to take the game to penalties.

With New Life taking their penalties first, Adam Ash and Chris James both scored, but Selsdon also scored their first two penalties. Unfortunately, James Stannard had his spot kick saved, but Ben responded by saving Selsdon's next penalty to keep us on level terms. Sam Knowles scored for New Life and Selsdon responded to make is 3-3 with the last penalties to be taken before going to sudden death. Ruben calmly slotted home his penalty, before Ben produced a fantastic save low down by his right hand post to win the match 4-3 and produce jubilant celebrations amongst New Life's players and many supporters.

At the presentation of the cup afterwards, Graham Russell lead the congratulations of Selsdon for contributing to a truly wonderful match that was played in an excellent spirit. Ruben was awarded the man of the match trophy, before Captain Fantastic, Jon Bryars, collected the Mike King Trophy for the first time in New Life's history.

Congratulations to managers Richard and Chris, captain Jon and all the players on their historic achievement.