This was the first opportunity for the Wolves to show what they are made of since joining up with AFC Woodham.

The group stage started well with a 2-0 victory over Maldon Town B, with goals from Max and Matthew, followed by a 1-0 win against Heybridge, with Max netting again.

Both games showed the Wolves excellent passing game off allied to good discipline in making sure that they worked extra hard when they did not have the ball to stop the opposition from mounting many worthwhile attacks. Even when the opponents did get through Aston was in top form between the sticks.

The next two group games were somewhat trickier and the lads showed character to come back from behind in each. Firstly against Danbury Juniors they probably had their quietest game of the tournament but battled back with an excellent volley from Max to equalise and get a deserved draw.

Then it was the big ‘local derby’ against Focus Ferrers Kestrels. The boys in these two teams know each other very well, in fact at one stage they all used to play together. The Kestrels star man put them one up as we started slowly again. The goal did wake our boys up and then they laid siege to the Focus goal. Frank popped up with the equaliser capitalising on a defensive slip he shot into the bottom corner. It was only a matter of time for the winner to come and Liam made the final score 2-1 in the second half.

Onto the semi-final and after some confusion we met Bury Town who had won their group. Liam proved to be the goal scoring hero here with two cracking finishes inside the first 3 minutes. We cruised through the rest of the game, making several more chances, with Josh showing off all his trickery and eye for a pass, but it stayed 2-0 at the end.

The final was to be against Maldon Town A, a team we have always struggled against over the years in various matches. We were out of the traps quickly again however and were soon one nil up through Matthew. You could see that both sets of boys were tired and the final itself was somewhat scrappy, but we controlled it for long periods of the game, and Maldons attacks were infrequent. When they did attack Sean and Callum were always on hand to mop up.

The final score was 1-0 and was met with a massive cheer from the boys and the spectators.


What a way to start our AFC Woodham careers, if the boys continue to work as hard as they have been I am sure this could be the first success of many.


Squad – Aston Fennessy, Frank Brindle, Callum Newell, Sean Johnston, Liam Kirkham, Max Day, Josh Dave, Matthew Barrett (Capt).