'As this season is the Southampton Football Association's centenary', said City's secretary, John Moody, 'we felt that we should make an effort to help the Association make their centenary senior Cup competition one of the best and as a consequence have agreed to place their cup ties on a first team status.
John, who is the author of the S.F.A.’s centenary history, was able to quote a few facts about the Senior Cup. Do you know?, he said, ‘that Eastleigh Athletic F.C. were the first winners in 1908 and that Southampton won the second cup final and that the current manager of Leeds United, Dennis Wise, won a Southampton Senior Cup medal playing for the Saints in the 1984 final.
Manager Andy Leader and Coach Jimmy Ball took the unusual step of giving the players the pre-match talk and then leaving them to it! They took their half time tea in the Board Room and Reserve Team Manager, Tim Cole, had command of the technical area.
City were expecting Capital to come at them from the start and this was exactly what they did and although Matt Czastka set up Steve Llewellyn for an early shot and himself chased down another cross and put his shot wide when well placed it was Capital who made the early running. Clint Davies made a good diving save and then was relieved to see another shot go just over his bar. Capital took the lead, much to the delight of their supporters, in the 22nd minute when Jamie Harris latched onto a superb pass to crash the ball home.
City were back on terms in the 28th minute when they were awarded a hotly disputed penalty for hand ball. Terry Cox calmly put the spot kick away. Unfortunately City were forced to make a change a few minutes later when James Wilson hobbled off with a knock and was replaced by James Eyles.
At the other end Capital hit the City crossbar as they sought to take the lead again but it was
Two goals in three minutes at the start of the second period sewed the game up for City, Ben Bosley grabbing both one in the 50th and the other in 53rd minutes. The first was from a corner and the second from a cross by Brett Williams.
City had to re-organize in the 56th minute when Matt Bowler crashed into an advertising board and he too hobbled off to be replaced by Ross Diaper. Capital never gave the game up, however, and played good football to the end but eventually City’s superior fitness began to tell and their youngsters ran riot. Ben Bosley came off in the 65th minute and Andy Jacob substituted and his persistence in the 80th saw him bundle the bar over for a well earned goal.
Czastka was rewarded for all his hard work in the 83rd minute when he chased a long ball and scored a superb solo goal.
This was a typical cup-tie with the underdogs taking the game to their senior opponents. Andy Leader said that Capital were a credit to the Southampton Football League, they played good football, conducted themselves well and if this was the standard of the Southampton Senior Cup the competition should have a bumper centenary final.
John Moody said, we had a super gate of 128, Capital gave us plenty to worry about, we gained the result, both teams and supporters had an enjoyable evening and we got people talking about the Southampton Senior Cup and that can't be bad.
