As the season crept towards its end I had the pleasure of a visit to the Bauvill, home of Chatham Town FC, to watch the Kent County FA DFDS Kent Intermediate Challenge shield final between Minster FC and Halls AFC.

The Shield is a competition for teams who compete at Step 6 of Kent football. Today’s match was an all ticket affair with no Matchday on the gate admission allowed.

To get to the final Minster FC had beaten Crayford Arrows (walkover), Littlebourne (3-7), Long Lane (1-5), before securing a final place with a 2-0 defeat of Hawkinge Town in the semi final. Minster finished in mid table seventh this season in the Kent County Premier Division league, so today’s final gave them the chance of silverware in an other wise trophy less season. Manager Ian Wallace has seen his side’s goals come primarily this season from Todd Jordan (23 goals), Ollie Harris (21 goals) and Tristan Jevons (15 goals).

Halls AFC have had a glorious season, pipping Hawkinge Town to the league title and coming in as runners up in last weeks’ Kent County Charity Cup final, losing 2-3 to Meridian VP. Halls AFC made it into today’s final by beating Parkwood Rangers (bye), Otford United (3-0), Stansfield (O&B) (3-0) and then a huge semi final victory against Ashford (3-0).

Ryan Golding’s 28 goals have been a huge factor in Halls AFC’s success this season, although he has been well supported, up front, by Aaron Hall (15 goals) and James Bayford (13 goals). Manager George Michaelas would have been keen for his side to complete the double today to round off a special season, as Halls AFC hope to be able to claim their place in the Southern Counties East Football League in. 2024-25.

After a tense opening period where both teams created chances, the deadlock was broken on 24 minutes, in favour of Halls AFC. A beautiful passing move was finished clinically by Tom Cecil, to the delight of the Halls AFC fans.

The remainder of the half saw more pressure for the newly crowned champions, but as the half time break approached it was Minster FC who created the best openings. the whistle finally blew for half time, with Halls AFC holding a narrow 0-1 lead.

The second half saw long periods of domination and pressure for Halls AFC as they seemed to be pushing to extend their lead. However as the half wore on Minster looked to be growing in self-belief, without ever truly threatening the Halls AFC goal. The game looked to be limping towards a victory for Halls AFC when a slip in concentration allowed Minster’s substitute John Argyrides to equalise, with 91 minutes on the clock.

The fulltime whistle blew with the scores level which meant there would be 30 minutes of extra time.

Extra time saw Minster dominate the first half but with no success, while the second period was shaded by a Halls AFC revival, but again with no result. The referee blew for full time and the teams prepared for a penalty shoot out.

The penalty shoot out was marked by three heroic saves by Magnus Lewis in the Minster goal, allowing his team to secure a 3-1 victory in the shoot out, to secure their first trophy of the season, creating much joy and noise amongst the 162 fans in the Bauvill Stadium.

The trophies were presented by the Kent FA representatives and the Minster players celebrated with joy, knowing that this game was won with hard work, determination, resolve and a little fortune.