An early start at 10.30 am and a beautiful sunny morning, drew me down to the Bauvill Stadium, home of Chatham Town, for the DFDS Kent Junior ‘C’ Cup final between West Wickham 4th of the Southern Amateur League Junior Division 1 South league and Minster FC of the Canterbury and District Premier League.

West Wickham 4th FC have had a decent season, sitting in third place with an outside chance of securing the title with two games to go. Their goals this season have come at a rate of almost three a game and manager Sean Smyth would most certainly have been hoping they could repeat this form against a Minster FC 1911 side, who themselves have found a run of form in the cup. West Wickham 4th will however have had much belief instilled in them with a jubilant 3-0 defeat of Tatsfield Rovers FC in the semi final.

Minster FC 1911 have not had an easy season, sitting ninth out of eleven, with just four wins and two draws from fifteen games. The team have scored consistently this season, with Cameron Haswell (9 goals), William O’Keefe (8 goals) and Coben Smith (7 goals) leading the way. These goal scoring attributes would have been what manager Phil Stevens would have been looking at for hope, given the challenge of playing a confident opponent who have found scoring themselves easy this season. Minster FC 1911 drew deep on their reserves to be Sutton Dynamo 3-2 in the semi final and that would have instilled belief coming into today’s game.

Within five minutes of the kick off, West Wickham were 1-0 ahead, when a free kick was headed across the Minster FC goal, for Max Kinloch to slot home, with confidence, at the far post.

Minster FC did fight their way back over the next half an hour, to begin to find their possession in midfield and finally to put pressure on the West Wickham defence. However, in the 34th minute West Wickham were two ahead with a beautiful solo run and finish by James Payne.

With two minutes left in the half it was three nil. A beautifully floated free kick found Kane Allen at the far post, who volleyed home from close range. You could sense the impact this had on the Minster FC players, as the whistle blew and the teams left the pitch at half time.

The second half was more evenly fought and most memorable for a double sending off on 72 minutes with one player from each team being dismissed after an altercation.

With just six minutes left on the clock, West Wickham’s every threatening Max Kinloch scored a fine goal, with a curled shot from the outside of his boot, to seal a fine performance and put his side unassailably ahead at 4-0.

As the final whistle blew, it was quite justifiably West Wickham FC whose players celebrated. Minster FC 1911’s players had given everything but run up short on a warm morning.