La Chiesa Del Corno are on the brink of their first
major honours after overcoming a stubborn Stonewood in the semi final of the Arthur Atkinson Cup.
This was the most important game in the short history of LC/DC and
they were able to pick from a squad of fourteen for the first time in months, with Cy Taylor & Dennis Peck the only absentees
from the team that went down fighting at Woodford Hammers last week. Dean Jordan, Danny Trew and skipper Darren Hodsoll returned
from their travels, while Centre Half John Riley made his first start since January after being absent for a whole host of
different reasons recently...
The convoy set off from the Chequers in determined mood, not
one of them having touched a drop of alcohol in the previous seventy two hours. Chiesa had sent spies to each of Stonewood's
last six matches, and they identified an upturn in the form of the side that they had already defeated twice this
season. Individual dossiers on their direct opponents were handed out to each player along with energy drinks bought from
the Texaco garage - No stone had been left unturned in preparation for this gargantuan fixture.
The opening twenty minutes were never going to be pretty on
a sloping pitch that was hard as concrete - hard to imagine it was so waterlogged a fortnight ago that the match had to be
postponed. Stonewood went at it hammer and tongs early doors in the manner of a side whose knew their season would be over
should they be defeated. Chiesa, for their part, were looking nervous - unable to put their foot on the ball and play
in the manner that has won them so many admirers, and had their defensive lynchpins of Hodsoll, Riley and Warren Hardwick
and Terry Soteriou to thank for holding firm in the face of early home pressure.
The tension could be cut with a knife, and it would be wrong to try and dress up the first half as anything other
than a battle - a stop start affair littered with free kicks and throw ins with little flair on show and very few efforts
on goal. Hardwick went close with a header from a corner that cleared the crossbar, while Adam Jeffers made a great run down
the inside right channel only to hit the side netting with his shot. Samuel Knowles got to the byline on a rare foray into
attacking territory but cutback to nobody in particular, while Colin Williams hit a couple of sighters that fizzed just over
the Stonewood bar. Dean Jordan also went close from distance, but at half time the most telling statistic was that neither
goalkeeper had been made to work - Shots on target were zero so far.
It was time for Director of Football Dave Knowles to earn his
corn. Although not looking in trouble at the back, it has to be said that Chiesa were hardly looking more likely to break
the deadlock themselves. Their fluid 'pass and move' football had been conspicous by it's absence, and Coach Knowles attempted
to remedy this with a bizarre rugby style game at the endy of his stirring half time team talk. But we got the gist...
Chiesa's midfield duo of Jordan and Knowles had sat deep to
good effect in the win against Ladzio a couple of weeks back, while Knowles and Gay had shielded the defence to a lesser
extent against Woodford last week. However, those were matches against the cream of the Corinthian crop, games in
which LC/DC were underdogs, and employing these tactics against a team that they had scored eleven goals against
in their previous two matches this season was being over cautious to say the least. The gap between midfield and attack had
left Jeffers and Danny Trew isolated and it was no surprise that a more attacking system created more problems for
the home team in the second half.
Chiesa enjoyed plenty more possession in the opening fifteen
minutes of the second half, and they finally engineered an opportunity to take the lead on the hour. Knowles was involved
in a tussle on the edge of the area that looked for all the world to be six of one and half a dozen of the other, but when
he fell inside the box and Referee Marsh blew his whistle, it seemed certain that Chiesa had been awarded a penalty. In fact
a free kick was given on the eighteen yard line, but all this was of small consequence to dead ball specialst Colin Williams,
who having dismissed out of hand the requests of Gay and Knowles to take the kick, proceeded to fire the ball into
the top corner. A collective sigh of relief was breathed by the Hornchurch Rossonieri and their travelling army of fans, the
boys were on their way at last, thanks to another superb goal from the best striker of a ball in the league.
Stonewood, their resistance finally broken, now had to come
forward more themselves, and that suited Chiesa, a typical Italian side that love to counter attack, just fine. Five
minutes later it was two. A Stonewood corner was met by a Chiesa head and reached Iain Gay on the LC/DC right. He carried
the ball to the halfway line before releasing 'Stringa Della Chiesa Del Corno' Jeffers, who showed his amazing energy levels
yet again by beating his man and cutting back from the byline. Dean Jordan and a Stonewood defender both missed the cross,
but it fell nicely into the path of Knowles who, having run the length of the field to join the attack, made no mistake from
eight yards. The jubilant scenes following the goal said it all, and Chiesa were now confident of securing their path
to the final.
Iain Gay clipped in a succession of corners that somehow eluded
all Chiesa heads as they looked to increase the lead further before Jeffers and Trew were sacrificed with a quarter of the
match remaining. Chiesa employed a 4-1-4-1 formation with Matt Gillham as the lone forward and Steve McCarthy as a midfield
enforcer to ensure a victory. Gillham showed some nice touches and McCarthy was assured as ever in nullifying the inevitable
late Stonewood pressure along with Terry Soteriou who put in a tireless performance at left back. For all the home sides huffing
and a puffing, it has to be noted that Mark Harris in the visitors goal did not have a shot to save in the entire ninety minutes.
Jonny Gray replaced the exhausted Iain Gay who covered every blade of grass in another impressive performance, while a row
between Williams and Jordan over who had the most hair was settled by Cap'n Hodsoll who said that they both had less
than him.
The final whistle blew to an almighty roar from the Chiesa followers.
Their team were through to their first final - the final of the prestigious Arthur Atkinson Cup no less - and they had
achieved this without conceding a single goal along the way. The temptation to take their foot off the gas until April 10th
must be overwhelming - but there is still all to play for in the race for promotion - could it be a dream double for
the Boys from the Church of the Horn????
LCDC; (4-4-2) Harris; Hodsoll, Riley, Hardwick,
Soteriou; Gay (Gray), Knowles, Jordan, Williams, Jeffers (M Gillham), Trew (McCarthy)
Gols - Williams Knowles
Arbitro - G Marsh
