Haver Town lift the inaugural Patrons Plate

The inaugural Patrons Plate Knockout Cup was contested on Saturday at Witham Town F.C. and the neutral would argue that the better side was defeated, as two costly defensive errors allowed Haver Town F.C. Res. to lift the newly purchased shield.

Only one division separated the two sides but Focus Ferrers Res asked all the questions particularly in the second half but failed to turn possession into goals.

Haver started brightly and within the opening 8 minutes created the first opportunity worthy of note when Dale Beney volleyed wide. Five minutes later and Tommy King from Focus wasted a great opportunity when he blazed over from the edge of the box having been picked out by Harry Bantick.

On 16 minutes the Brentwood based side broke the deadlock when the Focus defence failed to clear a poor free kick which bobbled into the box where Beney anticipated superbly to connect with an overhead kick to lift the ball over the advancing Focus keeper, Ryan East, into the net.
Beney then almost made it two inside 24 minutes but his shot was easily saved by East.

From that point Focus went on the front foot and slowly took control of the game. Simon Cook shot wide as the boys in Blue went searching for the equaliser. King then saw an effort pushed away by Tom Richardson in the Haver goal.

A free kick on the stroke of half time by Bantick went narrowly wide, then in added on time following an earlier head injury to the Focus full back the influential Freddie Parsons cleverly lofted the ball over the Haver keeper to send the teams in level at half time

Half Time Focus Ferrers F.C. Res 1 Haver Town F.C. Res 1

Haver Town created an early chance in the second half when a free kick from Craig Rennie, was met by George Russell who flicked the ball over.

Bantick went agonisingly close on 65 minutes when his fierce effort went narrowly over again following good work by Parsons. 10 minutes later and Steve Cox thundered an effort just over the bar.

With Focus pushing for the winner they got caught out by a long hopeful ball, Scriven, who had replaced the injured McGrath in the first half tried to allow the ball to run through to East, but Ryan Kelland nipped in to tucked the ball past the Focus keeper and put Haver 2-1 to the good.

With the clocking ticking down Focus searched for second equaliser Parsons was denied by a great block from Haver skipper Michael Bird. In pushing for the equaliser Focus left themselves exposed and George Russell had two glorious chances to seal the game but on both occasions poor finishing kept Focus hopes alive.

The Division Five side gainfully pushed on but to no avail as the Referee’s whistle blew and the Division Four side Haver Town F.C. Res. secured victory. Focus Ferrers did not disgrace themselves and can be proud of their contribution to the game consoling themselves with last week’s deserved victory in the League Cup Final

Full Time Focus Ferrers F.C. Res. 1 Haver Town F.C. Res. 2