League Cup
Final

Desborough Town  3    Daventry Town  2

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Desborough dashed Town's dream of becoming the first Division One side to lift the Knockout Cup in this cracking encounter at the Dog & Duck.

Open attacking football was the order of the day from the off with both teams looking lively.

Danny Nelson was a handful for the Ar Tarn defence and was close to an opening goal after seven minutes when he volleyed over a deep centre from Richard Wesley. Top scorer Tom Berwick then had a chance for Daventry but failed to hit the target from Ryan Byrne's pass.

Desborough took a 19th minute lead with a well worked goal. Paul Caswell dropped deep to win possession and fed Chris Logan who in turn moved the ball on to Michael Sneddon whose perfectly weighted through pass sent Michael Byrne clear of the Daventry defence to score with a confident finish into the far corner.

Nelson and Berwick combined to open up the Desborough defence but Wesley's shot went wide of the far post.

Desborough doubled their advantage after 31 minutes. Byrne was the provider this time floating in a free kick which picked out Danny Pownall who towered above his marker to head in at the far post.

Logan had a long range effort as the interval approached but Daventry found a lifeline after 44 minutes with Nelson rounding off a fine run with a shot which went in off the far post.

Sneddon and Paul Malone had opportunities for Desborough early in the second half while at the other end Berwick blazed over after latching onto a misplaced defensive header.

Daventry squared the match after 63 minutes when Tom James crossed from the left and fellow full back Luke Walker found space in the box to head in off the post.

At this stage the momentum was with Daventry but they needed goalkeeper Joe Mellings to be alert to thwart Jamie O'Neill before Nelson's flick set up Josh O'Grady to shoot wide for the lower grade side.

With five minutes remaining Desborough scored the decisive goal with Caswell latching onto O'Neill's clever flick and drilling a low shot past Mellings into the far corner.

Daventry's last chance of a leveller saw O'Grady send a header wide of the target after 88 minutes.  

Desborough: Michael Evans, Michael Stanton, Chris Logan, Paul Malone, Danny Pownall (Tony Page 73), Tom Mills, Stuart McClarty, Michael Sneddon, Michael Byrne (Jamie O'Neill 68), Paul Caswell, Jamie Gilsenan.

Daventry: Joe Mellings, Luke Walker (Nick Maund 87), Tom James, Chris Godwin, Ady Greatrex, Josh O'Grady (Danny Finlay 88), Ryan Byrne, Adam Confue, Tom Berwick, Danny Nelson, Richard Wesley.