Greenwich Borough 2-1 Harefield United - Borough star Hubbard wants an all-kent Wembley Final

GREENWICH BOROUGH 2-1 HAREFIELD UNITED
FA Carlsberg Vase Fourth Round
Saturday 19^th January 2008
Stephen McCartney reports from Harrow Meadow

GREENWICH BOROUGH winger Chris Hubbard wants an all-Kent FA Carlsberg Vase final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, 11^th May 2008.

The Kent League side sealed a deserved win over Spartan South Midlands Premier League outfit Harefield United - despite going down to a first half goal against the run of play.

But despite that set-back a galvanised Borough side scored two goals in the last 23 minutes, one from a deflected free-kick from Ghanaian winger Joseph Ogoo and a last-gasp winner from Yemon-born striker Badar Mohammed.

Now it’s time for local rivals VCD Athletic to follow suite in seven days time.

Vickers fourth round tie against Ridgeons League leaders Needham Market was postponed yesterday lunchtime due to a waterlogged pitch at their Oakwood ground in Crayford.

And Hubbard wants Paul Foley’s side to join them in the LAST SIXTEEN when the Kent League leaders play their tie in seven days time.

“They’re not a bad side,” Hubbard said of VCD, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“They’re doing very well in the League and they went quite far (the last sixteen) in this (for) a couple of years to be fair.”

This replicates the year 2000 when Foley, who played in the heart of the Ramsgate defence, were knocked out by Newcastle Town in the quarter-finals, the side that were knocked out by the Rams’ east Kent rivals, Deal Town in the semi-finals, who went on to win the competition under Tommy Sampson when Roly Graham’s late winner sealed a win over Chippenham Town underneath the legendry Twin Towers.

Is this the turn of two clubs that are based from within the M25 boundary to create history, something that the Borough did today - beating Harefield United in this competition for the first time at the third attempt - and reaching the LAST SIXTEEN.

Seven days ago Greenwich Borough were on the end of an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at struggling side Sporting Bengal United - all is forgiven now!

From the first whistle to the very, very last, Greenwich Borough outplayed a side that came to Harrow Meadow sitting in fifth place in their League.

And it was Hubbard who was player who was impressing in front of the club’s largest crowd of the season.

The left-winger had the game’s first real chance after twelve minutes when his right-footed drive ricochet of giant Harefield defender Alex Brown and out for a corner.

Seven minutes later it was Hubbard who whipped in a cross, which was fumbled by visiting goalkeeper Nathan Webb and Wilfred Gnaly’s follow up shot was blocked at the near-post.

But Greenwich Borough goalkeeper Michael Holder was twice called into action after 22 minutes.

The stocky goalkeeper rushed off his line to prevent Harefield’s left-back Gilbert Nuako from sliding a low shot into the net, although Holder did have a defender behind him, and the follow-up shot, believed to be from Nuako, again just outside the box, was beaten out.

Greenwich Borough’s best chance to break the deadlock followed when Peter Smith played Mohammed behind the back-four, but the striker lashed his shot high over the top of the near-post.

Then a slick passing move involving Jon Samuels and Ogoo saw right-back Samuels whip in a cross towards the far-post and this was met by a right-footed half volley from Ivo Rita, which just cleared the crossbar.

You could imagine the shock when Harefield United scored against the run of play just six minutes to go before the break.

Set-piece specialist, right-winger Ben Hammond delivered a free-kick some fifteen yards from the half-way line and this picked out the unmarked Sean Sonner.

You can’t leave the Spartan South Midlands League leading goalscorer free inside the penalty area as he scored his 27^th goal of the season.

The striker saw his back header from eight-yards loop into the net via the top of the near-post to leave the Kent League outfit stunned.

It would have been a bitter pill to swallow had the Middlesex side doubled their lead inside the opening four minutes of the second half.

It almost arrived following their first corner of the game, taken by Hammond, but giant skipper Brown planted his header just over the crossbar from the edge of a crowded six-yard box.

Soon after this Hubbard played in Mohammed, and yet another chance went begging when his right-footed shot from fifteen-yards flew just over Cobb’s crossbar.

But Borough finally called Cobb into action when the goalkeeper turned Hubbard’s 30-yard right-footed drive around his near-post.

Content with their lead, Harefield decided to leave just one man up top and tried in vain to play out a single goal victory.

But Greenwich Borough were by far the better side and it took a special goal from Ogoo to deservedly bring them level halfway through the second half.

Harefield full-back Joe Cowen upended Gnaly on the right-hand side of the penalty area, and referee Mark Bampton, who like his assistants had an excellent game, awarded a free-kick in a dangerous position.

Step forward Ogoo. Faced with a five-man white shirted wall, Ogoo struck the ball right-footed from 22-yards, which bounced off the shoulder off the player on the left-hand side of the wall.

The ball then looped off that player and over Cobb and the ball found the top far-corner of Harefield’s net.

Almost immediately Sonner flashed a shot agonisingly past the far-post at the other end - you can always harm yourself moments after scoring a crucial goal!

Harefield had their moments on the break, and Lee Clarke’s right-footed volley flashed just past the post from 25-yards, and Borough skipper Dave Waters cleared another chance off the line at the far-post.

What was evident, however, was Borough didn’t want to play another energy-sapping 30 minutes of extra time and went for the kill.

Forcing numerous free-kicks that came to nothing, their moment arrived with 52 minutes and 37 seconds on the clock.

Hubbard whipped in a corner from the right-hand side, which was flicked on by Waters and Mohammed broke Harefield’s hearts as he found the finish, beating Cowen on the line.

This sparked wild celebratory scenes as all Borough players rushed towards the dug-outs as just 203 seconds later they knew they created history for the club.

Thoroughly deserved and Hubbard agreed.

“We worked hard I thought for about 90 minutes, hard graft and I think to be far we’ve come out with a great result so it’s good for the boys, last sixteen,” he said.

“Biggest thing for this club so I think yes, a good result.”

Hubbard was delighted with the work ethic shown by his team-mates throughout, especially going a goal down against the run of play late in the first half.

He said: “If you see in the game before that (goal) they had hardly anything in the game in that half an hour and then we started slowing down the pace.

“They got an early free-kick, put it in, can’t do much - good finish from the lad.

“So good luck but end of the day we worked hard, got back into it, got the result that we needed.”

Unlike most Kent League sides, Greenwich Borough trained twice in the week leading up to this fourth round tie.

And Hubbard believes that hard work was rewarded today.

“How much hard work that we’ve been putting into this and to go behind one-nil was kind of hard to take,” he said.

But on Ogoo’s free-kick equaliser, he added: “To see them go into the back of the net, took a slight deflection but, everything counts, they go in, they go in, one all.

“Just carried on from there,” he said of the determination shown by Borough in search of their dramatic last-gasp winner.

“To be fair that’s to do with the fitness because if you look at the lads, very fit and I think they (Harefield) started slowing down a little bit.

“But we just kept pushing, pushing and pushing. I don’t think we wanted extra time. We wanted to win the game and get it over and done with and that’s what we did.”

Hubbard and his team-mates are now dreaming of appearing at Wembley Stadium in May, and hopes Vickers will be there too.

“To be fair we are (dreaming of playing at Wembley) because like I said it’s the biggest they’ve (Greenwich Borough) got at the end of the day,” he said.

“Greenwich Borough hasn’t been this far and we want Wembley! We want it! We’re working hard so hard for it and to go last sixteen is the best thing - I’m ecstatic.”

He added: “It would be a good all-Kentish final I think. Good for the fans and that.”

Greenwich Borough: Michael Holder, Jon Samuels, Harry Vitalien, Wilfred Cnaly, Dave Waters, Danny Moore, Joseph Ogoo, Peter Smith, Ivo Rita, Badar Mohammed, Chris Hubbard.
Subs: Hussain Budek, Michael Barker, Lewis Ambrose, Ibrahim Kallon, Lee Haywood.

Goals: Joseph Ogoo 67, Badar Mohammed 90

Booked: Chris Hubbard 45

Harefield United: Nathan Cobb, Joe Cowen, Gilbert Nuako, Gary Williams, Alex Brown, Lee Clarke, Ben Hammond, Paul Haines, Michael Livesay, Sean Sonner, Adam Willis.
Subs: Joe Kelly, Craig Totton, Danny Buckle, Ben Cowen.

Goal: Sean Sonner 39

Booked: Michael Livesey 83

Attendance: 106
Referee: Mark Bampton (Haverhill, Suffolk)
Assistants: Graeme Ions (Maidstone, Kent) & Mandy Waite (Cambridge)
Fourth Official: Paul Beadle (Sevenoaks, Kent)