Suffolk & Ipswich League

League Cup Semi Final

Saturday 14th March 2020

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.01

Haughley United 1 Henley Athletic 2 (AET), attendance 96

60’ 1-0 (pen)

76’ 1-1

118’ 1-2

@ National Playing Field

Green Road

Haughley

IP14 3QZ

No Admission or Programme.

It looked like the mass hysteria and scaremongering on the news and social media was going to present a problem with getting any football played today, but thankfully, a number of leagues pressed ahead with fixtures, as the country will be shutdown completely soon enough, so games will then be called off when they actually need to be. One thing that was noticeable was how quiet the M25 was. In fact, until I got to the Dartford Crossing I had cruised along at 70 m.p.h. not needing to use the outside lane at all. It is the first time I have ever driven there without any queuing traffic (usually at least a couple of junctions on the approach) and it all seemed really odd.

Both clubs and the league had tweeted that the game was on, with this being the League Cup (Morrison Freight Trophy as far as sponsorship is concerned) Semi Final, which was between the teams in second and third place in the league table of the Senior Division, level on points, but with Haughley having a goal difference better by four.

As expected, it was a very even contest, but I didn’t expect the game to produce so few chances, especially in the first half. Haughley went ahead on the hour mark, when their young centre forward was fouled and he took the penalty himself, calmly slotting in the opening goal. The game opened up, as Henley pushed for an equaliser. It came sixteen minutes from the end. A free kick on the corner of the 18 yard box was chipped towards the six yard box and the ball was volleyed into the top corner of the net. No more goals in normal time, and it looked like there would be none in extra time either, but with just two minutes left, a corner from the right wasn’t cleared and the ball was smashed into the net from 20 yards to give Henley a late winner. There was still time for Haughley to finish the game with ten men, when their No.5 finally received a second yellow card, which should have come well before the fifth minute of stoppage time that it did! Haughley were denied a penalty eight minutes into stoppage time, when the Henley ‘keeper clattered a home striker having failed to punch a corner clear. At any other stage in the match I’m sure the Referee would have given it.