Week ending 4th May by Mason Norton

Tuesday night saw the final of the Chairman's Trophy, played at Barrow Town's Riverside Park ground between Hinckley LR Reserves and Loughborough Students Development. The Chairman's Trophy this season is a competition to give clubs in Everards Brewery Divisions One and Two extra games in the second half of the season. After a minute's silence held before kick-off, the game got off to a fast start, with the Students taking the lead on five minutes when a defensive slip let in Sam Williams who made no mistake. The Road though hit back, and after 11 minutes, they got a corner which was swung into the box, finding the header of Harry Smith who rose highest in the box and flew straight in for the equaliser. The scores stayed level through to half-time, both teams shadow boxing, but showing excellent skills, both in terms of the basics and in their reading of the game and playing the possession game.

The second half saw the Students come out of the changing rooms the quickest, and they upped the tempo and began to find extra gears. Ten minutes into the second period, with the Loughborough side finding more and more gaps, the pressure began to tell, and after a succession of corners, Williams scored his second to put them back in the lead. The Students now dominated the game and possession as Road began to fall off, so it was against the run of play on 65 minutes that a ball over the top of the Town's back four put in Brogan Greenwood out wide on the edge of the box, and Greenwood's cross-cum-shot looped in for the second equaliser of the night.

But just as that seemed to set up an intriguing final quarter, the Students found a little bit more. Within two minutes, they had counter-attacked, and with a long ball crossfield from the right found Williams on the edge of the box, who didn't even wait for the ball to come down before sending in a looping header that dropped into the back of the net at the far post to restore the lead and secure Williams' hat-trick. The game was killed off as a contest on 74 minutes when again the Students played it wide, stretching the Road to breaking point, and the ball went into the box and the Hinckley defender's attempted clearance lacked both power and direction and went into the back of the net. The Students won 4-2, and were presented with the trophy by League Chairman Dave Lumley in front of a crowd of 100, the second leg of a possible quadruple, with the Students still in contention for next week's President's Trophy final, against the same opposition at Loughborough Dynamo, before finishing off with their Saturday County FA Trophy Final on May 11 against Mountsorrel Amateurs Reserves at Holmes Park.

Credit should go though to both teams, who played out a very entertaining and good-quality game that flowed throughout. The Students won Division Two this season, and having beaten all of the top three teams in Div1 en route to the Chairman's Trophy, they must rank amongst the favourites when they compete in Div1 next term.

Midweek saw two games in the Everards Brewery Division One. Tuesday night saw an upset as Barrow Town Reserves secured their maiden win of the season with Hashim Bakar, Alfie Glover and Dean Hopewell giving them a 3-2 win at Sutton Bonington, Lee Beaken scoring twice for SB, who finish seventh out of the 10 finishers. Thursday night saw Ingles Development jump up three places and secure fourth place after a 3-1 win at home to Dunton & Broughton United, Oliver Unwin (2) and Ralph Belcher the scorers for Ingles, Louis Patrick for DBU just before half-time, Dunton finishing eighth.

That leaves just two games to play in Div1- Ingles Development welcome runners-up Leicester Atletico on Saturday, and then welcome Barrow Town Reserves on Tuesday. Neither of those games will change any of the places in the Div1 table.

Ramble Round is taking the Bank Holiday weekend off. Dave Lumley will sit in in midweek next week to cover the City Goldsmiths President's Trophy final between Hinckley LR Reserves and Loughborough Students Development, the rematch next Tuesday of last Tuesday's game, and the final knockings for this season of Everards Brewery Division One. The week after that, the season ends with a double bill. Andy Grout will be at Loughborough Dynamo for Ramble Round the Tiger Final, between Allexton & New Parks and Aylestone Park Reserves, whilst I'll be at Holmes Park, for Ramble Round the County Cup Finals, as Loughborough Students Development take on County League side Mountsorrel Amateurs Reserves in the Saturday Trophy final, and Hathern take on UCL Div1 side Kirby Muxloe of Step 6 in the Senior Cup final. See you then.