Hendon Win Denies NWN Treble
Cyril Anekstein Cup Final
Hendon A 2 NWN A 1
Sunday, 31 May, 2009
Goals from Ari Last and Paul Bentley in the opening exchanges set Hendon up for their win, and although Lee Cash halved the deficit on the quarter-hour mark, it was their flying start which laid the foundations for the win.
Wreschner said: "We didn't want to lose two Cup Finals in a season and having lost the Peter Morrison a couple of weeks ago, that really spurred us on today. It wasn't so much for revenge but just that we wanted to win a trophy."
Reflecting on the game, he said: "There wasn't a lot between us. We put them under a bit of pressure, competed really hard for everything. For the first 20 minutes we had a game plan to go out, hit them hard and early - really to go out all guns blazing and that's what we did. We got the goals and they never really settled after that.
"The start was better than we could have imagined but we take that. You always expect they're going to put you under pressure but I always had belief in my defenders that they could hold on.
"To be fair, Neasden had a couple of moments when they looked like they may get a clear chance, but not many. I thought we had the clearer-cut chances and overall deserved to win. I thought we shaded it more over the balance of play, had slightly more of the clear-cut chances, hit the woodwork a couple of times, so I thought in the end we deserved to win.
"You never really appreciate and enjoy a cup win until it actually happens, you get the opportunity and then when it actually happens it's such a good feeling. You need those feelings to drive you on and having experienced that now will help drive us on next season."
Looking back on the season, he added: "We were out of the running for the league too early in the season to have any impact on it and therefore we knew it was going to be a cup season really pretty much from November time. That's resulted in two finals and one victory which isn't too bad
As far as Neasden's joint-manager Daniel Fox was concerned, he had no complaints about the game. "I think Hendon deserved to win. We always have great games and battles against them and they are still our nearest rivals. The score line was fair. At 2-1 both teams had chances but they defended well and they always make it difficult for us to play our football. Neasden have the utmost respect for Hendon and they were worthy winners of this final."
Commenting on their performance he said: "We started the game slowly. The first goal took a nasty bobble over the keeper, while with the second, we had three chances to clear our lines. I wasn't surprised they came out all guns blazing but I wouldn't have predicted that they'd be 2-0 up after 10 minutes. For any team, that would have a huge impact on the way you play, but we never drops our heads and we kept fighting till the final whistle.
"We always believed we could get back into this game, but full credit to Hendon as they defended well and made it difficult in midfield for us to create many chances. If we would have got the second goal, the momentum would probably have swayed in our favour but we didn't, besides I thought Hendon deserved their victory."
Although missing out on this cup, they can still celebrate a double, and looking back on the season, Fox said: "It's been an incredible season. Obviously the team are on a bit of a downer as we wanted to win the treble so badly, but we still created history by being the first team to win the double back-to-back.
"For whatever reason Neasden as a club gets a lot of bad press but I can tell you now that the squad we have formed is the best we have ever assembled, the players have so much ability and they are great bunch of guys. It's a team of mates that want to be successful, next year we will aim to go one better in the non-Jewish cup and try and win that competition and our other aim will be to win the league three years in a row which also has never been achieved."
