FC Romania Won Their First ESL Honour On Monday (Photo by Andy Wilkins)
Takeley 0 FC Romania 1
Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy Final
Monday 2nd April
The first piece of Essex Senior League silverware was handed out at Leslie Field on Easter Monday as Takeley, last season’s winners, had their grip on the Trophy unfastened by FC Romania who went on to lift their first ever Essex Senior League honour in the process.
Ion Vintila’s men were obviously aware that their brand of football had always brought accolades but little in way of silverware because it took them a mere 38 seconds to launch their first attack. Sergiu Pitaru played a quick ball to Mihai Circiumaru whose low shot was saved by Ronnie Yates. The Takeley keeper was soon cutting out a Felix Lupu free kick, was possibly praising his lucky stars when Pitaru connected with a cross but miscued his effort wide, before riding his luck even further as a Circiumaru shot hit the woodwork. It certainly had been an all-guns blazing start from the Wolves.
Mitchell Das was able to win Takeley a corner in the 13th minute. The resulting corner fell to Das whose header was punched away by Adrian Darabant. The ball was soon at the other end as a long ball cleared the Takeley defence, but Yates sped out of his box and cleared the ball with a great header. The Takeley glovesman was soon denying Pop with a more conventional save, getting down low to his right to palm the shot away.
Alex Martin showed good skill to play in Goerge Wappett which briefly prised open the Romania defence, but Wappett’s shot was then blocked and cleared by Lupu. And it looked like Takeley were starting to find their rhythm when another nice passing move fell to Das who showed good skill by flicking the ball up, before surging past the Romania defence, before being fouled and winning a free kick just outside the box. However Nick Barrett thumped the resulting free kick far too high to cause any further threat.
FC Romania had perhaps the best chance of the game thus far in the 32nd minute when Pop latched onto a through ball that Yates was able to hook away, but only as far as Pitaru who scuffed the rebound over the bar. Takeley appeared sluggish as the half wore on, while FC Romania had dominated but had not made that possession count. That frustration resulted in Circiumaru making a rash challenge on Andre Humphreys, which brought him a yellow card; then Constantin Arotaritei received the same after man-handling Das.
As it was the Wolves found Takeley’s defence at times putting in good tackles to dispossess their forward runs, such as when Circiumaru charged into the Takeley box only to find Mike Castle standing his ground and winning the ball with a sold tackle. At other times FC Romania were wasteful, such as when Pitaru had a shot blocked with the rebound being rifled tamely wide by Circiumaru, who then blasted another shot over. And it almost a Takeley player that broke the deadlock when an Adrian Balsanu free kick was headed towards his own goal by Andre Humphreys, resulting in Yates pulling off a superb save, tipping the ball over the bar to deny FC Romania taking the lead via an own goal.
Wappett played Das in within seconds of the second half, but the move ended when the Assistant Referee on the far side raised the flag. Then another Takeley ball over the top appeared to set Alex Martin free to make a move towards goal, until once again the offside flag was raised. It showed that Takeley were now trying to get some forward motion going themselves and their next two attacks resulted in a Martin cross being deflected away for a corner; then soon afterwards Martin teed up Todd who poked narrowly wide.
FC Romania then came out of their half with a sweeping move that ended with Balsanu playing the ball out to the right flank to Pitaru who sent over a dangerous looking cross that the Takeley defence managed to scramble clear. Then a ball from the left fell to Pitaru but he didn’t make a clean enough connection and so the shot lacking in both power and accuracy spun harmlessly away from the target. After a dominant first half showing, the Wolves were quiet for most of the early part of the second period, with a George Taban drive from distance that was only a few inches too high, being their only real effort of note inside the opening 20 minutes of the second half. And Takeley too found Romania’s offside trap hard to negotiate at times, with Das and Todd both running onto balls near FC Romania’s goal, only for the move to break down due to being caught offside.
FC Romania crafted another good move in the 70th minute as Pop burst into the box, centred to Pitaru whose shot was deflected, with the final ball falling back to Pop who scuffed his shot well wide. Das flashed a free kick across the FC Romania goalmouth three minutes later, which took a deflection on route and needed a touch but alas there was not Takeley player on-hand to supply it. Maximov had a similar situation moments later when his deep cross darted towards the Takeley six-yard box but with no team mates nearby meant the ball floated away harmlessly enough. Pop and Taban both exchanged passes which then played in Mihai Botosan whose final shot lacked power and was easily stopped by Yates. Then a Balsanu cross fell kindly to Pop but he wasn’t able to get enough purchase on the ball and scuffed his shot wide.
However the deadlock was finally broken in the 86th minute when FC Romania again had the ball in Takeley’s box, and with the ball pinging around it eventually made its way to Attila Kelemen and he made no mistake by firing his shot beyond Yates before wheeling away in delight, being swamped by his team mates.
Takeley had four minutes, along with 4 added minutes, to try and take the game into extra time. Soon after conceding they launched a ball into the FC Romania box that won them a corner. A Wappett shot took a deflection; Pitaru had to head away a Das cross; Darabant punched away a late Takeley corner before having to claim a Humphreys cross in the closing stages whilst under pressure from two Takeley forwards. It was too little too late from Takeley as FC Romania held firm and then celebrated at the final whistle with their small, but nonetheless noisy and colourful fans, as they lifted their first piece of ESL silverware.
Takeley: Ronnie Yates, Bryn Thorpe, Andre Humphreys, Nick Barrett, Mike Castle, Matt Hurley (Frank Oatham 75’), Mitchell Das, Freddie Burrell, Alex Martin, Jason Todd (Capt), George Wappett.
FC Romania: Adrian Darabant, Sergiu Maximov, Sergiu Pitaru (Attila Kelemen 72’), Felix Lupu, Gabriel Ghinea (Cosmin Sandu 60’), Andrei Baciu, Constantin Arotaritei, Adrian Balsanu, George Taban (Capt), Mihai Circiumaru (Mihai Botosan 56’), Florin Pop.
Scorer – Attila Kelemen (86’).
