Although the result on Saturday wasn't what we wanted we knew we had a job to do on Tuesday and we wasn't going to affect us. We are still a fairly new team but alot of us have played and won finals before we knew what we had to do and that we would get that one chance we had to make it count. Our preparation was the same as any other and was to keep things nice and familiar for the boys.
We made some changes to the starting 11 to try and improve on our performance but we were massively rocked by the 2 first half and the early second half injuries knowing Baguley could still make 5 roll on roll off subs it could have been a long and tiring night for some of the boys, we had to make sure we got it right.
As group we defended amazingly, every single player won their individual battles. I would have liked to have been better on the ball, but defending like that and not conceding always gives you a great chance of winning and with Rob on the pitch one chance is all we’ll ever need.
The main thing we will take from this is winning a trophy, nothing brings a group together like getting that first one over the line. We would like to have played better football in possession and gave them more to think about from a defensive point of view. But ultimately you have to win cup finals, I’d much prefer to win than lose and play well. In terms of next season obviously we want to keep this group together, over the course of the season we’ve lost one or two players so as always we’ll be looking to add here an there so we can enjoy loads more nights like Tuesday night.

If I was asked to pick a man of the match, where do I start!
Tyler in net, was such a rough call to change keepers and not one we took lightly but I think it paid off. Every time he’s put the gloves on he’s been class. soares beef and bry (early sub) as a back 3 were outstanding and until the last throws of extra time we never looked like letting a goal in.
Croakey, Mott, mackle who all came off injured and Lewis in the wing back roles ran up and down all night defended properly and gave us great outlets, especially Lewis in extra time.

Faz smithy bullock turner as midfield three covered a lot of ground, it was a long ball game in the end so for them boys doing doggies all night is no mean feat!

Then rob Dillers and Guss up top basically worked off scraps all night but ran and ran, rob got his chance and it was never in doubt I think that’s about 36 for him for the season and probably nearly 80 in the two years he’s been here.

I want to say about Monksy, been the clubs number 1 really till recently with work and injuries. Must have been a really tough night for him but he went through the goalie warm up didn’t pull his face and supported the boys all night
Man of the match was a tough one

I think Tyler, beef and jack turner were absolutely outstanding I think bri being an early change into the back 3 fitted in effortlessly and when jack went into midfield he marked their best player out of the game then ended up at left back for us!

But for me Matty Soares was an absolute colossal the bloke is absolutely solid and finished a great season by just edging the man of the match for me.

Craig Smith has decided to hang the boots up. Hes been a great player for loads of teams on the estate, I had him in the harehill side that won the league and got to 5 cup finals (winning 3) in 2 seasons. Great way for him to finish, I'll try to convince him now to join us coaching!
Lastly best wishes to Jake Croak on the recovery from his nose injury hope the nurses looked after you!