First or 20th time winners for the Stranger Cup?
THE first piece of major silverware of the season is up for grabs at Blanche Pierre Lane this evening as Vale Rec face Rovers in the Stranger Cup final.
Priaulx League leaders Rovers, who will go into the clash as favourites, have never won the competition before whereas Rec have lifted it 19 times before, but are on the hunt for their first trophy in nearly six years.
‘We’re delighted to have made the final of the competition, it is great for the club and the players after all the work they have put in,’ said Rec coach Mark Romeril.
‘I expect Rovers to be very good on the day, they will be bang up for it and extremely motivated since they have not won the Stranger before, so it’s going to be a really tough challenge.’
The two finalists played each other in the group stages of the competition back in January, with the Port Soif side coming out on top with a 2-1 victory, although it was Romeril’s team who won the most recent meeting between the teams in the Priaulx League a few weeks back.
‘Rovers were the only team in the league that we had not beaten going into that league game so to win against them was huge.
‘It showed the lads that they can do it against anybody in this division and I am sure it has given them a lot of confidence.
‘Winning this final would mean so much to everybody at the club – we have not won a trophy in a long time, and up until now we have not been near to that level, so the main thing is that we are finally competing again.’
Rec saw off their Grand Fort Road neighbours North in the semi-finals last month, coming from behind twice to eventually win on penalties, while Kevin Gillease’s team got past Sylvans 3-1.
‘We are really looking forward to it – it is a great opportunity for us to get our hands on some silverware,’ said Rovers boss Gillease.
‘We said going into this week that it was going to be huge for us, playing in the league, then the Stranger and then in the FA Cup at the weekend – we want to win all three games and we have already won one, so now it is up to us to do it again [tonight].
‘It is 90 minutes with some silverware on the line so both teams are going to go for it from the first – we will not be changing the way we play and we want to get the win.
‘In the games against Rec this season we have either blown them away or found it really tough – we could not score in 180 minutes at the Corbet Field, but when they came to Port Soif we beat them 5-0.
‘They have a lot of players that can cause us damage, but we’ll be ready for however they set up.’
The Ross Gower Stranger Cup final kicks off at 7.30pm at BPL tonight.
