This shiny cup will be held aloft tonight- but what colour will the ribbons be?

It’s Cup Final Wednesday, and our Velocity (League Cup) Final will kick off at 7.45 PM at Parkside, Aveley- which, given Aveley are in it, gives them a bit of an advantage.

The Millers have known since long before the competition kicked off that they would be playing host to the Final (they’ve been hosts since 2018), but it has been many, many years since they’ve been in one. Indeed, the last Aveley final was way back on May 7th 1990, when they travelled to Dagenham & Redbridge to take on St Albans City. Those days they were riding high in Isthmian Division Two North, whilst their opponents were sitting two Divisions higher in our Premier Division, but you wouldn’t have known as the Millers swept the Saints aside, winning three-nil for a cup and promotion ‘double’ in front of a crowd of one thousand and thirty six.

The Scholars, in contrast, didn’t appear in the competition until September 12th 2006- a three-two Second Round Extra Time defeat against Staines Town. This will be their first Final, but to put that into context they’ve only had thirteen Isthmian seasons during their history, and as you’ll recall we didn’t finish two of those.

Another Aveley advantage is apparent when you look at current form. The Millers haven’t lost a game in three months, have lost only three home games in all competitions this season, and have already played the Scholars four times in League and FA Cup. The aggregate score from those encounters is seven-four in Aveley’s favour; the Millers winning both league encounters, the Scholars triumphing in the Cup after a replay.

Making things worse for the Scholars, they are on a terrible run of form which has seen them win only two of their last twenty one league matches, and as a result fall from first to thirteenth. Their Velocity Cup run, however, has perhaps given them relief from their league situation- and they’ve taken a handful of notable scalps, including Premier Division rivals Billericay Town and Haringey Borough, as well as Pitching In South East promotion chasers Whitehawk. The Millers run to the final has perhaps been a little easier, Tilbury, Bowers and Pitsea, Leatherhead and Chatham Town being removed from the competition, the latter on penalties.

That said, and looking past the statistics, perhaps two things go in the Scholars favour. First and foremost, they’ve been focused on this final for weeks. Safe from relegation, aware that they are not going to make the play off’s, tonight’s match has been their priority- and their form in this competition suggest they’ve known that for quite a while. The Millers, by contrast, are not only deeply mixed up in the play off race, they are deeply missed up in the title race. They can’t afford to be distracted from that, and they won’t really want to pick up any injuries. Will that be playing on their minds, even if only subconsciously?

We’re about to find out! See you at Parkside this evening- and we’ll have a report soon after full time.

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