Hat-trick for Owen as Robins clinch title
6:58pm Sunday 20th April 2008
Evesham Utd 7, Woodford Utd
THE rampant Robins clinched the Southern League Division One Midlands championship in magnificent fashion with a seven-goal thrashing of hapless Woodford.
Needing a win to finally see off Leamington's threat, United had the best possible start when Mark Owen netted twice inside the opening 13 minutes.
The top scorer, with 33 goals this season, completed his hat-trick late on to rubber-stamp a marvellous individual campaign in front of goal.
Despite not adding to their first-half tally, the title was sealed within two minutes of the start of the second-half when Daniel Lennon headed.
Visiting defender Kai Ridley then rolled the ball past his own goalkeeper to give the Robins a four-goal cushion after 47 minutes.
The hosts had to wait another 37 minutes for a fifth goal when Michael Hayden nodded in Danny Scheppel's centre and a biggest win of the season was completed when Allando Davis set up Owen to complete his treble.
The substitute then tapped in a stoppage-time seventh as Evesham virtually walked the ball through the non-existant visiting rearguard.
"What a way to win the title," declared a delighted Evesham chairman Jim Cockerton.
"The last three goals made the scoreline more realistic and we fully deserved the win and the title after what has been a magnificent season."
Manager Paul West again paid tribute to his players who boasted their championship triumph by celebrating their success in t-shirts bearing the slogan "League Champions 2008" after the match.
"It's been a great afternoon and and you could see by the celebrations after the game just what it meant to the players," the manager admitted.
"Leamington have won and due credit to them for sticking at it but we've had a great run and fully deserve our success."
Woodford, scathing at derogatory comments directed towards them by Leam-ington seven days earlier, fielded a virtual second string and managed just one shot on goal during the entire 90 minutes - an effort that flew high out of St George's Lane!
However, most of the visiting side had faced the Brakes the previous weekend and Evesham's title rivals had laboured to a 3-1 success.
The final whistle brought jubilant scenes at St George's Lane with supporters in the biggest league crowd of the season, 252, joining the players on the pitch to share a memorable occasion and Evesham's first championship success for 16 years.