Day 292

With one game to play, my Under 18s climbed to third in their group today. It will be a fantastic achievement if they can hold the position.

Meanwhile, the seniors faced off against Darlington for their final game of the season.

I decided to field an almost-full-strength team, with my first-choice back four—Kanouté, Gowling, Marques, Billington—and strike-pairing—Koroma and Barnes-Homer—supported by midfielders Shuker, Woods, Olembé, and Power (with Halstead in goal). Power got the nod because he was a key player for us through the first half of the season, and he’s made a few vital contributions since falling back to fringe status.

Power’s actually only missed one game in the league all season. He started 21 (soon to be 22) matches and came off the bench in 23.

Youngsters Robert Taylor and Karlton Watson took their place on the bench with Diagouraga, May, and Nutter. I chose not to put a second goalkeeper in the 16, leaving us vulnerable if Halstead were to get injured or sent off.

We went close twice in the opening few minutes, with good efforts from Koroma and Shuker. It looked as though we’d be in charge of the game. We were helped by Darlington’s defensive misfortune moments later. A Billington corner from the left bounced off one Darlington player’s back and off another’s—James Gray’s—heel, before rolling over the line.

Koroma should have doubled the lead in the 34th minute, when he dispossessed Ziggy Gordon inside the box and slid a shot across goal. It was off the mark, however. I wondered whether the striker would break his goalless streak today—he’d gone more than 12 games without scoring.

He got it. Koroma picked up Power’s pass on the edge of the box on 60 minutes, fought off the challenge of Balotoni, and calmly placed the ball in the bottom corner. His 20th league goal of the season sure was a long time coming, and you could see the relief on his face to finally break the drought.

Young centre back Karlton Watson replaced Kanouté in the 67th minute, with Gowling moving across to right back. Then Power went down injured in the 76th minute. I picked John Nutter as his replacement, since I wanted the club captain on the pitch at the final whistle. Olembé took on an unfamiliar central midfield role to accommodate Nutter.

Darlington pulled a goal back in the 81st minute. Unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box, Bridge-Wilkinson volleyed Foster’s free kick goalwards. Halstead was beaten, but the ball cannoned off Billington on the near post. Felice Coppola was perfectly positioned to tap the rebound in, adding a disappointing note to our title celebrations.

We held on for a deserved victory, however. Koroma took man of the match honours, while we all got to celebrate the Conference crown. Our next league game will be in the division above—League 2. I’m especially pleased that we hit 100 points, scored 106 goals, and conceded just 43 times—less than once a match.

We smashed our season record for attendance—6,538 people turned out to see us raise the trophy and accept our winners medals (and watch some football too, presumably).

The play-offs are scheduled. Wrexham face Mansfield, while Grimsby go toe to toe with Gateshead.