Southbank saw their dreams of a first ever cup final shattered by a lacklustre performance against Division 1 champions elect AFC Victory.   The 'Bank were hit by early goals in each half as a rampant Victory steamrollered their way to a comfortable 5-0 win to secure a spot in the Industrial Cup final. 

 

Despite the high winds and consistent rainfall during the run up to the game, the Victoria Rec pitch was in surprisingly good condition and the game was thankfully on.  With the return to fitness of both Player/Manager Mark Holton and skipper Steven 'Budda' Booth, Southbank were fortunate to have an almost full squad to choose from, with only Rich Smalley (ineligible) and Ben Duncan (unavailable) missing.  With no game since the impressive 3-1 win over Southcote Video Res Holton duly stuck with the same starting 11 that had seen off Video a full four weeks before.  This meant Brown, Holton and Budda had to warm the bench.

 

The game, as you'd expect, started at a frantic pace with both teams looking to get the better of the early exchanges.  Things looked good for Soutbank as they could easily have taken an early lead when a goal mouth scramble nearly saw the ball in the back of the Victory net.  Somehow the ball was cleared and Southbanks best chance of the half went begging.  Shortly afterwards the wheels fell off for The 'Bank as Victory scored two quick goals to stun the Southbank faithful.  The first came following another goal mouth scramble which saw Ian Hodges, Victory's midfield lynchpin - and Slough Town's top scorer - tap in at the far post.  Just a few minutes later a long range shot from a partially cleared corner hit the bar and Graham Butler reacted quickest to round Luke Howroyd in the Southbank goal and double Victory's lead.

 

Southbank settled down after this double set back but couldn't break down a well organised AFC Victory side.  Victory's midfield were full of running and Southbanks lack of match practice seemed to be working against them as rushed passing and a lack of sharpness saw a lack of movement and possession surrendered far too cheaply.  At 2-0 things were still in the balance, and typically Southbank stuck to their task, but, despite all their efforts just couldn't quite get any fluency into their game and so it remained 2-0 as the ref signalled half time.

 

Holton's half time message to his side was that they were still in the game.  They could still pull it back but they had to start to pass the ball better and to give each other options on the ball, today wasn't a day to go through the motions. 

 

Ten minutes in and Steve Brown came on for Mark Broomfield as Holton looked to freshen up the overrun midfield.  The move backfired though as Browner gave away the ball on the left and the ball found its way to the impressive Gary Ashton who drilled the ball past Luke into the bottom corner to stretch the lead to an unassailable 3-0.  Within minutes it became 4-0 as an uncharacteristic mistake by Danny saw Ashton and Luke in a race for the ball with the Victory player always favourite.  He got their first and chipped the onrushing Howroyd to put the tie beyond doubt with a deft finish.  Budda then replaced Hyslop at right back and Holton followed shortly as Southbank threw caution to the wind in the search of a late consolation.  The goal came at the wrong end though as an inswinging corner was headed home by Phil McCabe to make the score 5.

 

All in all this was more than a disappointing day for The 'Bank.  Not only did they miss out on a first cup final appearance but they went out without doing themselves justice.  The long layoff didn't do Southbank any favours, but this shouldn't belittle Victory's achievement as they were by far the shaper side and were more hungry and first to every ball.  On another day Southbank would've made a better game of it, but now they must get back to concentrating on clinching the all important second spot behind Victory in the league to ensure promotion to the Premier Division for next season.