And then there were two … the best two teams, according to the league table, which never lies. Although it’s too early to make any cup final predictions, the touch-paper has been well and truly lit by David Garbacz. And unlike David Moyes, I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.
That said, I firmly expect Raiders to pin this week’s JC on their changing room wall at Wingate & Finchley before the League Cup final as the claim that they can only play on 3G has as good as done Phil Peters’s pre-match teamtalk for him.
Whilst I expect there to be very little between the teams on the day, the only think counting against Raiders is the fact that they may lose some match sharpness between now and the clash as they have finished their league campaign, and a combination of cup games plus friendlies is what lies in front of them in the weeks leading up to what many have labelled ‘the dream final’.
It’s hard to maintain the level of intensity and focus when a team goes weeks without meaningful action and on the surface, I’d rather be in Hendon’s position.
Hendon, meanwhile, have, as you know, a real fixture backlog. Gaffer Garbacz recently described their run-in as eight cup finals, and before all that, they travel to defending league champions Faithfold A for a place in the semi-finals of the Morrison.
But I’m sure there are many more twists and turns before the big game on May 4.
* Ligat Ha’Al was treated to its first ‘selfie’ after Maccabi Tel Aviv hotshot Eran Zahavi took a leaf out of Wojciech Szczesny’s book and snapped away after opening the scoring in the Tel Aviv derby.
Zahavi, 26, raced the length of the pitch and picked up a camera before snapping away in front of hordes of Maccabi fans. Let’s see how long it takes Uefa to make that a bookable offence!
* The age-range for athletes looking to compete at next year’s European Maccabi Games in Berlin has changed. Junior sports will now be for athletes born between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2000, while there will be two categories for Junior Boys football, basketball, futsal, karate and judo - Youth 1997-1998 and Juniors 1999-2000.
* While the Maccabi GB Futsal team missed out on a place in the U19 grand finals, the Open squad will travel to Liverpool and Oxford in the Mini-League stages of the FA Futsal Cup. Good luck lads.
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