NL Raiders masters vs Chigwell masters – Invitational Cup Final preview

North London Raiders masters kept alive their hopes of claiming a league and cup treble after they beat Faithfold 7-0 to book their place in the final of this weekend’s MMFL/MFL Invitational Cup Final.

Their emphatic win came thanks to Saul Conway’s double, along with strikes from David Fox, Richard Sacks, Andrew Wolfin, Danny Daggers and Jon Isaacs.

Happy with the way his side performed, player-manager Elan Ovits said: “We played really well today and scored some lovely goals.”

Now facing Chigwell in what promises to be an intriguing match on Sunday, he said: “We’re confident we can beat them, but they may be more confident than us and we know we’ll need to be even sharper in the final.

“There’s no doubt they’ll be up for it and will play their strongest team. But we’ll have a few high quality players missing due to injuries, so they may just have an advantage over us.”

And insisting talk of a treble couldn’t be further from his player’s minds, he said: “None of us are thinking about that, we just enjoy playing football together and look to do our very best.”

Chigwell player-manager Richard Slater believes the Raiders go into the match as “firm favourites”, saying: “Of course they are. We know they’re a very good side, which has been proven by them winning two trophies this season. They’re a talented bunch, but then again so are we. Without doubt we have more than enough quality to win this game and you never know, maybe we can spring a few surprises on Sunday.”

Saying his players will also be out for revenge having lost to them in the semi-final of the Henry Swerner Masters Cup, he added: “The lads are determined to put things right. There were a lot of hurt players in the dressing room after that game which is something I’ll be reminding them of.

“We will go out and enjoy our football as we try to do every Sunday morning”

Sunday’s match, taking place at Kingsbury FC, kicks-off at 10am.