The first Middlesex FA Cup Final of the season is set to take place this Wednesday evening as Bedfont Sports Club U18 and Hampton & Richmond Borough U18 meet in the Jeff Ritson Senior Youth Cup Final at Uxbridge FC. 

Founded in 2000, the Senior Youth Cup was created as a way of offering the senior clubs in the county an opportunity to play in a midweek competition under floodlights.  As the president of the Association during the competition’s birth, Jeff Ritson donated the cup that the two sides will play for on Wednesday evening. After Jeff’s passing, the name of the cup was changed to the Jeff Ritson Senior Youth Cup in his honour. 

Bedfont Sports, who’s only win in the competition came in the 2014-15 season, enjoyed an entertaining route to the final. The team amassed an impressive 16 goals over the four rounds making them the highest scorers in the competition, with highlights including a convincing 4-1 win over Hayes & Yeading United in the Quarter-Final. They know their opponents well having played and defeated them in the league earlier in the season, but manager Conor Moody says the team will have to be on their game to win in the final: 

‘We play in the same league and it will be very tough today.  We beat them early in the season at their place in probably our best performance of the season so let’s hope we can do it again’.

Hampton & Richmond Borough have also found goals easy to come by en-route to the final, scoring four or more goals in each of the three rounds the team have been involved in.  The team currently lie 9th in the league but manager Steve Bates has been impressed with their cup run this season: 

'It was one of the goals we set at the start of the season to do better in the cup competitions. Alongside our excellent FA Youth Cup run, we certainly feel we have done that. We are very much looking forward to competing in the Final.'

He added:
'We play in the same division as Bedfont so obviously know them quite well. They are a well-run community club who produce very good sides. Having played them once already and also watched them, we have a good idea of their strengths. We certainly know we’ll have to be at our best to win the game.'

The match between Bedfont Sports and Hampton & Richmond Borough will be played on Wednesday 7th March at Uxbridge FC with kick-off at 7.30pm. The admission price for adults will be £6 with concession priced at £3. Those under the age of 16 or in full time education can enter free of charge but under 16s will need to be accompanied by an adult. 

For more information on this match or any of the other Middlesex FA finals, please see our Cups and Competitions page.