Rolls Royce 2 Sun Sports 0                                  1972/73                           Aubrey Cup Final

Rolls complete a dream "Treble"

Rolls Royce's  dream four months drew to a glorious conclusion on Saturday, when a goal in each half at Leavesden brought the Aubrey Cup to the Aerodrome for the first time, and completes a magnificent treble for Dave Fisken's players.
Already Herts County League Champions and Herts Intermediate Cup winners, Rolls always looked likely to complete their unique trophy hat trick after opponents Sun Sports had been stunned by a Keith Lawes goal direct from a free kick after just 90 seconds.
The game was never a classic, indeed for the most part the football was scrappy, with Sun not venturing into full blooded attack before a storming last ten minute rally which was foiled only by a string of Doug Smith saves.
Rolls rarely produced their best form, looking jaded and rather uninspired after their exhausting run in, they nevertheless attacked with more conviction and speed than Sun.
If much of the final was disappointing, however, it certainly began sensationally.
Rolls were awarded a free kick 20 yards out after a push by a Sun defender, and amidst apparent hesitation over who was going to take it, Lawes steered the ball around Sun's wall and past the surprised Cliff Langley.
Six minutes later Dave Bennell was floored in the area but the confident penalty appeals were rejected, and Sun began to settle at last.
Mel Robinson went close twice, once with a left foot volley and then with a 45 yard free kick that dropped against the crossbar.
Two minutes from the end of a tawdry first half, in which Sun raids consistently foundered against the rolls offside trap.
Sun's tall striker Graham Seabrook finally surrendered to the pain of a recurring leg injury, and was replaced by Ray Cole.
The second half began with another troublesome free kick from Lawes.
This time his subtle chip floated into the six yard box, where the otherwise steady Kelvyn Ward, under pressure from Derek Brown, sliced the ball inches wide of his own post.
After 61 minutes Lawes and Brown combined skilfully for the second goal.
Brown swept the ball out to Lawes on the right, then made ground into the area to meet the winger's centre and head firmly past Langley.
The ever dangerous Brown had a hat trick of near misses; he headed wide from a Lawes corner, shot just past after Graham Hodgson had nearly  had nearly set him up in the area, then found space to head a long Richard Wright free kick agonisingly close to the spot.
In the final ten minutes, Sun took over.
Bursting out of the defensive shackles and negative midfield work that had adorned much of their play, they surged into the brand of soccer that proves what a good side they can be.
The young and promising Dave Churchill headed on a Cole cross to Robinson, whose carefully placed shot deflected off a defender, forcing Smith to turn in mid air and palm the ball round the post.
Wright cleared Denny Rayner's corner off the line straight to Churchill, but his goalbound drive rebounded off a body for yet another corner.

Sun Sports: Langley, Woolner, Ward, Littleboy, Tattam, Robinson, Savina, Reeve, Rayner, Seabrook, Churchill, Substitute: Cole