HIGHGATE ALBION –v- HOME BARGAINS
FA Sunday Cup Semi-Final
Date: Sunday, 24 March 2024
Kick-Off: 2pm
Location: Kidderminster Harriers, Aggborough Stadium, Hoo Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire DY10 1NB
Continued from Part 1.
Since elite professional football gets so much attention, I like to write about areas of football that get overlooked. Among those is the FA Sunday Cup; an excellent but unheralded nationwide competition for the best Sunday football teams in England. For those who think Sunday football is a dumping ground for the unfit and overweight – think again. Teams and their players have to be seriously talented and fit to compete in this competition. Most players who play in it are ex-professionals or semi-professionals. Elliott Nevitt scored a late winning goal in extra time to give Campfield (from Liverpool) a 1-0 victory in the 2021 FA Sunday Cup final. A few weeks later Nevitt signed a professional football contract with Tranmere Rovers and won the League Two Player of the Season award in his first season as a professional footballer.
This season’s competition has reached the semi-final stage and one of the semi-final ties features a match-up between two teams who are the best Sunday teams from Liverpool and London respectively. This is the second of a two part article that I began at this link in part 1.
Highgate Albion
Location: Highgate, North London
League: Sunday Football League – London
Year Founded: 1982
Home Ground: St. Aloysius Playing Fields, London N6 5TX
This Season: 2nd in the Sunday Football League – London
Last Season:
- Barnet Sunday League Premier Division champions
- London Sunday Challenge Cup winners
- Middlesex FA Sunday Premier Cup winners
- Barnet Sunday League Roger Jones Senior Challenge Cup winners
- Barnet Charity Shield winners
- Barnet Sunday League Premier Cup – finalists
- FA Sunday Cup – quarter-finalists
Honours:
- 5 time Barnet Sunday League Premier Division champions (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023)
- London Sunday Challenge Cup winners (2023)
- Middlesex FA Sunday Premier Cup winners (2023)
- 3 time Middlesex FA Sunday Intermediate Cup winners:
- 2006 – beat North Harrow Home Guard 3-2
- 2009 – beat Red Star Camden 2-0
- 2022 (Reserve Team) – beat Ashford Town (Middlesex) 3-2
- Middlesex FA Sunday Junior Trophy winners (2022) – 4th team (beat NW Galacticos 4-2 on penalties after 1-1 draw at full time)
- 6 time Roger Jones Senior Challenge Cup winners (2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023)
- Barnet Charity Shield winners (2023)
- FA Sunday Cup runners-up (2022)
- 2019 Middlesex Sunday Premier Cup runners-up (lost 1-2 to Middlesex County League (Sunday) champions Old Southall)
- 3 time Barnet Sunday League Premier Division runners-up (2015, 2017, 2022)
Best FA Sunday Cup Performance: 2022 (final)
Management Team:
Manager: Adam Shahein
Assistant Manager: Paul Leach
Captain: Ian Maitland
Highgate Albion may need a new trophy cabinet to house all the trophies it holds. Six months ago, Highgate Albion did something that no Sunday team from London had done for nearly 30 years: it won two different county cups. Not since Ranelagh Sports won the London Sunday Challenge Cup and Surrey FA Sunday Senior Cup in 1994, had any London team managed to win county cups in two different counties. In May last year, Highgate emulated that great Ranelagh Sports team by winning the Middlesex FA Sunday Premier Cup to add to the London Sunday Challenge Cup it won a month earlier.
Those were only 2 of the 5 trophies that Highgate Albion won last season. In addition to winning London’s and Middlesex’s senior county cups, Highgate also won the Barnet Sunday League’s Premier Division, the league’s Roger Jones Senior Challenge Cup, and the Barnet Charity Cup. Going into the closing months of the season, Highgate were on course to win six trophies! They became victims of their own success and faced a huge fixture pile-up towards the end of the season and had to play double headers (two different games against different opponents on the same day).
Highgate almost did a clean sweep in the Barnet Sunday League but narrowly lost 4-5 on penalties in the final of the Barnet Sunday League Premier Cup to their great rivals Olympia after a 0-0 draw during normal time. Highgate avenged that defeat by beating Olympia 4-1 in last season’s London Sunday Challenge Cup final, and beat Olympia again this season in the 2nd round of the Middlesex FA Sunday Premier Cup; when Highgate won 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw during normal time.
Highgate Albion’s Origins
Highgate first started playing 42 years ago in the Hendon & District Sunday League, but left that league 12 years ago when it folded it 2012 It joined the Barnet Sunday League in the 2012-2013 season. Highgate has won the Barnet Sunday League 5 times in the last 6 seasons, and finished first or second in every single season in the past 8 years.
Highgate moved to a new league this season (the SFL – London). The SFL’s light fixture schedule (teams play each other only once a season) allows Highgate to prioritise the FA Sunday Cup; which is the only trophy missing from its bulging trophy cabinet.
Highgate started this season how they finished the last: winning. Highgate is already through to the Middlesex FA Sunday Premier Cup final for the second successive season – where it will face its SFL London rivals AFC Hammersmith Town. This is the third time that Highgate has reached the final of this cup in the past 5 seasons. Highgate started its defence of the London Sunday Challenge Cup with an 8-0 demolition of Hendon United Sports Club in round 1. To put that victory into perspective, Hendon United Sports Club is usually the best team in the Maccabi GB Southern Football League, and won that league 6 times in 10 years between 2012 and 2022. Highgate has “lost” only one game this season; in round 2 of the London Sunday Challenge Cup on penalties. That sole blot on Highgate’s record this season was a 4-5 penalty shoot out defeat to London All Stars of the Essex Sunday Corinthian League after a chaotic 5-5 draw during normal time.
Highgate has a good record in the FA Sunday Cup. It reached the final in 2022; which was remarkable as it was only Highgate’s second season in the competition. In the 4 seasons that Highgate has entered the FA Sunday Cup, its “worst” performance was reaching the last 16 during its debut season in 2019-20.
Highgate had a tough route to the semi-final as it faced two teams from south London, another two from Hertfordshire, and a fifth from Essex. 3 of the 5 teams that it beat to reach this stage are either champions of their respective leagues or counties (Brentwood Sunday League champions Sungate, Berkamstead Sunday League champions Flaunden, Hertfordshire FA Sunday Senior Cup holders St Joseph’s (South Oxhey)), as well as the Plumstead Challenge Cup holders SE Dons.
Highgate has been winning even without its injured striker Jake Cass – who also plays semi-professionally on Saturdays for Enfield Town in the Premier Division of the Isthmian League (Step 3 of the football pyramid). Highgate also has strength in depth. When it faced Flaunden in round 3, its bench included 4 players who for semi-professionally for Step 4 Saturday clubs, and a goalkeeper who formerly played for a Step 5 Saturday club.
Of the 4 semi-finalists, Highgate Albion and Home Bargains are the only teams that have ever reached this stage of the competition before (the other semi-finalists AFC Hackleton from Northamptonshire and Trooper FC from Birmingham are playing in the FA Sunday Cup for the first time in their histories).
Being drawn against a team from Liverpool in this semi-final is a good omen for Highgate. When it reached the FA Sunday Cup final 2 years ago, its opponent Mayfair FC was from the same league and city as Home Bargains. In that 2022 semi-final, Highgate’s captain Ian Maitland scored a dramatic 93rd minute winning goal, as Highgate overturned a 0-2 deficit to beat Mayfair 3-2. The club dubbed Maitland’s goal as “the most important goal in the club’s history”.
9 members of the Highgate squad that reached the 2022 final are still at the club. Ironically, the 4th official in that 2022 final was Sunny Singh Gill (a Sikh referee who only 2 weeks ago became the first referee of south Asian descent to referee a Premier League match – when he refereed Crystal Palace v Luton Town).
The FA Sunday Cup will have a new winner this season as none of the 4 remaining teams has ever won it before. This should be an excellent match-up between two teams who are the best in their respective cities.
Highgate Albion’s route to this season’s Semi-Final:
| ROUND | OPPONENT | OPPONENT’S LEAGUE | SCORE | DATE | VENUE |
| 1 | Sungate | Brentwood Sunday League | 2-3 | October 8, 2023 | Ilford Wanderers RFC, Redbridge, Essex |
| 2 | South-East Dons | Sunday Football League – London | 2-1 | November 12, 2023 | Haringey Borough FC, White Hart Lane, London |
| 3 | The Wall | Sunday Football League – London | 4-1 | December 10, 2023 | Ware FC, Herts |
| 4 | Flaunden | Berkamstead Sunday League | 2-2 (7-6 on penalties) | January 21, 2024 | New River Sports Stadium, White Hart Lane, London N22 5SW |
| Quarter-Final | St Joseph’s | Watford Sunday League | 6-0 | February 25, 2024 | Hertford Town FC |
Max Siollun’s Website 
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