Non-League and Academy football writer

In an early evening kick-off at Uxbridge FC’s Honeycroft ground on Saturday, Eagles Land Cricklewood and Camden United would compete to be named this season’s (2025/26) winners of The Alec Smith Premier Division Cup. This Middlesex County Football League cup competition was between two Premier Division sides, with Eagles Land Cricklewood starting Saturday in sixth place in the Premier Division table, with Camden United one place above them in the league table. It was Camden United who won a closely contested and very well attended cup final, 1-0, in what was a very proud day for the club.

Camden United would create the first decent chance of the game, after a very cagey and competitive start to proceedings. Elias Moreno’s short through-ball pass had found Endrit Feka down the right-hand side of the Eagles Land box, as the Camden United number ten’s low effort was well saved and gathered by the outrushing Kevin Rrushi. This cup final continued to play out in a very competitive manner, with both sides defending well, and playing their game quite cautiously. Not very long before half-time, Henry Stirling Patrick Clark would skilfully evade an Eagles Land defender on the edge of their penalty area, before playing the ball through to Matheus Santana, inside of their box. His powerful effort on goal was really well parried behind by Kevin Rrushi.

During the opening stages of the second half impressive Eagles Land midfielder Ronaldo Gashi would play a nice forward pass to Kristo Beshiku, who from down the right-hand side of the Camden United box, would see his powerfully hit effort be well pushed away by goalkeeper Warren McCreeth. Mohammed Hassan was showing his quality with the ball when he could during this cup final. After floating a good cross into the Eagles Land box the ball was met by Matheus Santana, whose looping header dipped just over the goal.

The game continued to be a cagey affair, and relatively late on in the game there was to be a deciding moment, as Camden United were awarded a penalty. Camden United substitute Tomasz Siemienczuk would play a short pass to Mohammed Hassan, who from the left-hand side of the Eagles Land penalty area, would draw a foul from an opposing team’s defender. After the referee had pointed to the spot Tomasz Siemienczuk confidently took the ball to the penalty spot, before expertly slotting the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal, with a composed finish, 0-1.

During the very latter stages of the game, and with Eagles Land really pushing for a late leveller, Emiliano Dosti’s long ball forward would fall for substitute Jacob Faradoye, in behind the Camden United defence, and just inside of their penalty area. Jacob Faradoye’s quickly taken effort would go wide, across the goal, as Leon Louis’s Camden United side went on to see out the final minutes of the game to win the cup. Overall it was a cagey cup final, but one in which Camden United created that bit more in terms of goalscoring chances in, to lift the trophy at Uxbridge FC. Congratulations to Camden United, on winning The Alec Smith Premier Division Cup for the very first time in their history, to lift their first piece of silverware in non-League and Saturday football.

For Eagles Land on the day, I thought that their midfielder Ronaldo Gashi, was their player of the match, in a game of fine margins. For my overall player of the match award, and Camden United players Kieran Ali, Elias Moreno, Henry Stirling Patrick Clark, and Mohammed Hassan were definitely contenders. But, overall and for a very good performance at left-back from Kayden Mandangu-Makangu, the Camden United youngster wins my player of the match award. Finally, look out for a short post-match interview that I did with the match winner, Tomasz Siemienczuk, on Saturday.