Southam’s day for heroes begins with Davis the heroine

In a close encounter, a second-half strike by Anna Davis was enough to seal victory and send Saints into their last match at Malvern on Sunday in positive mood.

The day was rounded off by the presentation of awards to all teams by former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton OBE, holder of a record 125 caps.

Winner of the most player-of-the-match awards for the first team was Quentin Townsend, with five in 36 appearances.

The players’ player award went to goalkeeper Jim Stott, young player to defender Marc Passey and the manager’s award to captain John Blunsom.

For manager Luke Fogarty in his first season in charge at Banbury Road, lifting the Coventry Telegraph Challenge Cup in front of more than 700 at the Ricoh Arena was more than he could have hoped for when he took over from Barry Shearsby last summer.

Shearsby had led the club to its first silverware in 11 years when winning the Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Challenge Cup and, faced with building a new side virtually from scratch, Fogarty put his faith in youth, bringing in Townsend in September to add some experience to the starting line-up.

After a promising start, winning the opening league fixture against Bolehall Swifts, there were early exits from the major cup competitions and too many drawn or lost matches, where just one goal would have made all the difference and seen Saints finish higher than tenth in the imoSports Midland Combination Premier.

Fogarty used 39 players as he sought to find the right balance and blend but, by the end of the season, had settled on a squad of around 20.

Midfielder James Hardie is taking up a university place and will not be available next season, but Fogarty is hopeful that the majority of the squad will re-sign.

Saints conceded just 33 goals in the league to share the meanest defence accolade with Walsall Wood.

But, with only 43 league and 21 cup goals, Fogarty knows that he has to strengthen the attack with a proven goalscorer at Midland Combination level.

Tunde Ajibade led the scoring chart with 12, followed by Ross Jackson and Andy Millan with 11 each, but Fogarty needs a more prolific marksman to convert their many chances.

He has already discussed two possible targets with chairman Charles Hill and been given the nod to try and sign them.