Can Greendale Oak hold onto cup for a third season in Sherwood Rangers final clash?

Sherwood currently hold the upper hand in the head to head this season beating the Greendale in the league 4-0 and drawing in last weekend's Benevolent League Cup fixture 2-2.

Current holders Greendale managed to overcome Todwick Villa last season.

Greendale go into the game looking to win the Challenge Cup for a third successive year and mark 50 years since the club was formed.

A team first played out of the Norfolk Street pub in the 1973-74 campaign and hundreds more have represented the club since then with varying levels of success.

Despite the club being big on loyalty, camaraderie, and spirit, it has been a sometimes rocky road with appearances in all divisions – Greendale were the first ever winners of Division Five back in the 80s.

It was around the turn of the century, under the leadership of Andrew Wesley, that witnessed the arrival of a sustainable, competitive top division outfit and a number of honours.

‘Wep’, now Greendale’s de facto president and chairman, oversaw the club win the First Division and Challenge Cup for the first time.

The Greendale Oak name has now graced the Challenge Cup six times and has resided in the pub throughout this season, following last season’s tense 3-2 victory over Todwick Villa thanks to goals from Tom Mullen, Josh Sweetnam, and Leigh Warriner, as well as a man of the match performance from James Cocker.

After a number of unsuccessful semi-finals, Rangers are proud to have finally made it to a final.

The club started up in 2017 and earned a promotion in only their second season to Division One.

After a difficult season, they managed to stay up through the hard-work and camaraderie of the squad.

Only a handful of players remained after this season, but under the new management of Drew and Andy Pringle brought experience, passion and a heap of new talent mixed in with the loyal and gifted players who remained.

Shortly after, Brad Reay joined the management team bringing his outstanding sporting knowledge, and player experience which pushed the team forward.

This promises to be a really competitive final for a trophy first competed for in 1963.

The first team to win it was East Rovers while the most successful team, winning the challenge Cup 11 times in its history, are Worksop Borough.

Referee for this year's final is Tyler Machin who operates as a referee on the Toolstation Northern Counties East Football League and as an assistant referee on the Pitching In Northern Premier League.

Machin has also been fortunate enough to stand-in as fourth official at Bramall Lane, in front of 13,000 people, during an FA Cup Third Round fixture between Sheffield United and AFC Fylde in January 2020.

His assistants will be Daniel Tracey and Cameron Hoyle.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​