Punjab United are celebrating their very first trophy after a winning a hugely entertaining Kent Reliance Intermediate Shield Final.

The Gravesend side beat one of their League rivals, Borden Village, in the Final staged at the Tiger Stadium, Sheppey, in a terrific game that had just about everything you would want from any Cup Final.

A hat-trick from George Goodwin and a couple of fine strikes from William Johnson-Cole and Luke Adams won the Shield with Joe Sands, Ashley Baverstock and George Latham replying for Borden in Punjab’s 5-3 triumph.

After receiving the Shield, United boss Jugjit Sian spoke to us and had a smile as wide as the Swale estuary, which provides the stunning back drop to Sheppey United’s new home.

He said, “I’m a very happy man!  It’s the first trophy for the club – it’s the first of three that we’re going for with the League and the RCC Cup! This trophy is for our supporters and for our community. We’ve never won anything like this before!”

The boss admitted that his side had been involved in a battle – “We knew Borden would be tough – they’re the only team who have beaten us so far. So I think the boys were ready for tonight. We didn’t play well that day and we knew how good they were – they’re a good bunch of lads who we know and we knew they’d be up for it.”

“I told the boys beforehand what we needed to do – we had to move the ball early and if we’d have got roped into their game, I knew we’d get stuck!”

“I went in at half time and told the boys that if we keep playing the ball early we’d kill them off. But they came out flying after the break – we knew that they wouldn’t fade away and that we’d have to go and deal with it.”

“Our players had the belief and we knew what we had to do as our players can go on and turn it on when they want to and they’ve got the heart as they proved tonight.”

The coach had special praise for the way his side had created their goals.

“We’ve been practicing delivery that you saw tonight all season long and I’m so proud of the boys that it paid off on a stage like this – getting the ball in early and then going to support,” he said.

“George (Goodwin), Luke (Adams) and Simon Cuthbert are all great at doing that. But I think our midfield were unsung out there as it was really tough in there – thought they did really, really well! Thought we were a bit dodgy at the back,” he added smiling, “but we’ll learn from that!”

His final word before disappearing into the middle of the celebrations were for those who had backed the club;  “I would just like to make a comment on something that we saw on “Twitter” claiming we wouldn’t have enough supporters here!”

“We had over 300 here tonight I think, and on behalf of the boys I’d like to thank each and every-one of those who came to Sheppey to back us – the trophy is for them and for our community.”

“We’ve never won anything like this before and so we’re going to celebrate tonight and we’re going to enjoy ourselves!”

Sounds like it was a “quiet” Saturday evening in Gravesend…

Pictures supplied by PSP Images.