History-making Stepney Football Club sweep to the title!
Emdad Rahman
Unstoppable Stepney Football Club thrashed Leytonstone to lift their seventh league title in 14 years.
Stepney needed a point to secure the title on El Classico Sunday and a nervous first half saw both teams go in 1-1 at the interval. Co-managers Harun Miah and Delwar Ahmed’s half time pep talk did the trick as their stylish outfit came out with all guns blazing. Mustapha Shahid, the league’s top scorer, led the rout with two goals. He was joined on the scoresheet by Zola, Toks, Robino and Shane Baptiste, as storming Stepney steamed home 6-1.
Other records were broken on a historic day. Goalkeeper Shamimuz “safe hands” Zaman was named best goalkeeper. Helped in no small part by a stout back four, the long serving Zaman conceded a measly 21 goals throughout the campaign – the lowest in the division. “Our backbone has been rock solid,” said Zaman. “Apart from a hammering to Beaumont we have kept things tight at the back and this confidence has spurred the whole team on. It’s no coincidence our striker is the league top scorer.”
Mustapha Shahid finished as club and league top scorer with 22 goals from 13 games for the three times League cup winners and 2007/8, 2008/9 back to back double winners. “With such great service it would be near impossible not to score plenty of goals,” said Shahid. “I dedicate this honour to my team mates.”
Ecstatic captain Sam O’Brien said: “The boys have been amazing. We had to dig deep after starting 2015 with a loss to our long standing rivals Beaumont. To make matters worse we got knocked out of the cup early on too. But this team has character and this has been epitomised by how we’ve bounced back. It’s a proud day today.”
Co-managers Harun Miah and Delwar Ahmed were jubilant: “We train hard and believe in playing football on the floor – this is a proud moment,” said Miah. Ahmed added: “There’s an unrivalled spirit around this team and managing them is a pleasure. Well done to the lads on making history!”
Follow the club on: www.stepneyfc.com