Bacton United manager hopes club's recent record in the Suffolk Junior Cup will stand them in good stead in the final

Ryan Owens hopes Bacton United 89’s recent affinity with the Suffolk Junior Cup will continue in Tuesday’s final at Portman Road (7.30pm), writes Alex Moss.

Bacton face Touchline Suffolk & Ipswich League Division One rivals Bildeston Rangers in the showpiece finale, which is being held at Ipswich Town’s home ground next week.

While it was Bildeston (2nd) who finished two places and eight points better off in the league than Bacton, a position which also secured them promotion to the Senior Division, focus now turns to a competition which Owens’ men have performed well in over the last few years.

“We’ve got a great record in the Junior Cup in the last three seasons,” the Bacton boss said. “We won it two years ago, when the final was held at Colchester United, and last year we got to the semi-finals.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice in the semi-final against Trimley, and this year we said we wanted to put it right and we’ve got to another final.

“When you walk into our clubhouse there’s pictures of the Bacton teams that have won the Junior Cup before, the one at Portman Road (in 2010) and also the one two years ago.

“For the players in the current squad who haven’t been a part of those great nights, there’s a little bit of jealously. They want to experience it too and hopefully they can.

“I think it’s a 50-50 final. We played Bildeston twice in the league, we beat them once and they beat us once. I think it’s going to be a great game.”