Actonians LFC will compete in arguably the biggest game in their history on Thursday (May 2) when they battle Leyton Orient in the Capital Women’s Senior Cup final at Hanwell Town.

The National League Division One South-East side – who have never before reached the competition’s last two – booked their spot in the final with a 2-0 win over Fulham back in February and have been eagerly anticipating their date at the Powerday Stadium for over two months.

Certainly, the game has been a long time coming for club chairperson Linda Fox, who has been associated with the club for 21 years; as a player, manager and now in her current role.

Amidst all the excitement, she and the rest of the club can’t wait for the tie to get underway, but with their opponents just one place behind them in the league, they know they are in for a difficult game.

She said: “Everyone’s very, very excited. We’ve been close a few times – we’ve reached the semi-finals – but this time we finally made it.

“Our last cup final was in the League Cup about four or five years ago, so we’re really pleased to have got to this one this year.

“It’s going to be tough. There’s been a lot of goals when we’ve played them over the past two seasons and we drew 3-3 with them earlier this month. It’s going to be the same this time, I think.”

The venue for the fixture is in a favourable location for Actonians, and Fox is hoping that the attention the final will bring can elevate the profile of the club.

“We’re really lucky that it’s a west London venue, whereas Leyton Orient have to come across the whole of the city.

“We’re really hoping that people come out and watch. We’ve been promoting it to our girls section as well and hopefully quite a lot of them and their families will come down as well. For a lot of them it’ll be the first time they’ve seen our first team play.

“I hope we can get our name out there a bit more and attract people that didn’t necessarily know about us before.”

Fox explains that being a lesser-known team in an area rich with women’s sides does pose certain difficulties that Actonians have had to adapt to over time.

She said: “A lot of our players have been with us for a long time. Every season we’ve added maybe two or three but there’s quite a lot of competition for players.

“We can’t attract players in the same way that QPR or other teams with a bigger name can, so we focus on improving the level of the sides below us and bringing our own players through.

“We’re obviously an amateur side and most of the girls have full-time jobs, so we have team training once a week and they do their own stuff the rest of the week.”

The nature of having a small squad and limited resources meant that Actonians endured a tough start to the campaign, but they are now on track to record their highest-ever league finish in addition to reaching the cup final.

Fox said: “We had an awful start to the season and lost a couple of games quite heavily. We weren’t sure at that stage what was going to happen this year, but then everyone got going and we’ve been on a pretty good run since.

“We haven’t had many injuries - which has helped - and under coach Craig Brown the players have just performed really well, including top striker Alessandra Barreca who has been banging in the goals.

“It’s a really close league this year – there are so many teams that are beating each other. We’ve got a good chance of finishing third, which we’d be really happy with.

“Our aim every year is to do better than the year before, and I think we’ve succeeded over the last six years.”

Fox and everyone else involved at Actonians will be hoping that the side can go one further and cap off a great season with an historic cup win.

Actonians LFC v Leyton Orient WFC – Thursday May 2 KO 7:45pm, Powerday Stadium UB6 8TL. Tickets available on the gate.