Richie Abrams said he is proud of his players despite going down 2-0 to Cockburn City in this morning’s Under-18 Cup Final. Inglewood United had the better of the first half at Dorrien Gardens but a couple of defence errors after the break saw the trophy head south with Cockburn.
“Whilst the boys are devastated Daniel (Stoitis), Kurtis (Rae) and myself are very proud of them,” said Abrams. “We came here today to win but it wasn’t to be. For all of our lads this was their first Cup final. They put in a big effort and showed plenty of character and fight.”
“We were good in the first half with Nic Chalot and Brian Mashingaidze forcing point blank saves from the goalkeeper and Tyler Garner working tirelessly in the middle. Unfortunately we didn’t maintain that intensity in the second half and two defensive errors let Cockburn take advantage.”
Inglewood hit the ground running and were unfortunate not to be two goals up inside a dozen minutes. Challot’s tidy touch on a Joel Jebaratam centre was tipped wide by goalkeeper Ben Radonich, who thrust out a boot to deflect away Mashingaidze’s low shot after he got clear of the defence.
Rhys MacFarlane then came to the rescue at the opposite end, denying Ryan Pratt in a one-on-one. The team in yellow were back on the attack soon enough with Mashingaidze threatening to break the deadlock. Cockburn started to flicker to life as half-time approached, Charlie Watt flashing low across the face of goal.
The second half was just a couple of minutes old when Kristian Santich found a way between Sam Brennan and Matthew Sutcliffe before lashing past MacFarlane for Cockburn’s opening goal. Sutcliffe was determined to make amends but his 65th minute strike from long-range was too close to the ‘keeper.
Cockburn put one hand on the trophy six minutes later when Pratt lobbed over MacFarlane after Sutcliffe miss-judged a long clearance by Radonich. Inglewood’s hopes of finding a way back in proved fruitless with substitute James Wallace lifting high following a corner and Challot heading wide from Sutcliffe’s delivery
Match stats
Cockburn City 2 (Kristian Santich 47, Ryan Pratt 71)
Inglewood United 0
Cockburn City: Ben Radonich, Hudson Bliss, Adam Anfuso, Mitchell Firth, Jake Robinson, Charlie Watt (Ryan De Gennaro 85), Jesse Lippett, Denaudo Murray, Kristian Santich, David Dos Santos, Ryan Pratt
Inglewood United: Luke MacFarlane, Sam Brennan (James Wallace 73), Matthew Sutcliffe, Nelson Tshongo, Charlie Simpson (Ben Del Bosso 75), Tyler Garner, Kieran Patterson, Moe Rezal (Ben Docherty 73), Joel Jebaratam, Brian Mashingaidze, Nic Challot
Bookings: Firth (63)
Dismissals: Nil
