Byron Court 3-2 St. Robert Southwell (aet)
Brent Under-11 Cup, Semi–Final
On Thursday 21st April 2016 Brent Under-11 Cup holders Byron Court faced a strong St Robert Southwell team, which had just won the North Brent League. The match started in a very open fashion, with both teams creating good early chances.
It was Byron Court who managed to break the deadlock thanks to top scorer James who controlled the ball on the right hand side of the area, took a quick touch out his feet and powered the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. The lead didn’t last long however and with their next attack Robert Southwell were able to somehow squeeze the ball in at the near post to level the match. Robert Southwell dominated the rest of the first half but thanks to inspiring defending from Abdul and alert goal keeping by Abhinav, the score remained 1-1 at half time.
The second half began as the first ended, with Robert Southwell creating the best opportunities and just minutes into the half they made their pressure count and were able to pounce on a defensive error to put themselves 2-1 up. That goal seemed to spark Byron Court into life and they then started to control the ball a lot more. Suddenly, chance after chance was being made by the Byron Court boys, but none were taken as they met an inspired Robert Southwell ‘keeper. In the final five minutes of the second half Byron Court had a succession of corners with Rashardo coming the closest to scoring, seeing his shot go narrowly wide of the post. However, Sadeq still had one more quality corner to deliver that was met by a flying scissor kick by James and he scored his second goal of the game to make the final score 2-2.
Extra time saw were chances for both teams, but due to heroic defending from both sides no one was able to score. Midway through the second period of extra time, Byron Court’s captain, Bradley, launched a ball forward. The ball bounced over the two defenders and James was there again to see his first lobbed effort parried by the ‘keeper, but he then tucked away the rebound for his hat-trick and Byron Court’s third goal.
The remaining minutes saw the game come to a nervy end for the Cup holders, but they were able to hold on and win the game 3-2. Byron Court will now go on to face John Keeble in the Brent Cup Final. Manager Joe Khalfi praised the entire team as they gave everything and he was so proud that they never gave up on the match. Joe also expressed his thanks to everyone that came to support and applauded a strong Robert Southwell team.
Byron Court team: Abhinav, Abdul, Nikoloz, Bradley (c), Rashardo, Sadeq, James, As’ad.
MotM – James.