Haringey 2-5 Brent
Middlesex Schools' FA Bower Cup
Brent’s U14 team got back to winning ways on Saturday 2nd April with an impressive 5-2 victory away to Haringey.
Brent started strongly with Drilon Krasniqi and Felix Amoah both seeing their early attempts on the Haringey goal go wide. Brent did not have to wait too much longer to wait before opening the scoring in the 4th minute when Amoah found Dominic D’Souza on the left of the Haringey penalty area and he cut into the box before beating his man and crossing to the near post where Saul Mensah finished smartly.
Haringey saw an effort on the Brent goal clear the bar before Brent extended their lead in the 12th minute. Tommy Lahti’s superb pass from midfield found D’Souza who burst through on goal and finished emphatically from 25 yards out with a left foot screamer into the top right corner of the goal.
Brent continued to press forward and despite a succession of corners were unable to extend their lead further. Midway through the first half, Haringey almost scored and Brent were thankful to debutant goalkeeper Elvis Taylor who saved well before the ball was cleared off the goal-line for a Haringey corner. Haringey were now coming more into the game and they pulled a goal back in the 23rd minute with a shot from just outside the Brent penalty area into the bottom right hand corner.
Brent restored their two goal lead in the 29th minute when Krasniqi chased the ball down just outside the Haringey penalty area and hit an unstoppable shot with his left foot to make the score 3-1.
Haringey scored their second goal of the game from the penalty spot on 30 minutes just a minute later and then almost equalised 3 minutes before half time when Kahlil Francis was well positioned to clear a Haringey effort off the Brent goal-line.
Haringey started the second half strongly and Taylor in the Brent goal saved smartly with his legs before Brent scored their fourth in the 43rd minute. This time, Krasniqi’s through ball from midfield saw D’Souza run 20 yards towards the Haringey goal before scoring again with his left foot shooting low into the net from just outside the Haringey penalty area.
Taylor in the Brent goal was having a great game and he did well to tip a fine Haringey effort over the bar before Krasniqi was again the provider for Brent’s fifth goal in the 51st minute. Krasniqi put D’Souza through on goal with a defence-splitting pass and D’Souza completed his hat-trick by smashing the ball home.
Taylor once again did well, blocking a Haringey effort on goal with his legs to retain Brent’s three goal lead before Mensah was unfortunate not to score his second goal of the game when his effort was contentiously ruled out for off-side.