Brent 2-1 Hillingdon
Middlesex Schools’ FA, Star Shield, 29th October 2016
{pgslideshow id=6|width=380|height=300|delay=3000|image=O}
Brent maintained their 100% record in this season’s Star Shield, coming from behind to beat Hillingdon 2-1.
Hillingdon took the lead in the 4th minute from the penalty spot after Brent were penalised for a push. Brent were then forced to replace goalkeeper David Krupinski with Alan Kochanowicz in the 8th minute following a heavy challenge. Brent’s Drillon Krasniqi saw his free kick from outside the Hillingdon penalty area blocked by the Hillingdon wall before Felix Amoah held off a couple of Hillingdon defenders and passed to Shammar Swaby, whose shot was expertly despatched low and hard into the bottom right corner of the net in the 17th minute.
Five minutes later Amoah got his second assist of the game when he fed Dominic D’Souza on the left by-line and he cut inside the Hillingdon defender before emphatically smashing the ball home from outside the Hillingdon penalty area to put Brent 2 -1 ahead.
Both sides went close to scoring in the latter stages of the first half with Swaby & Amoah both going close whilst Hillingdon almost equalised in the 37th minute with the ball going narrowly wide.
Brent dominated the second half with Swaby almost nearly scoring his second before putting Krasniqi through on goal only to see his effort on goal well saved.
Despite dominating large periods of the second half Brent were unable to increase their lead and Hillingdon twice had penalty appeals turned away before Brent were awarded a penalty of their own. Firstly, Swaby went down in the Hillingdon penalty area after a heavy challenge and then seconds later Saul Mensah was clipped and the penalty was awarded in the 62nd minute. D’Souza saw his effort from the spot saved superbly but Brent continued to press forward, although Amoah, Swaby and Krasniqi were unable to extend Brent’s lead. With seconds remaining D’Souza went close when through on goal but once again the Hillingdon goalkeeper did well to ensure that Brent deservedly won the game 2-1.
The image gallery above features a large number of photos from the match, taken by Steve Toddington