It was London Corinthians Girls that claimed the Kent Reliance Women’s Cup in a great final with Herne Bay Ladies.

Under the watchful gaze of guest of honour, Chelsea Ladies and England Lioness’ Gemma Davidson, London Corinthians won the Kent Reliance Women’s Cup Final for the first time with a convincing win over a gallant Herne Bay side in front of a very healthy Friday night crowd of 339 at Maidstone United’s Gallagher Stadium.

Corinthians (incidentally bedecked in an almost identical kit to hosts Maidstone’s) enjoyed the better start as first Danielle Harrison brought a fine save out of Bay keeper Sarah Cooper before Holly Ryde shot over when well placed.

The goal that their start deserved came on 20 minutes when Laura Susarta beat Cooper with some aplomb from the edge of the box as the ball dropped to her from a cross from the right.

Indeed it was they who dominated possession for the entire half as the Bay struggled to come to terms with either the Gallagher’s surface, the occasion or something else.

The simple truth of the matter was that as Anthony Deer, the Bay boss, headed from the dug out at the break, he knew that his side hadn’t turned up in the opening half!

And how his charges responded, as within sixty seconds of the restart Danni Farmer levelled the scores with as good a goal as would have been seen at the Gallagher Stadium.

Collecting the ball on the edge of the box, the former Gillingham and Charlton striker made room for herself before curling the ball into the top right hand corner of the net, leaving keeper Katherine Long both motionless and helpless!

To their credit, Corinthians slowly regained their first half foot hold and Ryde drilled the ball just wide when she won possession on the edge of the box.

They so very nearly regained their lead when Kristi Nunnick thundered a header off of Bay’s left post from a corner. Then Ryde again went close as she this time tested Cooper forcing the keeper to smartly tip over her shot.

Corinthian were then forced into a substitution that would eventually turn the game in their favour as Danielle Harrison was forced off and keeper Long took her place up front, and she was soon in the action as her side finally got the rewards for their efforts!

They went close on 85 minutes when Emily Hart forced a terrific save out of Cooper who did well to block the Corinthians striker’s shot only for Emily Hart to be brilliantly denied by a goal saving challenge. From the resulting corner Nunnick again reacted quickest and her header flashed just past the post.

From their next attack, Corinthians finally broke Herne Bay hearts and it was Long who turned from stopper to poaching as she expertly got on the end of a ball in from the left to steer the ball past Copper and into the Bay net.

Before Herne Bay had a chance to recover, the impressive Hart sprinted clear into the Bay box and cool as you like slotted the ball beyond the advancing keeper and into the bottom corner of the net.

Just as it seemed that the game was over, Herne Bay gave the crowd an unexpected grandstand finish as Farmer was on hand to take advantage of a defensive mistake to bundle a second for the Bay just after the fourth official had signalled an extra five minutes of stoppage time.

But that was as close as it was to get, and there was a new name on the Trophy which left coach Connor Dymond a very happy man as he spoke to KSN.

“I thought we dominated the game to be fair,” he said, “I was a bit annoyed that we were only a goal up at half time – I knew it was a dangerous scoreline given our performance, and then they go and score a goal like they did right at the start of the second half.”

“Someone puts a shot like that in the top corner you just have to hold your hands up and get on with things – I’m just glad that they did!”

“We changed the keeper as we were a striker short when Danielle went off and I knew that Katherine would do well for us up front and she took her goal very well indeed.”

“I think that Emily (the scorer of the third goal) was desperately unlucky not to get the player of the match as I thought she was tremendous – but then again all of the girls were terrific!”

For every winner though there’s always a loser and Bay’s coach Anthony Deer was gracious in defeat as he spoke to KSN.

“We didn’t get our passing game going in the first half – it was always going to be a close game.  We’ve had close games with them in the League this year – they both finished 2-1 – and when we scored right after half time we told the girls that the next goal would be so important!”

“Sadly we didn’t get it. We were going for it when they scored their second but against a pacey forward line like that, we knew that they’d be a threat and so they were.”

“We did our homework on them, but it wasn’t enough on the night. If you look at our three / four seasons that we’ve had together, we’ve had a great season – we made the Final tonight and are going to finished fourth in the League in our first season up.”

“Teams that have come up have struggled so we’ve achieved a lot – yes it hurts losing the Final, but it’s our first Kent Final since we formed, and there’s lots of clubs out there who would have dreamed to have been in this position – playing at the Gallagher Stadium in the Kent Women’s Cup Final; there are men’s teams who never make a Kent Cup Final, so just by getting here is a huge success in itself.”

 

HERNE BAY – Sarah Cooper, Beth Nugent, Debbie Blackmore, Kate Foster, Carly Farrow, Harriet Chapman, Gemma Sullivan, Nicola Morris, Rachel Trace, Hannah Gardner, Danni Farmer

Subs – Amber Guyett, Alex Roy, Mollie Proctor, Harriet Woolston. Rebecca Longley

LONDON CORINTHIANS – Katherine Long, Isabelle Michalaski, Kristi Nunnick, Megan Mansfield, Danielle Brown, Adele Keech, Laura Susarta, Jane Simpson, Emily Hart, Danielle Harrison, Holly Roe

Subs – Hayley Mansfield, Alex Fagan, Jade Charlton, Rebecca Gregory, Hannah Riddoch

Pictures supplied by www.psp-images.co.uk