The Kent Reliance Kent Junior Cup C was won by Kingsdale after a penalty shoot-out win to start the Kent FA “Super Saturday of Finals” at The Gallagher Stadium in Maidstone, as the Orpington side beat local boys Mangravet 5-3 on spot kicks after a goal-less 120 minutes.
Mangravet boss Mark Batten was a disappointed man when he spoke to KSN.
He said, “Very disappointed, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. Having a man sent off so early changes everything doesn’t it?”
“The boys were magnificent and at times you couldn’t tell who had the ten men. Everyone’s gutted – we didn’t deserve to lose the game after playing 107 minutes with ten men only to lose it on penalties; there’s no one to blame on my team, no one at all!”
“Yes I’m gutted because we all wanted to win the Cup, but onwards and upwards; we’re in two more finals so we’ll go again”
Kingsdale boss Neil Barnes meanwhile when he spoke to KSN was a very happy man.
“Extremely happy and proud man today – it’s only our second season and is the start of a journey for us and to win the Kent Cup so early is nothing short of fantastic.”
“It frustrated me that we couldn’t get the ball down and play on a surface like this, but I’ve got to give Mangravet a lot of credit as they caused us a lot of problems and we found it very difficult to break them down.”
“It wasn’t a game for the purist and if honest I’m disappointed that we didn’t play our football, but that’s a huge credit to them. It’s a club that’s got a fantastic ethos behind it and some wonderful people behind it – our Saturday side was always what was needed to take the club forward.”
“As a manager you need good players around you when building,” he added with a huge grin, “and I’ve got them early!”
The Kingsdale coach finished by making an amazing admission as he told us, “If I’m brutally honest, I didn’t watch any of the penalties – I’ve got a track record this season of being in four shoot-outs, Saturdays and Sundays and we’ve scored 19 out of 20, winning them all… and I haven’t seen a single one of them!”
Coach Barnes would have seen and been impressed by the start that Kingsdale made as they had two glorious chances to open the scoring in the opening ten minutes as first Man of the Match Danny Cooper sent a curling free kick through the box only to bounce a yard wide before Junior Kehinde got in behind the Mangravet defence and slipped the ball past keeper Karl Floyd only for his lob to bounce the wrong side of the right post.
The game exploded in the 13th minute as following a challenge by Chris Illingworth on Kingsdale full back John Slade in front of the two benches resulted in a “coming together” involving 18 players, the Mangravet man was shown a red card and Kehinde was booked for his part in the aftermath of the challenge.
Mangravet responded well to going a man down and were desperately unlucky not to go ahead on the half hour when Joe Lepetzidis’ free kick was turned onto the bar by Kingsdale keeper Jim Kenny and as the ball dropped to Lewis Blake, he couldn’t react quickly enough and the ball ricocheted off his shin and behind.
Gary Cook then lobbed over at the other end when played in by Copper before Copper himself thudded a shot into Floyd’s chest from the edge of the box.
Five minutes before the break, Mangravet were indebted to Lee Dismore for not going behind – Cook beat the offside trap and his pin-point cross looked to have presented Elton Romaku with the easiest header at the far post only for Dismore to deny the Kingsdale man with a brilliant defensive header!
The opening stages of the second period can best be described as cagey with both sides becoming ultra-cautious with no-one wanting to make the mistake (or mistakes) that could cost their side the Trophy.
The clock ticked on – past the hour mark; past the 75 minute mark and still the all elusive first goal didn’t arrive – or to be fair look like arriving as the game became a real midfield battle!
Then finally with just seven minutes left on the clock, Cook brought a fine save out of Floyd with a curling effort as Kingsdale’s man advantage finally looked like counting. And in their very next attack, Cooper bounced an angled free kick off the top of the Mangravet cross bar.
Extra time started with Kingsdale going close when Kenhinde was denied by a smart Floyd save with his feet. From the resulting corner the Mangravet keeper was forced to punch clear at his near post before the second flag kick was turned in at the back post by substitute Bernard Tetteh only for referee Wright to rule out the “goal” due to pushing.
Mangravet went close when Ryan Dismore managed to knock the ball over keeper Kenny only for the covering Cooper to manage to clear the danger with a clearance that headed for the River Medway which runs past the Gallagher Stadium.
Midway through the second period, Mangravet then had a second player sent off, when the substituted Greg Lavery was shown a second yellow card for dissent which was heard by the fourth official, as referee Wright booked David Illingworth on the other side of the pitch for a foul on Dean Pearce.
On the 117 minute mark, Ryan Dismore dragged a shot wide of the right post but that was as close as it got as the game went to penalties.
In the end Kingsdale netted their first four to Mangravet’s three and it was left to Martin Driscoll to blast home the fifth and decisive spot kick to take the Cup to Orpington.
MANGRAVET – Karl Floyd, Joe Lepetzidis, Jake Lepetzidis, Greg Lavery, Lee Simmons, David Illingworth, Lewis Blake, Tommy Smith, Chris Illingworth, Lee Dismore, David Matthole
Subs – Joe Sturrock, Peter Fare, Ryan Dismore, Mark Batten, Matthew Sturgeon
KINGSDALE – Jim Kenny, Shane Westaway, Jamie Blunden, John Slade, Elton Romaku, Dean Reece, Martin Driscoll, Garry Blunden, Dan Cooper, Gary Cook, Junior Kehinde
Subs – Adam Pearce, Bernard Tetteh, Andy Burgess, Trevis Jones, Anthony Burgess
REFEREE – Callum Wright
ASSISTANTS – Kieran Bakewell, Simon Haydon, Steven Page
Pictures supplied by PSP Images.