Cray Wanderers FA Youth Cup report
Kingstonian will face Charlton Athletic at Dartford's Princes Park ground on Wednesday 26th October at 7pm after this superb performance in defeating Cray Wanderers 6-1 at Hayes Lane in Bromley.
The match started very badly when after 88 seconds of this Third Qualifying Round contest the Wands took the lead. It was an early free kick awarded on the left wing that was lifted into the box where Alfie Murphy, who impressed throughout the game, rose highest to head the ball home.
K's recovered quickly from this setback and settled down to play in the usual assertive style of play and they created their first major chance in the 7th minute but Wands keeper Tom King produced a super save to deny Marco Haigh from a curling free kick. Cray came close to doubling their lead in the 14th minute when a counter attack ended with Reggie Rye's shot flashing just wide of the left hand post.
But K's did get their equaliser in the 18th minute when Iker Noguera Leon caused mayhem in the Cray defence, cut into the penalty area and rifled his shot into the net. Iker gave K's the lead just four minutes later with a fabulous 25 yard howitzer that gave the Wands keeper no chance.
K's should have gone further ahead in the second minute of first half stoppage time when Alex Andreou won possession with a tough, sliding tackle, the ball ended up with Marco Haigh in the area and he will have disappointed to have lifted his shot over the bar. But Marco redeemed himself big time in the fifth minute of the second half with a superb header after an equally superb cross from Minkyu Ji down the left wing.
Kingstonian's number eleven was unlucky not to score in the 53rd minute when a fine free kick was tipped on to the bar by Tom King, before in the 58th minute a heavy collision between Fraser George and K's goalkeeper Jamie Wright required a long stoppage and ended the Cray player's evening through injury.
Minkyu Ji finally got his goal in the 65th minute after a sustained K's attack saw the ball not cleared by the Cray defence, ending with Minkyu scoring from close range. K's were not happy with just a three goal lead and began to pour forward in search of more goals as they kept the Wands defender and goalkeeper Tom King very busy - the crossbar got involved as well as it stopped one particular Noguera Leon shot in the 81st minute, before down the other end Jamie Wright produced a fine save to deny Reggie Rye.
Rocco Ilhan got into the fun after coming on as a 71st minute substitute and put himself on to the scoreboard in the 92nd minute when Noguera Leon forced King into another save, Cray could not clear the ball, Omari Osbourne put the ball back into the box where Ilhan hit the ball home from close range. And then just one minute later, Ilhan got his second and Kingstonian's sixth with an excellent goal created by Noguera Leon down the right wing, who found Freddie Bailey, who threaded the ball through to Ilhan, who fired home.
Charlton Athletic await in just over a week's time - whatever happens in this game, this FA Youth Cup run has been immensely fun to watch and will live in the memory for a long while.
Cray Wanderers: Tom King, Reggie Rye, Lucas Vazquez, Leonard Rye, Fraser George, Frankie Forrester, Alfie Murphy, Kamron Holmes-Lewis, Danu Mayland, Perazim Daniel, Bobby Parkes.
Subs: Ronnie Wickes, Luke Frost, Rocco Batman (for Danu Mayland, 24m), Reggie Dempsey, Tom Dunn (for Fraser George, 58m), Pierre Feffett, Renaldae Brown (for Perazim Daniel, 53m).
Kingstonian: Jamie Wright, Omari Osbourne, Rivah Bailey, Freddie Bailey, Alex Andreou, Junior Mboglem, Iker Noguera Leon, Deniz Ozer, Blake Mitchell, Marco Haigh, Minkyu Ji.
Subs: Niklas Manthey, Fourat Jomaa, Rocco Ilhan (for Blake Mitchell, 71m), Sebastian Greenhalgh (for Minkyu Ji, 71m), Freddie Robins (for Rivah Bailey, 82m), Joseph Apeni, Joshua Lohmeier.
Goal scorers: Alfie Murphy (2m, 1-0), Iker Noguera Leon (18m, 1-1), Iker Noguera Leon (22m, 1-2), Marco Haigh (50m, 1-3), Minkyu Ji (65m, 1-4), Rocco Ilhan (90m+2, 1-5), Rocco Ilhan (90m+3, 1-6).
Attendance: 145
