Surrey U18s Midweek Cup SF Report
Kingstonian are through to their first Surrey U18s Midweek Cup Final since winning the competition in 2012 after an excellent 4-0 victory over hosts Corinthian-Casuals at King George's Field.
The first half was an extremely tight affair that saw little in the way of goalmouth action for the first 25 minutes or so; in fact it was in the 27th minute that K's carved out their first major chance when a free kick by Freddie Bailey was launched in the area, the ball was driven across the face of goal and somehow missed everyone with Ekow Amaquandoh getting closest to giving his team the lead.
Down the other end four minutes later, a catastrophic defensive error allowed Corinthian-Casuals in as the ball was given away in a vital area, the home side's forward shot was on target but brilliantly saved by Joshua Lohmeier who forced a corner.
That proved to be a vital save as in the 32nd minute, K's took the lead when they stole possession on the edge of the area, Amaquandoh's shot at goal was well saved by the home team's goalkeeper, only for the ball to rebound sweetly to Adelino Sampaio, who reacted first and placed the ball into the empty net.
Josh Lohmeier produced another inspirational save three minutes from the break when he somehow forced a shot from a counter attack behind for a corner, which allowed the K's lead at the break, though the match had been (to quote one of the writer's favourite guitarists, Joe Bonnamassa) tighter than a mosquito's tweeter.
It all went right for Kingstonian in the second half and wrong for Corinthian-Casuals in equal measures. The fun for the visitors began in the 51st minute when the home side's goalkeeper came out to clear an attack, but the ball went straight to Ekow Amaquandoh who was able to pass the ball into the net. After Lohmeier made yet another top quality save, in the 61st minute the K's scored a wonderful goal when a free-kick near the halfway line by Freddie Bailey was launched to the far post, where Ryan Evans, the smallest player on the pitch, absolutely thundered a header into the back of the net.
It got worse for the unfortunate Cor-Cas goalkeeper five minutes later when he was shown a red card for denying Ekow Amaquandoh a goalscoring opportunity, and arguably the match was done as a contest.
The scoring was finished off in the third minute of added time when two from the bench combined to score Kingstonian's fourth - Iker Noguera Leon slipped the ball through to Pacey Bean, whose first time shot evaded the stand-in goalkeeper.
So now, in theory, Sutton Common Rovers host AFC Wimbledon on Wednesday, with the winners visiting South Park sometime next week. The final against one of these three teams is scheduled for Monday 15th May, probably at Dorking Wanderers FC, but all will be revealed when it can be revealed.
Next match for the K's is a home tie with Worthing tonight (Tuesday 2nd) in the Isthmian Youth League Champion of Champions Cup Semi-Final at South Park, kick-off 7.45pm.
