U16 South beat Maccabi Lions White in County Cup

Harvesters U16 South had been drawn against Maccabi London Lions White in the County Cup third round with them currently sitting in third spot in the division above.

The boys couldn’t have got off to a worse start as on two minutes the ball wasn’t cleared and Maccabi scored to go 1-0 ahead. Despite this Harvesters took control and on 10 minutes Lucas King hit the crossbar.

1-0 down at halftime but still feeling the game was in our hands as we pressed and were playing some good football. A change of formation to three at the back allowed an extra striker up front. With six minutes to go Shaheel Coorjee made a great run up the right wing and floated over the perfect cross for Harry Ruane to volley home with what must be a goal of the season contender.

In the last minute Zak Bensissi floated over a free kick for Sam Mistry to head home but unfortunately it had to be re-taken as the referee hadn’t blown his whistle.

Into extra time for the second time in two weeks and the boys were dominating possession but unable to score. Chances came but the Maccabi goalkeeper and defence were up to the challenge especially the sweetly struck shot from Fazan Uddin and it remained 1-1 at the end of extra time.

The boys worked out the the order of penalty takers and away we went. Joseph Curran scored the first in the corner which was matched by Maccabi. Connor Blight went for power down the middle to make it 2-1. Maccabi equalised before Lucas King hit his penalty in the corner.

A good dive from Ryan Mason forced the next Maccabi player to drag his penalty wide. 3-2 up with two each to take. Harry Ruane stepped up and coolly made it 4-2. Maccabi scored but all it needed was for Shaheel Coorjee to score for the win. He did just that despite the keeper getting a boot to it.

So into round four and heart rate and blood pressure back to normal.