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Under 13s reach cup semi-final

- 01/02/2010

On a cold but sunny afternoon, City U13s welcomed Dulwich Hamlet to Canterbury for the quarter final of the Geerings Challenge Cup. Dulwich are currently reigning supreme at the top of the North Division so City knew they would be in for a tough game.

With a place in the semi-final up for grabs, both teams were keen to open the scoring, so the initial minutes were fast and furious. It was City who got the breakthrough when Jimi Lawal's shot was parried by the keeper and Elliot Cutts was there to slot the ball home. Encouraged by this, City continued to press and following a free kick by Kieran Owen the Dulwich centre back misjudged the flight of the ball and headed it on, only for Lawal to pounce and hammer the ball into the top corner. Two nil to City.

Unfortunately, in a rare lapse of concentration from City, a Dulwich midfielder put a good pass through and their attacker managed to beat City's keeper to the ball to slot home from the edge of the area despite a last ditch effort from Kieran Watt to clear the ball off the line.

The score remained 2-1 at the break.

An unchanged City came back out and the game continued to be an end to end affair. Dulwich managed to get their second goal though when an attacker picked up a ball, calmly rounded the keeper and put the ball into the net. Two all.

City's fullbacks of Rob Lofting and Liam Kennelly were working hard to stop the threat posed by the pacey Dulwich wingers. But it was a well taken corner that undid City when the ball wasn't cleared and was bundled into the goal by a Dulwich player.

However, City didn't give up and with forward Owen Kermode brought on to bolster the attack they pushed forward again. Their perseverance paid off when in the closing stages a well linked move between Joe Halford and Cutts put through Lawal who shot into the far corner of the net.

So with the score 3-3 at the final whistle, the game moved into a nail biting period of extra time. For the first five minutes the score remained the same despite Dulwich having an opportunity which was thwarted by a fine save low down by keeper Toby Wood. Following a quick change around, Canterbury's forward Cutts stayed focused when going one on one with the Dulwich keeper and knocked the ball past him and into the corner of the net. With only minutes remaining, City managed to hold onto the lead and were very relieved to hear the final whistle blow.

It was a tough game with some great performances and City will now go on to face an unbeaten Bromley in the semi final in two weeks time.

CITY SQUAD: Wood; Lofting, Allan, Dock, Owen, Shearer, Lawal, Kennelly, Kennelly, Hitchins, Snee, Watt, Cutts, Halford, Kermode.

Many thanks to Calum Dock for the report