Kent CFA win the Under 18's chamionship

The Kent CFA U18's have won the Under 18's Championship with a convincing 3-0 win over Hertfordshire CFA in a game that saw the best that the Competition could offer.

Kent set the tone early on when Hamid Ishola saw his effort turned over the bar by William Sarchett in the Hertfordshire goal, from the resulting corner it was Ishola again who had the chance but he fired over the bar. Hertfordshire were finding Hamid a real handful with his pace and power and he had the next effort for Kent on 12 minutes but the shot was well held by Sarchett. Kent’s early dominance of the match was rightly rewarded in the 17th minute when they opened the scoring, George Robinson’s superb cross field ball found Gerald Sithole in acres of space on the left flank and he cut in and fired the ball into the bottom corner to put Kent 1-0 ahead. The Kent defensive quartet of Scott Jarvis, Cam Williams, George Porter & Luke Exall formed a formidable back line and showed why the team had only conceded two goals in their League campaign. As well as being dominant at the back, George Porter was also a danger in the opposition box and he came close to doubling Kent’s lead on 34 minutes but his header was well saved. As the match neared the Interval the competitiveness increased and the Referee did well to calm things down. On the cusp of halftime Kent came so close to making it 2-0, Hamid Ishola evaded two or three tackles on a mazy run and fed Charlie Dale but he dragged his shot inches wide of the post leaving Kent to take a slender one goal lead into the Interval.

The second half couldn’t have got off to a better start for Kent as the lead was doubled just three minutes into the period. Jacob Gilbert’s corner was met by George Robinson and his powerful header gave Sarchett no chance to give Kent a two goal advantage. Jacob Gilbert was the next to try his luck and his effort was tipped over the bar. The task of getting back into the game for Hertfordshire became even harder just after the hour mark when they were reduced to 10 men, Hamid Ishola broke clear on goal but was brought down on the edge of the box resulting in the defender being shown a red card. The resulting free kick from Beau Landau was scrambled clear as Kent went to kill off the game. Gerald Sithole was still proving very dangerous down the left flank, he linked up well with Hamid Ishola and was through on goal but his effort went inches wide and then moments later was played through on goal and lobbed the onrushing keeper but the keeper recovered well to reclaim the ball. As the clock ticked down there was still no let up in the attacking threat from Kent and Hamid Ishola nearly got the goal his performance deserved but his shot was straight at Sarchett. Heading into Injury time Beau Landau went close to making it 3-0 and then Hamid Ishola was finally rewarded with a much deserved goal, he powered past a tired defence and ran clean through on goal and beat Sarchett down low to the right to seal a 3-0 win for Kent.